And then the second shell came.

It hit the Greek pediment from behind, and we saw the two tall pillars that supported it stagger, snap like two sticks, and bend forwards, looking suddenly queer and corpulent in their fore-shortening; then they parted and fell, bringing down the whole front of the Town Hall.

The Town Hall was spreading itself over the street, with a noise like a ship’s coal going down the shute in a thunderstorm, as Reggie’s stretcher slid home along its grooves in the ambulance.  Kendal and I were inside for a second or two doing things for Reggie.  The engine throbbed.  The whole ambulance shook with its throbbing.

In that second Jevons had run back to fetch his car, calling out to us to cut and he would overtake us.  He had cranked up his engines and jumped in before Kendal could get down and go to his help.  When we saw him start we started.  There wasn’t any time to lose.

Kendal and I were sitting on the back steps of the ambulance, so that we kept him in sight.  It was quite certain that he would overtake us.

* * * * *

He was running straight down the middle of the road when the third shell came.

It burst on the ground behind him, on his right, a little to one side.  Some of it must have struck the steering gear.

The car plunged to the left.  It climbed reeling to the top of a bank and paused there, then fell, front over back, into the ditch and lay there, belly uppermost, and its wheels whirling in the air.

Jevons lay on his face, half in, half out of the ditch.

He lay for about three seconds; then, as we ran to him, we saw him raise himself on his left arm and crawl out of the ditch; and when we reached him he was trying to stand.

And he tried to smile at us.  “You needn’t look like that,” he said.  “I’m as right as rain.”  And then he tried to raise his right arm.

You saw a khaki cuff, horribly stained.  A red rag hung from it, a fringe that dripped.

* * * * *

Reggie opened his eyes and turned his face towards the stretcher that slid into its grooves beside him.

“That isn’t—­Jimmy—­is it?” he said.

I saw him move his left hand to find Jimmy’s right.  And I heard Jimmy saying again (in a weak voice this time) that he was as right as rain.

We had got out of the range of the guns and the surgeons had done their business with bandages and splints.  They had taken Reggie first, then Jimmy.

And so, lying beside Reggie, on his own stretcher and in his own ambulance, he was brought back to Ghent.

The military hospitals were full, so we took them to the Convent de Saint Pierre.  And I went over to the Hotel de la Poste to fetch Viola.

I don’t know what I said to her.  I think I must have done what Jimmy told me and said they were all right. She never said a word till we got to the Convent. (She told me afterwards that when she saw me coming in alone she had been sure that Jimmy was killed.  She didn’t know about Reggie yet, you see.)