for it had been a ghastly sight, just a little
more than his already badly rattled nerves could stand. But Hastings,
turning, kneeled down for a better look; then solemnly arose and pointed
with his thumb toward the conflict. Back they started for another load,
but this last experience had almost been Jeb's undoing. He was obsessed
with the idea that it had been the omen of Death reaching for him; he
was gasping pitifully, ever alert for shell fire, and cringing at
detonations too far off to be of danger. Try as he would to make his
feet go forward, his hands pulled against the stretcher handles, until
Hastings turned and repaid him with a longer string of oaths. These, and
a memory of the ennobling words of Bonsecours, gave him strength for a
new spurt; yet both soon began to lose efficiency.

They had found a wounded chap and were well on their way out, crossing
the crater-scarred stretch which had been No Man's Land that
morning--for No Man's Lands shift from day to day. They moved slowly,
and Jeb was dragging; yet in an effort to keep going he had riveted his
gaze on the shoulders of Hastings. Then, suddenly, although Hastings'
shoulders remained unchanged, his head disappeared; evaporating into
air.

For an instant it seemed to Jeb as though his eyes were playing a trick,
but the next second the lanky middle-westerner crumpled up. A warm mist
settled upon Jeb's face. With a piercing shriek of uncontrollable terror
he dropped the handles and sprang into the nearest shell hole; cowering
close under its side, pressing his mouth against the earth and moaning.

CHAPTER XII

The last case in Bonsecours' unit had just been lifted from the table.
Swathed in bandages it was laid once more upon a stretcher and carried
rearward to a waiting ambulance whose racks would then be filled.
Carefully, to spare his charges added pain, the driver engaged the
clutch and started, but in so vile a condition was this road that the
heavily loaded machine plunged as a mired horse. Yet there were no
groans. Teeth might have been grit within that canopy of suffering, but
the men were too game to make an outcry.

A nurse having come as far as the ambulance, now gave a stifled sob as
she watched it lumber, like a huge beetle, over the uneven terrain. Her
arms stiffened and her hands closed into little brown fists--for she
knew too well what those bumps and plunges were doing to the lacerated
human freight!

Standing alone upon a