thed quite normally, but when the bandage
was removed, his breath rushed bubbling through the aperture and
bespattered all who stood around with little drops of blood. "A most
unpleasant case." He was quickly replaced, however, by another who lay
on a stretcher white and motionless. His tunic had been unbuttoned. His
shirt had been pulled loosely over a big, round object that appeared to
be lying on his belly. The surgeon drew back the shirt. The round object
was still concealed by a dirty piece of lint. The surgeon lifted it off
and revealed a huge coil of bluish red entrail bulging out through a
frightful gash in the abdomen.

"Here, Crawford, here's something for you!"

Captain Crawford was an abdominal specialist, at least he was
particularly interested in abdominal cases, or "belly cases" as they
were humorously termed. Captain Wheeler, who had called him, was
interested in knee cases. Captain Maynard, who was working at the far
end of the theatre, had a fondness for head cases.

"Such a delightful tummy, isn't it?" said Captain Wheeler, who spoke in
the affected drawl of our public schools and universities.

"Rather," replied Captain Crawford, who had come over from his table
holding a blood-stained scalpel in his hand. He added:

"Just my rotten luck--I've only had amputations."

He looked at the bulging entrail admiringly and went back to his work.
In a few minutes he was ready for the next case--a man whose head was
thickly swathed in bandages.

"That's a bit of a change, anyhow--I'm fed up with legs and arms."

The bandages were removed. Amid a mass of tangled, blood-clotted hair
was an irregular patch where a piece of bone had been blown away,
leaving the brain-matter exposed.

The Sister looked at it with eager curiosity and said:

"A _most_ interesting case. I'm _sure_ Captain Maynard would so _love_
to see it! Captain Maynard!"

"One moment, Sister!" He was busy with a delicate knee operation. After
a little delay he came over and inspected the damaged head.

"You've got all the luck," he said. "I haven't had a decent head for
ages. Still, I s'pose we have to put up with these annoyances--horrors
of war, you know!" He laughed and the Sister smiled. Then he went back
to his knee while Captain Wheeler attended to the head.

It must not be supposed that the surgeons, sisters and orderlies of the
----th C.C.S. were particularly cruel and heartless. They were simply
ordinary human beings and the