r. A shell
can blow every strip of clothing off a soldier's back, blow off his
shoes, and toss him fifty yards, but not mark him with a single scratch.
That's what must have happened to you and your friend. Perhaps, too,
being in the scouting car protected you from things flying around. But,
certain nerve centers were paralyzed. There's little we can do for that
outside of a few injections. It's up to the patient's make-up, his
constitution, and such. You probably don't remember waking up several
times, do you?"

Dave shook his head.

"No sir," he said. "But I sort of half remember something about seeing a
face that kept fading out, and seeing lips move, but I couldn't hear the
words."

"Yes, that's the way it is usually," the medical officer said and
nodded. "That was just parts of the nerve system returning to normal.
You could see a little but you couldn't hear. Or you could feel but
still not have the power to speak. The medical term for that has
thirty-six letters, I believe. I don't even think I could pronounce it
correctly now, anyway. But, you're fit now, my lad. I'll have the nurse
bring you in something to eat."

"Gosh!" Dave gasped as a sudden thought struck him. "Have I gone eight
days without eating?"

"Hardly," the other said with a laugh. "No, several times you both woke
up enough to take food, though of course you don't remember it. The rest
of the time we gave you injections. But, my word, the things you two
raved about! You insisted, rather your friend insisted on seeing General
Caldwell, Chief of Staff. You claimed you had been prisoners in Germany,
and had seen a very important map. Your friend was very annoyed when we
refused to summon the General at once, and gave him something to put him
to sleep, instead. Really...!"

"But that's true, that's true!" Dave burst out. "We were prisoners, and
we saw a map of the German plan of invasion. We escaped to the Belgian
lines in a plane we stole. Then the sergeant driving us to Namur was
killed. We met some Belgian dispatch riders and they were showing us the
way to General Boulard's headquarters when the whole road exploded. It's
true, sir!"

The medical captain's eyes were now the size of saucers. He stood
staring down at Dave in confounded amazement.

"I say, my lad, go a bit easy," he began. "I guess you're not yet out of
that coma. Now, just lie back, and...."

"I'm fine, I'm okay!" Dave shouted excitedly. "Honest! It's all true,
sir."

T