A cry from a wounded soldier ahead hastened her footsteps.

Without heeding the warning shout of Doctor Gys she calmly stooped over the man who had called to her.
And then there was a sudden rending, blinding, terrifying crash that sent the world into a thousand shrieking echoes.

A huge shell had fallen not fifty feet away, plowing its way through the earthworks above.

Its explosion sent timbers, abandoned gun-carriages, everything, flying through the air.

And one great piece of wood caught Patsy a glancing blow on the back of her head as she crouched over the wounded Belgian.
With a weak cry she toppled over, not unconscious, but unable to raise herself.
Another shell crashed down a hundred yards away, and then one closer that sent the sand spouting high in a blinding cloud.