hing, concussion shock. Want something to eat?"

"Sure, sure," Dave replied absently. "But, hey, I remember, now. Where's
my pal? Where's Freddy Farmer? He was with me when that road exploded!"

"Road exploded, eh?" the medical officer said and raised an eyebrow. "A
land mine, probably. So your friend's name is Freddy Farmer? An English
lad, isn't he?"

"And the very best!" Dave said with feeling. "But where is he? Gosh,
sir, please tell me! I've got to know. He's ... he's all right?"

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 came out of it for the last time a
few hours ago, but he started raving about a lot of crazy things, so I
gave him something to make him sleep some more. He'll be fit as a fiddle
when he wakes up. Now, what about this land mine ... or the road
exploding, as you say?"

"I don't know exactly," Dave said. "Freddy was driving the Belgian
scouting car, and we were following a couple of dispatch riders to
General Boulard's headquarters. We had just turned off the Wavre-Namur
road, I guess it was, when _blamm_! Everything went dark. But how'd we
get here? Somebody picked us up last night? Hey, what's so funny about
that?"

The officer wiped a broad smile from his lips.

"I wasn't laughing at you, my lad," he said. "It's amusing, though, to
witness the final effects of concussion shock. My boy, you weren't
picked up last night. You've been here in this British military
hospital, at Lille, for eight days!"

Dave was speechless. His eyes widened in blank amazement. He just
couldn't believe he had heard correctly. Surely his ears must be playing
him tricks. _Eight days?_

"That's right, my lad," the medical officer said, reading Dave's
bewildered thoughts. "It's exactly eight days this morning, since they
brought you two in here."

"But eight days?" Dave cried. "But ... but I'm not even hurt! There are
no bandages 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 smile. "But what
happened, was something 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 mysterious things that happen often in wa