A VISITOR
Jerry Hopkins, with his two chums and some of the hospital patients
who were able to move about, rushed toward the sound of the shouting
and firing. Jerry's leg wound was healed, and save for a slight limp
he was all right again.
The boys saw a group of soldiers gathered about a battery of guns
erected a short time before to repel air raids. And that this was now
a time to use the weapons was evident after a glance aloft.
For, hovering just below the clouds, were three big Hun planes, and
that they had come over the lines to bomb the American positions was
only too evident.
There was no time to stop and inquire how the hostile aircraft had
managed to elude the vigilance of the Allied airmen at the front. It
was time to act and act promptly, and at once the anti-aircraft
batteries opened, while word was quickly telephoned to the nearest
aerodrome, so that American, French, or British fliers might ascend to
attack the Germans. It was the shooting at the Hun planes with the
guns nearest the hospital that had broken in on Jerry's remarks.
"They won't bomb the hospital, will they?" asked Ned, in wonder.
"They're very likely to," declared Jerry. "Then later on they'll claim
they couldn't see the red crosses on the roof, or else they'll say
they meant to drop bombs on an ammunition dump or a railroad center
and they miscalculated the distance--the beasts!"
If the Huns intended to bomb the hospital now it would not be the
first time they had done such a dastardly trick. And that they
purposed sending down explosives somewhere in the neighborhood was
evident from the tactics of the hostile machines.
They flew about, so high above the group of buildings containing the
wounded and convalescents as to make it difficult to hit them, and
appeared to be waiting their best chance to drop a bomb where it would
do the most damage.
Meanwhile, nurses and orderlies were moving out their charges into the
open, so there would be less likelihood of their being caught in the
collapsed structures.
For a few minutes the scene was one of wild confusion, and then army
discipline was established and matters went on as they should. Ned,
Bob, and Jerry helped in taking out the wounded, while the gun crews
increased their fire at the hostile planes.
Suddenly there was a terrific explosion just in the rear of the
hospital. It shook the ground and brought forth screams of agonized
apprehension on the part of men suffering from shell shock. But either
the bomb was misdirected or the Huns were more merciful than they had
been on other similar occasions, for the bomb, dropped from one of the
aircraft, only tore a big hole in an adjacent field.
"Too close for comfort, though," declared Ned.
"Our boys are gettin' after 'em!" exclaimed Bob, as he and his chums
hurried back into the endangered building to assist in taking out more
of the helpless ones.
This was true in two senses, for the fire of the anti-aircraft
batteries was increasing, and now several Allied airmen were mounting
aloft in their swift machines to give battle to the attacking Huns.
It was high time, too, for now bombs were dropping on all sides of the
hospital, and there was no telling when the entire building might go
down in ruins. Whether the German airmen were deliberately trying to
hit the place where wounded men were being saved from death, or
whether they aimed their infernal machines at objects near it, could
not be said with certainty.
Fiercer and more rapid became the firing from the anti-aircraft
batteries established near the hospital for this very purpose, and
more Allied planes took the air, seeking to drive off the invaders.
By this time most of the wounded had been carried out and put under
trees, in the open, wherever it was considered safest for them.
Though from the ruthless manner in which the Huns waged war no place
was immune from their bombs--even in the neighborhood of a hospital.
"Look! Look!" suddenly cried Ned. "They got one!"
"That's right!" echoed Jerry. "They've brought one down!"
Tumbling over and over, in a fashion no airman, however reckless,
would dare to imitate as a ruse, was one of the German planes. It had
been hit either by a shell from a battery, or the bullets from one of
the machine guns on an Allied plane had found a mark.
Then, as the invading machine continued to fall, out of control, it
burst into flames, and a small dark object was seen to detach itself
from the mass and fall to one side.
"There goes the pilot!" said Bob grimly. "He's done for."
And so he was, and so was his machine. It was a horrible death, but
none the less horrible than he had planned for others--and helpless
others, too.
"There they go! They've had enough!" shouted Ned, and as he spoke it
was seen that the Hun machines, which had been circling about, as
though looking for more targets on the ground below, had turned and
were speeding toward their own lines, pursued by the American and
other machines, eager to visit on them just vengeance.
And then the hospital patients, some of them wounded airmen
themselves, watched the battle of the clouds, out of danger now that
the Huns were in retreat.
The machines were so high that little could be seen, but some one had
a pair of glasses and reported that one of the German craft was
disabled and was coming down out of control.
This information afterward proved to be correct. Then during the
battle which followed another German machine was set on fire; so that
a total of three were destroyed, and another of the six engaged in the
raid sent back damaged, and one of its occupants killed.
Nor did the Allied planes come off scatheless. One was shot down and
both occupants killed, while another man was wounded. But the hospital
had not been bombed, which was the great thing.
"Do you wonder that I'm aching to get back into the fight against such
beasts?" asked Jerry, when the patients had once more been carried
back to the wards, and Jerry and his chums had resumed their
conversation in a quiet place outside.
"Don't blame you a bit," assented Ned. "But we were talking about
Noddy Nixon."
"Yes," resumed the tall lad. "I was saying he asked a mighty queer
question of the surgeon and I have my own opinion----"
At that moment a smiling Red Cross nurse appeared and said:
"There's a visitor asking to see you, Mr. Hopkins."
"A visitor for me!" exclaimed Jerry.
"Yes, do you wish to see any one?"
"Man or young lady?" asked Ned, with a mischievous smile at his chum.
"Oh, a dear, little, bald-headed man, who peers at you in such a funny
way through his big glasses and----"
"Show him in!" cried Ned, Bob and Jerry in one voice.