He fretted irritably because no one seemed to take any notice of him,
and suddenly his head began throbbing worse than ever. But the hazy
indistinctness was gone; the man was acutely conscious of everything
around him. Memory had come back, and he knew where he was and why he
was there. He remembered the fierce artillery bombardment; he recalled
getting over the parapet, out on to the brown shell-pocked earth,
sodden and heavy with the drenching rain; he recalled the steady
shamble over the ground with boots so coated with wet mud that they
seemed to drag him back. Then clear in his mind came the picture of
Chilcote cheering, shouting, lifting them on to the ruins of what once
had been a village; he saw Chilcote falter, stop, and, with a curious
spinning movement, crash forward on to his face; he saw the Germans--he
saw fierce-faced men like animals at bay, snarling, fighting; he heard
once again that trembling cry of "_Kamerade_"; and then--a blank. The
amazing thing was that it was all jumbled up with Molly. He seemed to
have been with her lately--and yet she couldn't have been out there
with him. He puzzled a bit, and then gave it up: it hurt his head so
terribly to think. He just lay still, gazing fixedly at the jagged,
torn pane of glass. . . .
"They are all out, Doctor, except this one."
A woman was speaking close beside him, and his eyes slowly travelled
round in the direction of the voice. It was another woman--a woman he
hadn't seen before--swaying slightly as if she would drop.
"Good heavens! it's Billy Saunders!"
A man in khaki was bending over him--a man whom he recognised as a
civilian doctor he'd known at home--a man, moreover, who knew Molly.
"Do you know me, old chap?"
"Of course," answered the man. "What's all the trouble?"
The doctor bit his lip, and the man noticed his hand clench hard. Then
there started a low-voiced conversation, a conversation to which he
listened attentively--his hearing seemed abnormally acute.
"Has he spoken since he's been in, sister?"
"No--only those dreadful moans. The whole of his face--absolutely
hopeless--spinal cord."
The man lying motionless caught the disjointed words. What did they
mean? They were mad--insane. Dying? He--Billy Saunders! What about
Molly--his Molly? What about. . . . Gentle fingers once again touched
his head, and, looking up, he saw the doctor's eyes fixed on his.
"They're shelling the hospital, dear old man; we've got to get----
Great Scott, look out!"
Like the moan of a giant insect, the shrill whine came through the air,
rising to an overwhelming scream. There was a deafening crash--a great
hole was torn in the wall just by the window with the jagged pane, and
the room filled with stifling black fumes. A sudden agonising stab,
and the man, looking up, saw Molly in front of him. She was standing
in the acrid smoke--beckoning.
"I'm coming, dear, I'm coming!" he cried; "it's good of you to have
waited, girl of mine--so good."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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