Nancy Dale, Army Nurse Read online

  Nancy Dale ARMY NURSE

  CHAPTER ONE

  EMERGENCY

  Nancy stood on the steps of the train and waved at a misty-eyed couple,a man and woman of middle years. Strange how she could be so close totears, yet so buoyantly happy all in the same moment.

  The train began to move slowly and Nancy called back, "Be sure toforward all Tommy's letters, Mom!"

  Her mother nodded and smiled, while her father lifted his hat in thatcourtly way he had. Nancy could scarcely believe that at last she wason her way to becoming a member of the great Army Nurse Corps. In factshe was one now, for she had already taken her oath of allegiance. Thisslowly moving train marked the beginning of a wonderful journey thatmight take her anywhere in the whole world--Africa, Italy, India, theArctic or the South Pacific.

  She had been praying ever since she joined that it would be the SouthPacific, not only because her brother was there flying a bomber overthe tropical blue waters, but because the tropics had always seemedfascinating. But little did she dream what she must go through beforeshe saw again that beloved couple she had just left.

  As she turned back into the Pullman she suddenly felt empty, with thatawful, hollow, going-away feeling. She thought how lucky she had beento get her nurse's training right in her own home town. She had neverknown the feeling of homesickness, for her few brief trips had all beenfor pleasure. But this was different and far more exciting, yet sheknew suddenly now that it would also have its heartaches.

  From her seat in the car she caught one more glimpse of her parents.How lonesome they would be with both their children in the service! Fora few minutes, as the train crawled out of the city, Nancy could thinkof nothing but the two she was leaving behind.

  How concerned poor Mom had been when she said, "Do be careful, darling,about getting wet. You know how easily you take cold when your feet arewet."

  Nancy had promised to be as careful as possible, but didn't fret hermother by saying she was afraid there would often be days on end whenher feet would always be wet, if her experiences were anything like theoverseas nurses she heard from in Italy and New Guinea.

  Not until the last house of her beloved town had vanished beyond thegreen hills did Nancy turn her gaze to the inside of the Pullman. Shenoticed now that practically everyone was in uniform, both men andwomen. There were two WACs across from her, and an ANC captain a littlefarther up.

  She thought it would have been more fun had someone been going withher. This trip to the capital was always so slow and boring, then therewould be a tiresome wait before she took the sleeper for Alabama. Shetried to read but was too keyed up to concentrate. She could think ofnothing but the great adventure into which she was going. Settling herhead against the cushion she faced the window, watching the rollinghills. Suddenly she realized she was tired after all the excitement offarewell parties and packing. How grand everyone had been to her! Sinceshe was the only volunteer in her class, she had been given a dance atthe Nurse's Home. How could anyone stay behind, she wondered, when thefighting men needed so many nurses?

  Drowsiness was creeping over her when she caught the low tones of twomen behind her. The fact that they were speaking in a foreign tonguepricked her to alertness. She leaned closer to the window andconcentrated. They were talking almost in whispers, but she heard thegutteral syllables of several German words. She had studied a littleGerman in her high school days in order to sing some selections fromthe Wagnerian operas. Now she caught the words, _ute Abend_ and _achtKusches_.

  "Tonight ... eight cars," she translated.

  The Pullman conductor came down the aisle, and the men fell silent. Ifthey hadn't become so abruptly silent at his approach, Nancy might havethought little of the whispered conversation. Though she tried todismiss her suspicions, attributing her sensitiveness to the fact thatshe had just entered the service, she could not forget the two menspeaking German fluently who sat behind her.

  After an interval Nancy decided to take a look at the pair. She starteddown the aisle under pretense of getting a drink of water. The mannearest the aisle had the broad face and blond complexion of a typicalGerman, though he wore the uniform of an American soldier. The otherwas in civilian clothes, and wore a small mustache. All Nancy couldglean in her hasty inspection was that he had a lean countenance, darkcoloring, and wore dark-rimmed glasses. On her return she noticed thatthe blond had a corporal's stripes on his sleeve.

