There was only one sister in the ward, a splendid
Queensland girl, who toiled for almost all of the twenty-four hours in
the hot, steaming atmosphere, going steadily the round of the heavy
dressings, starting again at the beginning as soon as she came to the
last.

The ordinary routine work had to be left to the orderlies, and these
men angered Mac so at times that he wished they might be lined up in a
row and shot. Recruited, it seemed, from the lowest order of some
community, they made use of this opportunity, when all senior ranks
were too fully occupied with more immediate work of their own, to loaf,
to rob the wounded sometimes, and to ignore many simple duties which
for many men made all the difference between pain and comfort. Most of
the wounded suffered from dysentery in a more or less acute form, and
frequently seriously wounded men had to struggle out of bed to attend
to the wants of those incapable of moving. Some exceptions there were,
but the casual neglect in Mac's ward made him fume with anger.

But the sister and the padre were splendid people. The padre came to
the ward to assist the sister with her dressings, and came to Mac to
break gently the news that he would never see again. Mac had no
illusions on this point, and laughed at the padre and his serious,
funereal attitude till he resumed his normal cheery manner, when he and
Mac soon discovered that they had many great friends in common in New
Zealand, for the padre hailed from those parts too. The padre and
sister became great friends of Mac, and in odd moments they sat on his
bunk and yarned away with him, the padre about the Sounds' country
which he and Mac knew so well, about what work Mac might do in future,
and about all sorts of things, and with the sister he arranged some day
to stay on the far back Queensland station.

The evening of the day he came on board they left Anzac and for some
hours the engines rumbled away, when again there was silence. Mac was
told they were at Mudros alongside the _Aquitania_ putting all light
and medium cases on board that vessel. Then for an indefinite space of
time he again felt the vibration of the engines, and he thought they
must be bound for Alexandria. When the vessel stopped, without having
the vaguest notion how long she had been steaming, he took it for
granted they were at Alexandria, and was rejoicing inwardly. He was
deeply disappointed to hear they were again off Anzac.

During the