through the lungs, one through the heart, and one through the
spine; this latter was paralysed.

Some wounded came in carriages; it was very difficult to get them on to
the stretchers without giving them unnecessary pain, because of the
shape of the "fiacres." At last all were passed through.

Do not think us heartless if we rubbed our hands and said, "Some very
good cases, what!" for emotional pity can be separated from professional
pleasure, and if these things had to be we were pleased that the serious
ones had come to us; had not gone to a Serbian hospital.

Next day we sorted clothes. Every uniform had to be taken from its bag,
tabulated, searched for money or food, and repacked. They were swarming
with vermin, but we wore mackintosh overalls which are supposed to be
anathema to the beasties. More operations. One of the men had been hit
in the cerebellum, and was quite blind. The boy who had been hit in the
lungs prayed for a cigarette and an apple, he felt sure they would do
him good. We sorted more clothes. One of the men had a pocket full of
scissors--evidently regimental barber; another's pockets were crammed
with onions; a third had a half-eaten apple, as though the fight had
surprised him in the middle of his dessert. The cerebellum man wanted
his purse. We could not find it; after exhaustive inquiry found that the
lung youth had stolen it. Another patient claimed he had lost thirty-six
francs; so down we had to go once more, search his package--the
smelliest of the lot--and at last found the money pinned into the lining
of his coat, also a watch. Jan took them back to him, wound up the watch
and set it. The grateful owner said that the watch was an ornament, but
that he could not read it.

The French were never in Nish at all--all lies; but Austrian aeroplanes
had bombed it and killed several people. The Bulgarian comitaj cut the
line at Vranja, but had been badly beaten in a battle near Zaichar. The
flight over Gotch degenerated into a joke, and Jo was commissioned to do
a caricature of it.

Suddenly a refugee turned up, the hostess of the rest house in Nish. She
was very worried about the loss of her fifteen trunks, which she had had
to leave, and which contained all her family mementoes and miniatures.
She hoped that the scare would only last a few days. The Bulgars had
occupied Veles though, which was bad news. Another refugee lady from
Belgrade came in. More patients. Forty-nine for the "Merkur" ho