Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/206

 But Foch had come to the command.

Ruth had tried to learn from men who had returned from the region where she had left Gerry Hull, what his fate might have been. She knew that he had been flying and fighting again, for she read in one of the bulletins which was being issued, that he had been cited in the orders of the day for Monday; but she learned nothing at all about him after that until the day after the announcement that all allied armies were to be under the supreme command of General Foch. It was Friday, eight days after that first Thursday morning of mist, and surprise, and catastrophe; and still the Germans fought their way forward; but for two days now the French had arrived, and were present in force from Noyon to Moreuil, and for two days the gap between the British and the French, which the German break-through had opened, had been closed.

Gerry upon that day was detailed with a squadron whose airdrome had been moved beyond Ribecourt; he had been flying daily, and had fought an engagement that morning, and after returning from his afternoon reconnaissance over Noyon he had been ordered to rest, as the situation was becoming sufficiently stabilized to end the long strain of his too constant flights. Accordingly, he left late in the afternoon for Compiègne to look for the field hospital where Agnes Ertyle would be at work. The original site of her tents had been far within the zone which the Germans had retaken; and Gerry had heard that she had done wonders during the moving of the wounded.

He found her on duty, as he knew she would be; she