ar that all that remains is one stump of a tree and one chimney.
However, the ground's ours. Five hundred prisoners were taken. There
now, you feel better, don't you? It's a wonder you are alive, you
know.'

'But I was in no danger.'

'Weren't you? One of your men, who couldn't move, poor chap, because
of a smashed leg and a broken arm, watched you crawl out of a great
heap of stuff. He said that only your head was visible at first; but
the way you wormed yourself through the mud was as good as a play.'

'I knew very little about it,' I said.

'Very possibly. Corporal Wilkins watched you, and shouted after you,
as you staggered away; but you took no notice, and then, I hear,
although you were half dead, you did some rescuing work.'

'I did rescuing work!' I gasped.

'Why, of course you did, you know you did.'

'But I didn't,' I replied.

'All right then, you didn't,' and the doctor laughed again. 'There
now, you're comfortable now, so be quiet. I'll tell some one to bring
you some soup.'

'But I say, I--I want to know. Is Captain Springfield all right?'

The doctor laughed again. 'I thought you didn't do any rescuing work?'

'I didn't,' I replied, 'it was the other man who did that; but is
Springfield all right?'

'He's very bad. He _may_ pull through, but I doubt it.'

'Private Edgecumbe,--what of him? He did everything, you know.'

'I think he has gone back to duty.'

'Duty!' I gasped. 'Why--why----'

'The fellow's a miracle, from what I can hear. No, he wasn't wounded.
The man who told me about it said that he might have a charmed life.
He's all right, anyhow. Now be quiet, I must be off.'

For the next few days, although, as I was told, I was by no means a bad
case, I knew what it was to be a shattered mass of nerves. A man with
a limb shot away, or who has had shrapnel or bullets taken from his
body, can laugh and be gay,--I have seen that again and again. But one
suffering from shell shock goes through agonies untold. I am not going
to _try_ to describe it, but I shall never forget what I suffered. As
soon as I was fit, I was moved to another hospital nearer the base, and
there, as fortune would have it, I met Edgecumbe's colonel. By this
time I was able to think coherently, and my spells of nerves were
becoming rarer and less violent.

'Yes, my boy, you are a case for home,' said Colonel Gray. 'You are a
lucky beggar to get out of it so well. I was talking with your C.O