Evening star., 1898-07-16
CHAPTER XIV.
The Beginning of the End.


The knocking was repeated. Hide sat
up in the darkness, staring through her
tangled hair at the dim outlines of the
door.
who is it2' she asked striving to steady
her voice
Then came the shuttle of feet. a sound of
whispered consultation. Suddenly a voice
spoke out:
We want your house for a hospital.
The wounded are coming in by the Port
Rouge
Hide sprang from the bed and groped
IN IN the darkness for her clothes bidding
them walt and she would open, And now
1olette was stirring in the next room and
Bourke came down stairs, half dressed
and lighted fire in the dining room for.
mere was no oiher means of illumination
Nnen Hide appesred, soldiers of the hos
pltaI corps were piling straw in the hall
way outside the street was choked with
cavalry, helmets glimmerng in the frosty.
ua"n. Already Red Cross flag hung over
the doorsteps, its soiled folds floating laziIv
with every icy air current
When the first stretcher appeared. borns
by priests. the cavalry moved on. endless
INES OF them, and the sad trumpet's peal
was echoed by steel cuirasses clashtne and
tne Ginning of spurs and sabres and a
thousand horseshoes' fiinty clink. One hv
one the ambuiances creaked up the street
from the porte Rouge; one by one the
stretchers passed. Every house received its
, load of wounded, every house hoisted the
Geneva cross.
Yolette and Hide helped the soldiers
spread straw on the floor; all the rooms
on the ground f1oor were taken. and ths
wounded lay there side by side. hair
froZen pale as corpses. There were a few
Germans among them, quite blond fellows.
staring at everybody with mild blue eyes.
one of them, a mere boy, watched Hide
as she moved about with cups of hot
brandy, silently waiting his turn-which
never came, for he died without a sound
before she reached his sde
1t was late in the afternoon when the SIR
geons came. Hide and Yolette gave I'm
their places to some sad-eyed Sisters Of
Mercy, and Bourke insisted that thew
should go to Harewoed's room on the floor
above. They slept there that night. keepine-
each other warm as best as they could, for
they had given most of the bed COVERINGS
to the wounded. t-7a--
AT daylight the dead-cart came to their
door, halted for its load then rumbled on
creaking under their weight of wounded, !,
sounds rose from the kitchen. where
already the good Sisters of Mercy were
making broth, and eplitting green wood
hear Bourke stirring in slis room. Yolette
heard 1t too, and opsnedsher blue eyes. It
did you sleep. Hilde7" she asked. seYou
are SO pale
Eyes. 1 slept. Did you hear that wounded
man groan? oh, Yolettel Yolette!-I think
heard him die-die down there in the cold
end dsrh' III 2t
She rose shivering,1fo break the Ice in her
water pitcher. Her shoulders, white = tbe
snow outside, shrank under the lev sponge
The awful odor of chloroform makes
my head ache" 81 ID Yolette. iThe whole
house reeks of carbolfe acid, too. Shall
open the windewT'9t -
Hide crept into her gray wool gown held
her wrists out for Yolette to fasten the
linen cuffs. then, plnning on the nurses
apron. she went downstairs. Around one
arm, just above the elbow, she wore the
white band and red cross OF the volunteer
nurse.
The Sisters Of the Mercy greeted her In
low voices. and told her that the empty
places on the straw had already been filled
A fresh convoy of wounded was at the
Porte Rouge. The whole quarter had been
turned into vast hospital, and nurses
and surgeons were coming from the Lux
embourg and Sorbonne.
That night, however, orders arrived to
transport the wounded to the Luxembourg.
and, amid the confusion OF passing cavalry
the crush of ambulanees. the endless pro-
cessions CT stretohers the throngs of
nurses, priests and soldiers, the wounded
were carried out once more to their straw
wadded wagons. II was showing heavily,
across the lurid danes from the torches the