  If he was a spy, surely the army would have detected it before makinghim a corporal, she thought, and promptly tried to dismiss hersuspicions. Not until eleven o'clock that night when she was hurryingwith the crowd to go aboard the west-bound train, did she again thinkof those words spoken in German behind her. Her Pullman was at the endof a very long train. Soldiers were filing into the front coaches. Shecounted eight cars ahead of hers.

  Suddenly she recalled the words she had heard behind her at thebeginning of her journey, _acht Kusches_. And here they were, eightcoaches of service men. Again she thought of their words, _ute Abend_.Tonight! Could there possibly be any connection between those words andthis troop train?

  Nancy followed the redcap to her Pullman seat with a feeling ofuneasiness. She knew that spies all over the country were busy tryingto get information about the movements of troop trains and transports.She pressed her eyes to the window and looked out at the milling crowd.Then suddenly she saw the blond corporal. He did not get aboard thetrain, but watched the troops marching down the paved walk between thetracks. Then he turned sharply and hurried back toward the station. Theman in civilian clothes was not with him.

  Nancy tried to shake off the nagging uneasiness that haunted her evenafter she was comfortably stretched in her berth, and the train wasrushing out across the red Georgia hills. But her interest in what layahead was too keen for her to remain depressed. Several times sheraised the shade to peep out when the train slowed at small towns wherestreet lights twinkled sleepily, but at last the hum of the wheelslulled her to sleep.

  Then suddenly, several hours before dawn, there came a terrific crashand jolt. Nancy caught wildly at the clothes hammock to keep from beinghurled into the aisle, as the Pullman crashed to a stop and toppledslightly to the right. Screams and moans were heard above the grindingnoises.

  Nancy clung to the hammock a moment, too stunned to move. She expectedthe tilting coach to crash to earth any moment. Lights had vanishedbeyond the cracks of her curtain. With shaking hands she found herflashlight in the zipper bag left at the foot of her berth. She openedthe curtain and turned the light up and down the aisle. Several whohadn't been thrown from their berths were climbing out, wanting to knowwhat had happened. Groans, curses and cries only added to the confusion.

  Then with the speed of a fireman preparing to answer a call to duty,Nancy put on her clothes. Some sure instinct warned her that in a fewminutes there would be no time to think of herself. At last her longlegs swung down from the berth. Her flashlight showed some people stilllying where they had fallen in the aisle. Some actually climbed overthem in their frantic haste to get out of the leaning Pullman.

  She turned her light on the nearest injured person. It was agray-haired lady, moaning that her arm was broken. A big man, clad onlyin his undershirt and army trousers, emerged from his berth.

  "Here, give me a hand," ordered Nancy. "This lady has a broken arm."

  The soldier, who was of powerful build, braced himself against theberth on the lower side, and lifted the stunned old lady to hisshoulder. Nancy held her flashlight so he could see as they made theirway toward the exit. She snatched a sheet to use for bandages from oneof the berths as she went.

  On reaching the platform they found the Pullman was leaningprecariously against a clay cut on one side, while the steps on theother were high in air. Flares had already been lighted beside thetrack, and eager hands reached up to help with the injured woman. Nancynever remembered how she
got down herself. Her one idea was to help thelittle old lady whose wavy gray hair was so like her own mother's.

  "Do you have a pocket knife?" she asked the service man as he wasstretching the woman on the ground.

  He dug in his trouser pocket and produced one.

  "Cut me a splint off some bush or tree," she ordered. "I'll have toprotect this broken arm till it can be X-rayed and properly set."

  She took off her coat to cushion the gray head. While she waited forthe splint she saw that injured people were being brought from thethree rear coaches. Just beyond the clay bank which had saved their carfrom greater damage, she saw that several coaches had overturned andtelescoped into a horrible mass of wreckage.

  The soldier came back promptly with a good splint from which he wasdeftly peeling the bark. To Nancy's surprise he knelt on the ground,and in the light of her flash began to manipulate the broken bone intoposition. One glance at those skillful fingers and Nancy exclaimed,"Oh, you're a doctor!"

  "Yes," was all he said as he proceeded to the business of the moment.

  "Thank God," she said earnestly, and began to tear the sheet intobandages.

  As she had done numberless times before in the emergency room, Nancyhelped bind up the broken arm.

