was very violent, requiring two men to hold
him on his stretcher.

"Oh, let him go! Let him go!" said Colonel Tait. "What's wrong with
you?" he said to the man. "Have you any wounds?"

"No, sir," chattered the man miserably. "Shell--shock,--sir.
Buried--twice--by a shell. Oh! Ah!"

The colonel had a few moments' conversation with Gregg, who came over to
where Barry was sitting and said:

"I say, Dunbar, watch this case. You will see some fun."

"Fun," echoed Barry, shaken and indignant. "Not much fun for that poor
chap."

"Stand up," said the colonel sharply.

The man stood up without much apparent difficulty.

"Ah!" said the colonel. "Shell shock. Bad case, too." His voice was kind
and sympathetic. He gripped the man by the arm and ran his hand down his
spine until he came to the small of his back.

"Pain there, eh?" he said, giving the man a poke.

"Yes, yes! Ouw! Doctor. Awful."

"Thought so," said the doctor. "Bad case! Poor chap! A curious feeling
in the legs, eh?"

The man nodded vigorously, still twitching violently and making animal
moanings.

Still pursuing his investigations and continuing to sympathise with his
patient, the doctor enquired as to other symptoms, to all of which the
patient promptly confessed. When the examination was completed, the
doctor gave his man a hearty slap on the back and said:

"You're all right, my boy. Go treat yourself to a cup of cocoa, and a
good, thick slice of bread and raspberry jam--raspberry, remember--and
to-morrow you can report to your battalion medical officer."

"What!" exclaimed the man. "Doctor, I can't go up again. I'm not fit to
go up."

"Oh, yes, you can, my boy. You'll be in good fighting trim to-morrow.
You'll see! You'll see! Come back here some day, perhaps, with a V. C."

Thereupon the man began to swear violently.

"Here, none of that," said the doctor sharply, "or up you go to-night."

A grin ran around the dressing station, in which none joined more
heartily than the first shell-shock man, waiting to be conveyed down the
line.

"They don't get by the old man often, nowadays," was Dr. Gregg's
comment.

"You don't often get cases like this, though, do you?" enquired Barry.

"Not often. We have passed through this dressing station some thousands
of cases, and we may have had eight or ten malingerers. But this is not
all sham. There is a strong mixture of hysteria and suggestion with the
sham. A chap with a highly organised tempera