ng.
He never knowed how to take care of himself. Jim Thomson was wounded
once, but he's all right now. We've all had fever, but that's over too.
But the fire's spreading, sir; we'd better get out of this."

As he spoke a heavy charred beam fell just in front of him, and the end
of it came down with its full weight on Sam's leg, snapping the bone in
two near the ankle. The foot lay at right angles, and the bone
protruded. Several soldiers lifted the log and Thatcher drew Sam out,
and they bore him in haste out of the building. He was laid on the
ground quite unconscious, at some distance from the temple, while the
flames roared and leaped toward heaven, wrapping the graceful, lofty
nine-story pagoda in their folds. It was in a beautiful garden that he
lay, near a pool filled with lotus flowers and at the end of a rustic
bridge. The air was heavy with the perfume of lilies. A surgeon was
called, and before long he was able to put the foot in place, but only
after sawing off a large piece of bone. A cart was obtained, Sam was
laid in it, a bottle of whisky was poured down his throat, and the
journey to the city began. The patient on coming to himself experienced
no pain. The liquor he had taken made him feel supremely happy. He was
in an ecstasy of exultation, and would have liked to embrace all
mankind. But gradually this feeling wore off and his leg began to pain
him, at first slightly, then more and more until it became
excruciating. The road was almost impassable, and every jolt caused him
agony. For twelve hours he underwent these tortures until he reached
the camp in the city, and was at once transferred to a temporary
hospital which had been improvised in a public building. Here he lay
for many weeks, suffering much, but gradually regaining the use of his
leg. He was in charge of a particularly efficient woman doctor from
home who had volunteered to serve with the Red Cross Society. Sam felt
most grateful to her for her care, but he strongly disapproved of her
attitude to things military. She seemed to have a contempt for the
whole military establishment, insisted on calling him "young man,"
altho he was a colonel, usually addressed lieutenants as "boys," and
laughed at uniforms, salutes, and ceremonies of all kinds.

"Men are the silliest things in the world," she said one day. "Do you
suppose women would have a War Department that spent a lot of money on
bombshells to blow peop