ortable here."

We picked the thing up and started again, and at once my
hand began to slip away from its hold (nightmare sensation
exactly). I bent my head down, managed to lick my hand
without raising it, and stiffened the muscles of my arm. We
were watched, once more, by a million eyes--again I stepped
on a head of hair buried somewhere in the ground. Then some
voice cried shrilly: "Ah! Ah!" ... some man hit.

Every bone in my body began to ache. I was, of course,
rottenly trained, without a sound muscle in my body, and my
legs threatened cramp, my heel grated against my boot and
sent a stab to my stomach with every movement, my shoulders
seemed to pull away from the stretcher as though they would
separately rebel against my orders ... and my hand began
again to slip. The Feldscher also began to feel the strain.
Once he asked me to stop. He apologised; I could see the
sweat pouring down his face: "A very big man'" he said.

Whether it were the echo, whether my ears had by this time
been utterly deafened and confused I do not know, but now
the shock and rumble of the cannon seemed to come directly
from under my feet. I felt perhaps as though I were on one
of those railways that I have seen in London at a fair when
the ground shakes and quivers beneath you. It really would
not have surprised me had the earth suddenly yawned and
swallowed me. Every plague now beset me. My hand refused to
hold the stretcher, my body was wet with perspiration, my
face was for some reason covered with mud.... There was a
snap and my braces burst. My belt was loose and my trousers,
as though they had waited for their opportunity, slipped
down over my knees. I felt the cold night wind on my flesh.
Neither decency nor comfort mattered to me now--I would have
walked gladly naked through the world. The Feldscher was
making a grinding noise between his teeth. I was no longer
conscious of shell or bullets. I heard no noise. I was aware
of neither light nor darkness. I could not have told my name
had any one asked me it. I did not recognise trees nor
houses, nor was I at all aware that with a muddy face and my
trousers down to my knees I was a strange figure. I was
aware of one thing only--that I must keep my right hand on
the stretcher. My left behav