Upon examination the next morning the large ambulance was found to be so badly damaged that it had to be taken to a repair shop in the city to undergo reconstruction.  It would take several weeks to put it in shape, declared the French mechanics, so the Americans would be forced to get along with the smaller vehicle.  Jones and Dr. Kelsey made regular trips with this, but the fighting had suddenly lulled and for several days no new patients were brought to the ship, although many were given first aid in the trenches for slight wounds.

So the colony aboard the Arabella grew gradually less, until on the twenty-sixth of November the girls found they had but two patients to care for—­Elbl and Andrew Denton.  Neither required much nursing, and Denton’s young wife insisted on taking full charge of him.  But while the hospital ship was not in demand at this time there were casualties day by day in the trenches, where the armies faced each other doggedly and watchfully and shots were frequently interchanged when a soldier carelessly exposed his person to the enemy.  So the girls took turns going with the ambulance, and Uncle John made no protest because so little danger attended these journeys.

Each day, while one of the American girls rode to the front, the other two would visit the city hospitals and render whatever assistance they could to the regular nurses.  Gys sometimes accompanied them and sometimes went to the front with the ambulance; but he never caused his friends anxiety on these trips, because he could not endanger his life, owing to the cessation of fighting.

The only incident that enlivened this period of stagnation was the capture of Maurie.  No; the authorities didn’t get him, but Clarette did.  Ajo and Patsy had gone into the city one afternoon and on their return to the docks, where their launch was moored, they found a street urchin awaiting them with a soiled scrap of paper clenched fast in his fist.  He surrendered it for a coin and Patsy found the following words scrawled in English: 

“She has me fast.  Help!  Be quick.  I cannot save myself so you must save me.  It is your Maurie who is in distress.”

They laughed a little at first and then began to realize that the loss of their chauffeur would prove a hardship when fighting was resumed.  Maurie might not be a good husband, and he might be afraid of a woman, but was valuable when bullets were flying.  Patsy asked the boy: 

“Can you lead us to the man who gave you this paper?”

“Oui, mamselle.”

“Then hurry, and you shall have five centimes more.”

The injunction was unnecessary, for the urchin made them hasten to keep up with him.  He made many turns and twists through narrow alleys and back streets until finally he brought them to a row of cheap, plastered huts built against the old city wall.  There was no mistaking the place, for in the doorway of one of the poorest dwellings stood Clarette, her ample figure fairly filling the opening, her hands planted firmly on her broad hips.