Grace Harlowe with the Yankee Shock Boys at St. Quentin A Drive Ends Badly Teen Adventures.
chapter one of grace harlow with the yankee shock boys at sunt quentin this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org grace harlow with the yankee shock boys at saint quentin by jessie graham flower chapter one a drive that ended violently what drive with you grace harlow demanded alfreda briggs why not the front is quiet on our sector jerry isn't dropping any bombs nor is the road being shelled you will have a pleasant ride out to the front lines and back and you will benefit by the change and the air grace had just started the engine of her motor preparatory to a trip to the front lines on the saint quentin sector to bring back a load of wounded men to the field hospital i rode with you once you will recall observed miss briggs i landed in a roadside ditch with one of those huge french trucks on top of me if i go out with you now i probably shall be smacked by a shell even if there is but one fire during the night from the enemy lines why i came out here to see you off and say goodbye for every time you drive toward the front i fully expect that they will be bringing you back with yourself as an ambulance case don't be silly alfreda one has accidents even in peaceful oakdale and one occasionally turns over her car out here it is war and we look for variations i am rather inclined to think that they make life interesting are you going with me if you will promise not to ditch me i will promise j alfreda in a doubtful tone wait until i run in and ask for the major's permission directed grace skipping over to the office of the commanding officer of the field hospital she was back a few moments later all right she cried the major has charged me to bring you back safely and threatens me with dire punishment if i smash you up the major said he cannot spare you until after the end of the war with all the hospitals over here evacuated for good i told him that if he got smacked or smashed it was reasonable to expect that i would share the same fate and that that would be punishment enough wasn't that liberal of me agreeing to be wrecked crushed or smashed as the case might be just because you were to me that seems perfect hospitality if you don't stop that i'll not move from this field hospital grace harlow are you trying to get my wind up demanded miss briggs using the parlance of the doughboy for being afraid hop in directed grace i must be off or the chief of my section will be putting me on report for neglect of duty goodness knows i have enough black marks against me for wrecking ambulances violating the rules of war by walking into the enemy lines and back again without asking permission of either side so if you love me get in and be lively about it grace laughed merrily and alfreda dragged herself to the seat in the ambulance as though the effort gave her pain the young hospital attendant sighed a long deep sigh of resignation as she settled down the lamb has permitted herself to be led to the slaughter say lager it is war she added with a typically french shrug of the shoulders much to the amusement of her companion grace threw in the clutch and was off with a rattle and a bang so characteristic of the type of cars that the ambulance section were using alfreda had been relieved from duty for the night and grace knew that her friend really needed a change even if that change did lead her up near the front lines where at any moment the dogs of war might break their leashes and be at it tooth and jowl she also was aware that many clashes between patrols had taken place that evening and it was to bring back the wounded from these nitrating parties that she was going out to an advanced dressing station on this occasion as she had been doing every night for the past week traffic was heavy on the road and though alfreda's heart was literally in her throat grace did not appear to be the least disturbed by the many narrow escapes from collisions that they experienced alfreda had worked herself into a nervous sweat before they had proceeded a mile from the field hospital finally they got on a road that was used exclusively by ambulances and there the going was much better so that alfreda relaxed a little i should die did i have to travel over this road every night as you do she declared with emphasis how your nerves ever stand up under the strain is beyond my comprehension then the shells and the machine gun fire and never mind the rest alfreda as for nerves one must forget that she has such things otherwise she will wear out quickly the few weeks that tom was missing nearly caused the wreck of my nervous system and after i got my head plumbed i made up my mind that never again would i worry no matter what happened you understand what i mean that it doesn't pay to tear oneself to pieces with worry and will you please watch the road and keep your hands on the wheel begged miss briggs you can talk without gazing up into my eyes and emphasizing your remarks by whacking me on the shoulder there is something else that i wish to say and this is as good a time as any listen but keep on driving i intend to reply grace harlow grey laughingly it is about yourself many things have occurred since we came out near the front but it is of the significant ones that i am speaking now that relate to yourself meaning what you know quite well what i mean the frequent attempts on your life grace laughed good naturedly why should anyone especially the enemy wish to be rid of so inconsequential a person as myself alfreda isn't it a little far-fetched to think that such a thing could be possible not when one has observed as i have done i must admit that the attempts of the spy andre were a little disconcerting i have wondered if the attempts made to capture all the ambulances of our section that night when i landed inside the german lines might possibly have been part of a plan to get me but the probabilities are that there was another reason for it you know the huns are making war on those whose work is a work of mercy just as they are doing to the combat sections of the american expeditionary forces i'm thankful that they did not identify tom as my husband had they done so i fear it might have gone hard with him while he was a prisoner in their hands the same with yvonne all which leads me to the conclusion that the bosch's are thick heads added grace laughingly it is not a subject for jest rebuked her companion one day they will get you unless you safeguard yourself why you go about everything you do with an utter disregard for your own safety that with most persons would be considered suicidal i have found that the bold course i presume i should say the unexpected course is most likely to succeed now for instance take our present situation we are driving calmly along a peaceful french highway with no enemy within a mile or two of us we are positive of that when suppose an enemy patrol should rise up and order us to surrender what then do you get the point the bold course might succeed mind you i am not saying it would but it might the very unexpectedness of it would make for its success and for our downfall alfreda shivered don't talk like that she begged it's spooky enough out here in the darkness without you conjuring up a ghost in the form of a hun should such a thing occur i should expire on the spot as ann pearson would put it i wouldn't travel over this road alone at night if by doing so i could win the congressional medal you you don't think it possible that anything of the sort could occur to us us here it's here now cried grazed sharply throwing on the power and sending the ambulance ahead at a terrific pace until the car rocked and skidded threatening to turn over with every side slip alfreda was speechless she did not know what had caused her companion's exclamation but that something terrible was about to happen she felt instinctively cold chills were chasing each other up and down her spine and her brain seemed to be numbed nor had alfreda the power to move hand or foot grace was leaning forward a little more than was her want peering at the road every faculty keyed to concert pitch the blow fell neither woman knew what had happened but they felt the blow a blow that threw alfreda forward on the dashboard a blow that laid grace harlow across her steering wheel and knocked her nearly breathless the ambulance amid a jangling ripping rending sound leaped into the air as though it was a flying machine taking off for a flight hold fast and keep your head cried grace with the same cold-headedness that had given her a leading place on the basketball team in oakdale oh so long ago it seemed a far cry from those happy days as related in grace harlow's plebe year at high school to the part she was now playing in the greatest war in the world's history but she was fighting this last studying battle with the same spirit that had so often carried her to victory in the old happy days grace's friends who have followed her career and who have learned to love her will recall the experiences of grace and her friends in those exciting times as related in grace harlow's sophomore year at high school grace harlow's junior year at high school and grace harlow's senior year at high school they also well remember those dear friends and associates of grace norah o'malley anne pearson and jessica bright comprising the original four having graduated at high school grace and ann entered overton college while nora and jessica chose a conservatory of music for their further training new friends gathered about grace at overton friends whose lives were now linked with hers on the western front such friends as alfreda briggs emma dean arlene thayer mabel ash and others the stories of those happy years the readers of this volume will recall were fully told in graced harlow's f