I came to myself with a yell. I fancied I had been rising to the surface of a deep ocean, as black as ink, and just as I was about to drown I awoke. Taking stock of my surroundings, I looked across the ward. A man was looking at me and laughing till I thought he would hurt himself. "Well! what the devil is amusing you?" I asked irritably, the horrible nausea having its effect. "Well, my son," was the reply, "I've been in Africa, India, Singapore, and a few places on this old globe, but I'm hanged if I ever heard language till I heard you a little while ago. Whew! it was an education." Then he told me the story. All had gone well until I had been placed on my cot. Now a man will, under the influence of an anaesthetic, apparently seem to know what is going on around him, and will answer questions coherently, though he knows nothing about it. I had been lying on my cot a few minutes when an orderly came by, carrying a tray of enamel cups. He stumbled and fell, upsetting the tray and its contents with a crash. It was then I reached to heights of superb eloquence, and I was in disgrace. CHAPTER XXXIII BACK TO EARTH It was curious to watch the nurses glance furtively in my direction with looks of mingled horror and curiosity. They, too, had heard swearing in their career of healing broken, fighting men, but in one apparently so young and unsophisticated--"it is just shocking!" After the horrible nausea had left me, the nurse asked me what I would like, and what I had longed for a thousand and one times in France came to my mind. "A bottle of Bass or Guinness'," I said. Back she came with a little of the Guinness' in a cup, and I sank into the first dreamless sleep I had had for ages. I was awakened by the pain in my limb, so began to interest myself in the other patients. Oh, the exhibition of patience, courage and suffering, both on the part of patients and the doctors and nurses. Doctor, or Major Evans came to see me. "How are you, laddie?" "Doing all right, sir." "Good boy! From the prairies, aren't you?" "Yes, sir." "You need fresh air, for a constitution like you possess was never made indoors, and I will have you carted out into the open air every fine day we have." He was as good as his word, and the orderly duly came and, with the help of the sister, I was taken out on to the lawn in front of the ward. I had been there about a quarter of an hour when another patient was carried out and his bed placed alongside mine. I turned to look at the other fellow and a familiar face glared at me. Spontaneously from both of us--"Well, I'll be damned!" It was Bill Moore, of my own company, sometimes called "Rosie," for a pet name. "When were you hit?" I asked. "In the charge a week back." "Not when we lost all but two of the officers at Z----?" --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration: THE "WAR TWINS"]