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must return to Clair. After all, she had been assigned to the job there and must not desert it. An ambulance was going down to Clair with its burden of wounded men, and Ruth was assigned to the seat beside the driver. He chanced to be "Cub" Holdness, one of the ambulance drivers to whom Ruth had been introduced by Charlie Bragg at Mother Gervaise's cottage the night of her trip up to the field hospital. Holdness was plainly delighted to have the girl with him for the drive to Clair. He was a Philadelphia boy, and he confessed to having had no chance to drive a girl--even in an ambulance--since coming over. "I had one of those 'reckless roadsters' back home," he sighed. "Dad said every time his telephone rang he expected it was me calling from some outlying police station for him to come and bail me out for overspeeding. "And there was a bunch of girls I knew who were just crazy to have me take 'em for a spin out around Fairmount Park and along the speedways. Just think, Miss Fielding, of the difference between those times and these," and he nodded solemnly. "I should say there was a difference," laughed Ruth, trying to appear in good spirits. "Don't you get dreadfully tired of all these awful sights and sounds?" "No. Excitement keeps us keyed up, I guess," he replied. "You know, there is almost always something doing." "I should say there was!" She saw that while he talked he did not for a moment forget that he was driving three sorely wounded men. He eased the ambulance over the rough parts of the road and around the sharp turns with infinite skill. It was actually wonderful how smoothly the ambulance ran. Occasionally they were caught in a tight corner and the machine jounced so that moans of agony were wrung from the lips of the wounded behind them on the stretchers. This, however, occurred but seldom. Once one of the men begged for water--water to drink and its coolness on his head. They were passing a trickling stream that looked clear and refreshing. "Let me get out a moment and get him some," begged Ruth. "Can't do it. Against orders. We're commanded not to taste water from any stream, spring, or well in this sector--let alone give it to the wounded. Nobody knows when the water is poisoned." "But the Germans have been gone from this district so long now!" she cried. "They may have their spies here. In fact," grumbled Holdness, "we are sure they do have friends in the
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