“Mr. Merrick is so well known as a philanthropist that his name was a magic talisman for us,” said Maud.  “Moreover, our enterprise commands the sympathy of everyone.  We had numerous offers of financial assistance, too.”

“I hope you didn’t accept them,” said Uncle John nervously.

“No,” answered the boy, “I claimed this expedition to be our private and individual property.  We can now do as we please, being under no obligations to any but ourselves.”

“That’s right,” said Uncle John.  “We don’t want to be hampered by the necessity of advising with others.”

“By the way, have you found a doctor?”

“Yes.”

“A good one?” asked Maud quickly.

“Highly recommended, but homely as a rail fence,” continued Patsy, as her uncle hesitated.

“That’s nothing,” said Ajo lightly.

“Nothing, eh?  Well, wait till you see him,” she replied.  “You’ll never look Doctor Gys in the face more than once, I assure you.  After that, you’ll be glad to keep your eyes on his vest buttons.”

“I like him immensely, though,” said Beth.  “He is clever, honest and earnest.  The poor man can’t help his mutilations, which are the result of many unfortunate adventures.”

“Sounds like just the man we wanted,” declared Ajo, and afterward he had no reason to recall that assertion.

A week is a small time in which to equip a big ship, but money and energy can accomplish much and the news from the seat of war was so eventful that they felt every moment to be precious and so they worked with feverish haste.  The tide of German success had turned and their great army, from Paris to Vitry, was now in full retreat, fighting every inch of the way and leaving thousands of dead and wounded in its wake.

“How long will it take us to reach Calais?” they asked Captain Carg eagerly.

“Eight or nine days,” said he.

“We are not as fast as the big passenger steamers,” explained young Jones, “but with good weather the Arabella may be depended upon to make the trip in good shape and fair time.”

On the nineteenth of September, fully equipped and with her papers in order, the beautiful yacht left her anchorage and began her voyage.  The weather proved exceptionally favorable.  During the voyage the girls busied themselves preparing their modest uniforms and pumping Dr. Gys for all sorts of information, from scratches to amputations.  He gave them much practical and therefore valuable advice to guide them in whatever emergencies might arise, and this was conveyed in the whimsical, half humorous manner that seemed characteristic of him.  At first Gys had shrunk involuntarily from facing this bevy of young girls, but they had so frankly ignored his physical blemishes and exhibited so true a comradeship to all concerned in the expedition, that the doctor soon felt perfectly at ease in their society.

During the evenings he gave them practical demonstrations of the application of tourniquets, bandages and the like, while Uncle John and Ajo by turns posed as wounded soldiers.  Gys was extraordinarily deft in all his manipulations and although Maud Stanton was a graduate nurse—­with little experience, however—­and Beth De Graf had studied the art for a year or more, it was Patsy Doyle who showed the most dexterity in assisting the doctor on these occasions.