  "I see you've at least had first aid," he said as they worked.

  "I'm a nurse," she retorted as tersely as he had informed her he was adoctor.

  "There'll be plenty for us to do tonight," he told her.

  When the arm was set, he lifted the frail woman and carried her out ofthe cut.

  "Wait here with her," the doctor ordered. "I'll go back for my bag. Sheshould have a hypo. You can help."

  Someone had placed some boxes for steps at the rear entrance to thecoach and he returned that way. They were still hauling people out andstretching them beside the end coach, which by some miracle had notoverturned. To Nancy's surprise she recognized the ANC captain she hadnoticed on the train yesterday afternoon. She was trying to stop thebleeding in a leg wound of a man next to Nancy's old lady.

  "Please, someone try to find a doctor," she said to no one inparticular.

  "One was here just now," Nancy told her. "He'll be back in a moment. Hewent for his bag."

  Nancy bent to help the captain make a tourniquet below the injuredman's knee. She had just secured the knot with a stick when she saw thedoctor returning. The ANC captain straightened and saluted.

  "This man will have to have some stitches, Major," she said.

  "I'll look after him."

  To Nancy's consternation she saw that the soldier she had just beenordering around, had put on his coat. His gold leaf indicated him amajor, and the caduceus that he was a member of the medical corps. Shefelt terribly embarrassed at her mistake.

  He seemed to think nothing of it, however, for he explained to thecaptain, "I'll keep this young lady to help me. She says she's a nurse."

  "Then I'll go look after some of the others," said the captain, alertly.

  Major Reed was stooping to give attention to the injured man, and askedas he did so, "Where did you graduate?"

  "Stanford Hospital. I'm Nancy Dale. I just joined the Army Nurse Corpsand am on my way for basic training."

  This explanation seemed quite satisfactory to the major. He set his bagon the ground and pulled the zipper. "Give the lady there a hypo. We'llneed one here, too. Tell Captain Lewis to get what she needs from mybag."

  Until the sun rose over the red clay hills Nancy worked beside MajorReed, setting bones, sewing up cuts and giving sedatives to thehysterical. Several automobiles had gathered and focused theirheadlights upon the scene. Though Nancy had never faced such anemergency, she did not lose her head, nor did her hands shake as sheworked to relieve the injured.

  Only once did she feel an inward tremor and that was when she thoughtof how she had ordered Major Reed around. But there was no time todwell on that in the busy hours before the arrival of nurses, doctorsand ambulances from the nearest town.

  "Someone to relieve us at last," said Captain Mary Lewis, who nowlooked as weary as Nancy felt.

  "I phoned the camp for a car to be sent for us," Major Reed told them."There'll be plenty of room for the three of us and our baggage."

  Nancy glanced from one officer to the other in astonishment. "Oh, arewe really within driving distance of the camp?"

  "Only about fifty miles," replied Major Reed.

  "And you're both going there?"

  Captain Lewis nodded and smiled. "I've been on a tour of inspection,and Major Reed has been assigned work there."

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  _"I'm Nancy Dale," Nancy Told the Major_]

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  "Then I can get there almost as soon as scheduled," said Nancy inrelief. "I was worrying over being off schedule."

  "Young lady, if you ever had a good excuse for being late you have itthis time," said the major. He looked down at her a moment and smiledwhimsically. "I'd say she's made of good fighting stuff, wouldn't you,Miss Lewis?"

  "I'll say," agreed Miss Lewis. "She's had a fine try-out tonight."

  Nancy's face flushed, then she burst forth impulsively, "Oh, I hopethey'll think me good enough to send to the South Pacific."

  "That's something we have to leave to our Uncle Samuel, young lady."

  Nancy was silent a moment, then looked up at the major shyly out of thecorner of her eye. "I owe you an apology, sir."

  "How's that?"

  "For ordering you about--demanding that you cut me a splint. But howcould I know you were a major?"

  He broke into a hearty laugh. "Well, Miss Dale, I can't see that anofficer is due any respect when he goes around in his undershirt. Youdid what any nurse should have done."

  "That must be your car over there, Major," said Miss Lewis.

  "So 'tis. Let's get our baggage and be off."

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