e
fainted away, peacefully and thankfully.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE FIELD HOSPITAL

When he came to, it was daylight, and two Stretcher Bearers were tugging
at his feet. The weight of him seemed terrific, but eventually they
hoisted him on to the stretcher.

Some of his men gathered round, and told him that "they'd soon put him
straight at the hospital."

He smiled, rather wryly, but still he smiled, and mumbled: "Well, good
luck, No. 5 Platoon."

And so they carried him away, feet foremost.

They plunged along the muddy paths. He was convulsed with fear that they
would overturn him. And the jolting sent red-hot pains through his head,
and twisted his back terribly.

A Company came straggling up the path, led by no other than the Major,
who had been his Company Commander at the beginning of the war.

"Well, young feller, how are you? You'll be all right in a day or two."

Reply was impossible for him, and the Major hurried on.

The men who followed seemed shy of him. They looked at him covertly, and
then turned their eyes quickly away, as if he were some horrible
object. It annoyed him not a little.

That journey was the most painful thing that happened to him. But each
sickening jolt had the compensation of landing him a yard nearer the
hospital, and the hope of easing his pains buoyed him up somehow.

When they arrived at the Gunner's Cave, the Stretcher Bearers put him
resolutely down, and intimated that it was not "up to them" to take him
any further. The Ambulance, they said, ought to be there to "take over"
from them. But there was no sign of an Ambulance, and meantime he was
literally thirsting for the attentions and comforts of a hospital. His
natural reserve broke completely down. He begged, and entreated, and
prayed them to take him on.

After a little hesitation, they set out once more with a little
excusable cursing and grumbling.

It was about seven o'clock when at last they laid him down in the hall
of the hospital, and departed with unfeigned gladness.

Two Hospital Orderlies carried him along a passage and into the
identical billiard-room that he had seen from the garden.

A Doctor undid the soiled bandages with quick, strong fingers, and bent
down to examine the wound with an expression of concentrated ferocity on
his face. An Orderly brought a bowl, and the Doctor began to wash the
place.

It was a painful business, but nothing to be compared to the pain
produced by the "probe