he darkness. Meanwhile Simone had been safe upstairs
with her mother and grandmother, and none of the officers lodged in the
chateau had--after a first hasty inspection--set foot in any part of the
house but the wing assigned to them. On the third morning they had left,
and Scharlach, before going, had put in Mlle. Malo's hands a
letter requesting whatever officer should follow him to show
every consideration to the family of the Comte de Rechamp, and if
possible--owing to the grave illness of the Countess--avoid taking up
quarters in the chateau: a request which had been scrupulously observed.

Such were the amazing but undisputed facts over which Rechamp and I, in
our different ways, were now pondering. He hardly spoke, and when he did
it was only to make some casual reference to the road or to our wounded
soldiers; but all the while I sat at his side I kept hearing the echo
of the question he was inwardly asking himself, and hoping to God he
wouldn't put it to me....

It was nearly noon when we finally reached the lines, and the men had to
have a rest before we could start again; but a couple of hours later we
landed them safely at the base hospital. From there we had intended
to go back to Paris; but as we were starting there came an unexpected
summons to another point of the front, where there had been a successful
night-attack, and a lot of Germans taken in a blown-up trench. The place
was fifty miles away, and off my beat, but the number of wounded on
both sides was exceptionally heavy, and all the available ambulances had
already started. An urgent call had come for more, and there was nothing
for it but to go; so we went.

We found things in a bad mess at the second line shanty-hospital where
they were dumping the wounded as fast as they could bring them in. At
first we were told that none were fit to be carried farther that night;
and after we had done what we could we went off to hunt up a shake-down
in the village. But a few minutes later an orderly overtook us with a
message from the surgeon. There was a German with an abdominal wound who
was in a bad way, but might be saved by an operation if he could be got
back to the base before midnight.

Would we take him at once and then come back for others?

There is only one answer to such requests, and a few minutes later we
were back at the hospital, and the wounded man was being carried out on
a stretcher. In the shaky lantern gleam I caught a glimpse of a