as soon as barbara reached the scene of the wreck she turned to seek nona’s advice and aid. but to her amazement there was no evidence of her companion. stupidly she continued to stare. it was impossible to conceive what could have become of nona, yet the last quarter of an hour had been so full of strange happenings that there was small wonder at barbara’s bewilderment.
a moment later, a few yards from where they had first begun to run, she saw nona’s figure lying in a crumpled heap upon the ground. yet was it imaginable that this could be nona? had she fainted or stumbled? the recollection of the suffocating gas about them really did not occur to barbara, as she had felt its effects so slightly.
yet here she stood torn between two duties. should she return and find out[162] what had happened to her friend or try first to release the man?
barbara suffered only a brief indecision. though she may have failed in her first week’s work at the hospital, her training as a nurse now asserted itself. and one of the supreme requisites of the successful nurse is that she use her judgment without unnecessary delay.
straightway barbara attempted dragging the unconscious man from his seat in the wrecked aeroplane, it being, of course, out of the question to move the machine itself. but the body felt as heavy and inert as if there were no life inside. still she tugged, and though so miniature a person her muscles and nerves were for the time at least strong and steady.
the man was tall, an englishman barbara guessed him to be, but happily he was thin. many months devoted to war’s service leaves little flesh upon a soldier, and these modern soldiers of the air bear perhaps the most terrific strain of all.
but once the man’s head was in the open air barbara knelt beside him. so far as[163] she could discover he did not appear to be wounded; there was no blood upon him anywhere. holding her smelling salts under his nose, he showed no sign of consciousness. then she worked his arms back and forth, so as to stimulate the action of the heart, used every first aid method that her three years of study had taught her. this case was unlike any she had ever known. as she worked an idea came to barbara. once she recalled a man having been brought into the hospital overcome by the fumes of gas. such a possibility was absurd with this case and yet the face had the same dark, frightful look.
nevertheless, barbara meade was not in the least hopeless, nor did she for an instant cease to work, though now and then she was forced to glance toward the spot where nona remained so quiet. what could be the matter? why did she not come to her aid?
all this, of course, took place in a very few minutes. a little later when barbara gave another frightened look across the fields, she discovered that nona had gotten[164] up and was walking toward her. she seemed dizzy and uncertain, but there was evidently nothing serious the matter.
moreover, there was no time for inquiries, for just as nona reached her, barbara’s patient stirred, coughed and struggled to regain his breath. then for the first time the nurse put her arm about her friend. the air would do more for the stupefied man than she could.
soon after he opened his eyes and in an incredibly short time pulled himself out from beneath his aeroplane. he then stared in a dazed half-blind fashion at the two girls standing near him in nurses’ uniforms, in the center of a ploughed field.
but war admits of no surprises. only the two american red cross girls had not yet grown accustomed to the possible strangeness of their adventures. moreover, they were frightened at the appearance of their first hero. he was not in the least what one would expect an aviator to be. this man was not young according to nona’s or barbara’s ideas. he must have been about thirty, his hair and eyes[165] were dark and the lines of his face stern and severe. his skin was now a queer mottled color, with ugly blue splotches.
however, he began struggling to speak. but his tongue was so swollen that he choked and coughed, neither did he seem able to see clearly.
meanwhile nona davis, although considerably less affected, was also plainly not herself. she too coughed uncomfortably and seemed weak and stupid. she expressed no surprise over what had just taken place and offered her friend neither advice nor assistance. but barbara had already made up her mind. they must get back to the hospital and as soon as possible. yet her patient could not walk, nona could not help, and barbara did not wish to leave them while she went for assistance.
fortunately, however, in looking about she discovered that anton, the boy whom they had been endeavoring to escape, had been attracted by the vision in the air. or if he had not seen it, he was now plainly visible not far away, staring in a bold, half-terrified fashion at the scene, which was past his understanding.
[166]
barbara summoned him imperatively.
between them they then managed to get the air man clear of his machine. as soon as he was on his feet, with anton’s and barbara’s arms grasping his, he stumbled on for a few steps. afterwards he found himself better able to walk.
“extraordinary thing,” he began, and barbara immediately thought his words and manner so intensely english that she wanted to laugh. would any american man under the same circumstances remain so coldly dignified and superior as this one appeared?
“i am not in the least hurt, you know, only confoundedly weak and suffocated,” he said finally. “new trick, that of our enemy’s; they have been using their asphyxiating gas on our soldiers in the trenches, but this is the first time a gas bomb has been thrown from a taube aeroplane. lucky thing for me the gas was too heavy to stay long in the upper air.”
this speech was made thickly and with a great deal of effort, but both nona and[167] barbara were able to understand. they knew, of course, of the use of the chlorine missiles, germany’s novel weapon of war, which had lately been thrown into the trenches of the allies. the papers had been full of the mysterious effects the gas had upon the soldiers. how stupid not to have dreamed of this! of course, the situation was now explained, even nona’s odd share in it. evidently the poisonous gas which they had seen in a greenish yellow cloud encircling the aeroplane had fallen to earth and nona had been wrapped in its fumes. but it had been too diluted with air to have done her serious harm, and after her fall a favoring wind must have blown it away.
by the time the second field was reached nona was herself again. indeed, it was she who decided to hurry on to the hospital and send back aid. they were finding the way too long for the still stupefied man, who could only see dimly and was still suffering as if he had been recently paralyzed.
the two nurses had been missed at the[168] hospital and nona felt the atmosphere of disfavor as she entered the great stone house.
fortunately, however, she found their scotch friend, alexina mcintyre, waiting in the hall for the arrival of a fresh ambulance of the wounded. the ambulances brought the men from the battle front to this hospital only a few miles away. a few moments later help was dispatched to barbara.
