wn at his smashed legs. 'Ah, I
thought so,' he went on. 'I'm a market gardener, but I dunno 'ow I'm
goin' to market-garden without legs. Four kids too, the eldest six
years, an' an ailin' wife. But she'll 'ave me, or wot's left o' me; an'
that's more'n a many'll 'ave.'

'That'll be all right, my lad,' said the chaplain. 'You'll have a
pension. The country will look after you.'

'Ah, padre--I didn't see you, sir. The country? Arst my brother Joe
about the country. Wounded in South Africa 'e was, an' never done a
day's work since. An' the pension 'as been barely enough to starve on
decently. It'll be the same again arter all this is over I don't doubt.
Any'ow that's 'ow we all feels about it. No, sir, I don't feel no great
pain to speak of. Sort of numb-like below there just.'

He went on talking quite rationally and composedly until he was taken
away.

After that there was another pause, and the ambulances, for the first
time that day, were able to get the station cleared before a fresh lot
came in. The dusk was closing in, but there was still no abatement of
the sounds of battle.

'There must be crowds of men lying out in front there wanting attention,'
said the captain, reaching for his coat and putting it on quietly. 'You
might stay here, Dewar, and I'll have a look out and see if there's a
chance of getting forward to give a hand.'

The other doctor offered to go if the other would wait, but his offer was
quietly put aside. 'I'll get back in an hour or two,' the captain said,
and went off. Dewar and the chaplain stood in the door and watched him
go. A couple of heavy shells crashed down on the parapet of the
communication trench he was moving towards, and for a minute his figure
was hidden by the swirling black smoke and yellow dust. But they saw him
a moment later as he reached the trench, turned and waved a hand to them,
and disappeared.

'His name's Macgillivray,' said the doctor, in answer to a question from
the chaplain. 'One of the finest fellows I've ever met, and one of the
cleverest surgeons in Great Britain. He is recognised as one of the best
already, and he's only beginning. Did you notice him at work? The most
perfect hands, and an eye as quick and keen as an eagle's. He misses
nothing--sees little things in a flash where twenty men might pass them.
He's a wonder.'

And Macgillivray was moving slowly along the communication trench that
led to the forward fire trench. It