SHESA, A RED CROSS NURSE
“WHAT do you hear from your brother, Shesa?” asked Miss Bossem of
Shesa Brave a few days later, as she was leaving the advanced class in
first-aid.
The young girl looked troubled. “We haven’t heard a word for nearly
five weeks,” she replied. “I have been thinking seriously of going to
the front as a volunteer nurse, hoping I may be able to get news of
Ima.”
“That seems like an excellent idea to me,” said the head nurse. “You,
being a member of the American Red Cross Society, can manage very
nicely, I think.”
So, within a week, Shesa Brave started for Mexico.
She was put on duty in an emergency hospital along the frontier. As
the soldiers were brought in she scanned each face eagerly, but many a
weary day passed before she had any tidings of Ima.
To every inquiry she sent out, the report came back, “Missing.”
A great fear came upon her that Ima had been killed. She couldn’t bear
the thought that her big handsome brave brother had died without even
a record of what had happened; but she worked industriously, nursing
other people’s brothers and writing letters to the loved ones at home
to relieve their anxiety.
While taking a walk one day in her hours off duty, Shesa wandered
farther away from the hospital than usual. She was thinking of Ima.
Before realizing it, she had lost her direction and found herself
in a lovely little valley. The scenery along the border had been so
uninteresting, with low cactus plants growing out of the sand, and
scrub bushes stretching away in low irregular outline, that this spot
came as a delightful surprise.
Spying a little cabin on the side of the mountain above the valley, she
decided to inquire the way back, and, quickening her steps, reached it
in a short time.
A slovenly woman appeared at the door. Five small children surrounded
her, pulling at her skirts as they saw the stranger. The youngest set
up a howl of disapproval as Shesa came nearer. In her arms the woman
held a baby and in one hand a tin pan of maize or corn. A few chickens
came scurrying around the corner of the house as the woman tapped a
wooden paddle on the edge of the pan.
The woman stopped and eyed Shesa suspiciously as she came still nearer.
“Good afternoon,” said Shesa with a smile. “Do you speak English?”
“Howdy,” grunted the woman. “Yes. Hush up, will ye?” to the children,
whose noises made conversation difficult.
“United States?” she asked as she looked Shesa’s uniform over.
“Yes, yes,” replied Shesa. “I’m a nurse.”
“Nuss?” said the woman. “Then ye’ll know what be ailing him. Come in.”
[Illustration: “SISTER!” HE EXCLAIMED]
Shesa hesitated a moment before entering the low cabin which was
scarcely more than a hut; but, being a brave girl, she thought, “If I
am needed, I mustn’t hesitate. I’ll try to find out what’s wanted.”
“Tell me about your trouble,” she said kindly to the woman. “Is your
husband ill?”
“Nope,” the woman shook her head, “he be all right. It’s a U. S. man we
found up yonder,” pointing up the mountain road. “Been shot in arm. My
man brought him home, but his arm gets worse all time. You know what to
do?”
“I think I can help,” said Shesa, wishing with all her heart she had
brought her emergency kit with her. “Let me see your patient.”
The woman led the way into the only bedroom in the cabin. On a rude
wooden bed lay a young man, dressed in a much soiled khaki uniform.
At the sound of Shesa’s voice, he started up. “Sister!” he exclaimed.
“Why, this seems too good to be true! Oh, perhaps I’m dreaming. My arm
pains so I guess I’m just ‘seeing things’ from fever.”
For one moment Shesa lost her self-control. Tears filled her eyes and
she longed to throw her arms about Ima’s neck and cry to her heart’s
content. “But I must not,” she chided herself. “I must do everything I
can to help him.”
“It’s not a dream, Ima, dear,” she said as naturally as if they were in
their faraway home. “You are ill and certainly do need me. Let me see
your arm.”
The sight of his poor wounded arm made her feel sick, for it evidently
had been neglected from the first.
“How did it happen?” Shesa asked, as she tore her apron into bandages
and directed the woman to boil some water on the open fire which she
had seen outside.
She saw that Ima wanted to talk, sick and weary as he was.
“I was taking a stroll alone one evening,” he explained, “not thinking
of the least danger, for our camp lights were scarcely out of sight.
Suddenly I heard the report of a gun, and felt an awful pain in my
right arm. One of the bandits had evidently spotted me from ambush. I’d
have been all right, but the fellow or an accomplice sprang upon me,
and after a struggle knocked me senseless and took my emergency kit and
everything else useful away from me. The settler who owns this cabin
found me and brought me up here on his shoulders. His wife did what
she could for my wound, but it became infected almost immediately, and
I was too weak from loss of blood to walk back to camp, even with the
man’s help. Besides, in some way, I had a sprained ankle.”
“Well, dear, you are going to be helped in every way soon, so don’t
talk any more,” said Shesa, taking off some of the dirty rags which the
woman had tied clumsily upon Ima’s ankle. She bathed the ankle in hot
water and bound it firmly in a figure-of-eight bandage, which gave him
the first ease from pain since the accident.
She replaced the outside layers of the dirty bandages on his wounded
arm. “The wounds may bleed if I take the dressings off,” she decided
wisely, “and I have no remedies here.”
“I wonder why the man didn’t go for help?” she thought.
Just at that moment Ima whispered, “I would have sent word to camp, but
for some reason the settler seems afraid—of the bandits, maybe.”
“Well,” said Shesa, “you rest here, and we’ll soon have help.”
“But, Shesa, it will be dangerous for you to go,” said Ima. Then
suddenly, “Why, how did you happen to come here, anyhow?”
“Never mind, dear, I’ll explain all that later,” replied Shesa.
“But I want to hear now,” insisted Ima, his eyes bright with fever. So
to satisfy him, Shesa briefly related the story of her little walk.
“Now,” she added “since the emergency hospital is so near, you need not
worry until I come back?”
He promised to try not to worry, and fell into a dozy sleep within a
few minutes.