I'll have you court-martialled if you bring any such accusation
against me."

"I don't mean you personally," said O'Byrne. "I am taking you as a
representative of your profession. The man I am speaking of"--he turned
politely to the A.P.M.--"is under the direct protection of the Army
Medical. You can't get at him."

Mackintosh bristled, to the padre's great delight Anything in the way of
an attack on the medical profession excites Mackintosh fearfully.

"Binny is the man's name," said the padre. "17932, Private Alfred Binny.
He was in the Wessex, before the hospital people made a deserter of
him. I will give you his address if you like, but you'll not be able to
arrest him. If you try you'll have every doctor in France down on you.
They back each other up through anything, don't they, Mackintosh?"

"I'd like you to understand," said Mackintosh, "that you can't be saying
things like that with impunity."

"Get on with the story, padre," I said, "and don't exasperate
Mackintosh."

"It was while I was attached to No. 97 General Hospital," he said. "Know
No. 97, Mackintosh? No. That's a pity. It's a place which would just
suit you. Patients wakened every morning at five to have their faces
washed. Discipline polished till you could see your face in it, and so
many rules and regulations that you can't cross a room without tripping
over one. The lists and card indexes that are kept going in that place,
and the forms that are filled in! You'd glory in it, Mackintosh. But it
didn't suit my temperament."

"I believe you," said Mackintosh grimly.

"It was while I was there," said the padre, "that Biimy came down the
line and was admitted to the hospital with a cushy wound in the fleshy
part of his arm. He'd have been well in three weeks and back with his
battalion in a month, if it hadn't been for the doctors. It's entirely
owing to them that he's a deserter now."

"Malingered, I suppose," said Mackintosh. "Got back to England by
shamming shell shock and was given his discharge. He wouldn't have
pulled it off if I'd been there."

"You've guessed wrong," said the padre. "It wasn't a case of
malingering. As nearly as possible it was the exact opposite. The
doctors tried to make the poor fellow out much worse than he really was.

"I don't believe it," said Mackintosh.

"As a matter of fact," said the padre, "the mistake--you'll hardly deny
that it was a mistake when you hear the story--arose through too strict
attentio