Part 17 (2/2)
”Sure, sure,” Dave replied absently ”But, hey, I remember, now Where's my pal? Where's Freddy Farmer? He ith me when that road exploded!”
”Road exploded, eh?” the medical officer said and raised an eyebrow ”A land lish lad, isn't he?”
”And the very best!” Dave said with feeling ”But where is he? Gosh, sir, please tell ht?”
The officer leaned down and patted his shoulder
”Your little friend's quite all right,” he said and pointed to Freddy Farmer asleep in the next bed ”He cao, but he started raving about a lot of crazy things, so I gave hi to make him sleep some more He'll be fit as a fiddle when he wakes up Nohat about this land , as you say?”
”I don't know exactly,” Dave said ”Freddy was driving the Belgian scouting car, and ere following a couple of dispatch riders to General Boulard's headquarters We had just turned off the Wavre-Na went dark But hoe get here? Soht? Hey, what's so funny about that?”
The officer wiped a broad s at you, h, to witness the final effects of concussion shock My boy, you weren't picked up last night You've been here in this British ht days!”
Dave was speechless His eyes widened in blank amazement He just couldn't believe he had heard correctly Surely his ears ht,Dave's bewildered thoughts ”It's exactly eight days this ht days?” Dave cried ”Butbut I'es on me, and I don't ache any place How could I have been here for eight days?”
”I'll not give you the medical explanation, because you wouldn't understand, probably,” the officer said with a s like this The concussion shock of that explosion, whatever it was, temporarily paralyzed certain nerve centers in your body and in your head Why you didn't receive physical injury is just one of those s that happen often in war A shell can blow every strip of clothing off a soldier's back, blow off his shoes, and toss hile scratch
That's whatin the scouting car protected you fro 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 re up several times, do you?”
Dave shook his head
”No sir,” he said ”But I sort of half re 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 syste 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,to eat”
”Gosh!+” Dave gasped as a sudden thought struck hi?”
”Hardly,” the other said with a laugh ”No, several tih of course you don't reave you injections But, s 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 e refused to su to put him to sleep, instead Really!”
”But that's true, that's true!” Dave burst out ”We were prisoners, anda ian lines in a plane we stole Then the sergeant driving us to Naian 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 auess 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”
The officer continued to stare at him in puzzled bewilderment, and then Freddy's voice from the next bed caused thelish youth cried ”They said you were all right, and then I guess I fell asleep again Good grief, this is a hospital, isn't it? By George, it all co up But how in the world did we get here?”
The medical officer didn't bother to answer the question He hurried over to Freddy's bedside and took a good look at hihted up
”I say, I've seen you before, haven't I, sir?” he asked