while the head case was replaced by a boy who came walking into the
theatre and mounted the table unassisted. His right eye was bandaged. As
he became unconscious under gas the bandage was removed. With a few
dexterous strokes of his scalpel Captain Dowden removed all that was
left of the eyeball, a dark, amorphous mess. The wound was cleaned,
dressed and bandaged. The boy regained consciousness. For a moment he
looked vacantly round. Then he slowly raised his hand to the bandage,
and, turning down the corners of his mouth suddenly broke into bitter
weeping. He was gently helped down from the table and led out of the
theatre, crying: "They've done for me eye, oh, oh, oh, they've done for
me eye!"

"Poor kid," murmured the Captain sympathetically, and began to operate
on the next man, who had a wound in his shoulder about as large as a
hand. In the middle of the raw flesh a short length of undamaged bone
was visible. Nothing serious, and only a flesh wound. The man inhaled
the chloroform and ether fumes without choking or struggling. His wound
was excised, "spirit bipped," dressed and bandaged. Then he was whisked
off the table and carried away to a ward.

In the doorway appeared a man with his arm in a sling. He was dazzled by
the electric light and put his hand over his eyes. Captain Wycherley
called out to him: "Come along, my lad, and hop on to this table." He
walked up to the table with uncertain steps. An orderly helped him on to
it. He lay back and turned his head to one side and looked towards the
next table on which Captain Calthrop was amputating an arm. It came off
in the hands of an orderly who dropped it into the bucket. The newcomer
followed it with horror-stricken eyes. He continued to gaze, as though
fascinated, at the half-closed hand that projected above the edge of the
bucket. Then he trembled violently.

Captain Wycherley observed what was happening and said:

"Come on, don't worry about the next man. Let's have a look at your
wound."

"Yer not goin' ter take orf me arm, are yer, sir?"

"No, of course not, don't be so silly!"

"Yer won't 'urt me, sir, will yer?"

"No, no. Pull yourself together now. Be a man! You won't feel anything
at all."

The orderly untied the sling and began to unwind the bandage, but the
man drew his arm away and cried:

"Oo, oo, oo,--very painful, sir, very painful!"

The orderly, pleased at being mistaken for an officer, said in a
soothing, patronizing voice: