The first sergeant hurried up, saluting.
"Sergeant, send the hospital steward here. Then see that a hospital tent is taken from one of the supply wagons and set up at once and make the patient as comfortable as possible."
Within ten minutes the tent was up, with a cot, a table, two chairs, bandages, medicine chest and other accessories.
Now, with the help of the steward, the physician gave the injured soldier boy a very thorough examination, washed the gash carefully and bandaged it.
Directions were left with the steward, who was a trained nurse, and then the physician returned to town, after having been requested to call again on the following day.
Hal Overton knew little, and that little in a dreamy, disorganized way, even when his cot was carefully placed and secured in one of the transport wagons for the return to Fort Clowdry.
The roughness of the first part of the ride brought on mild delirium. Two days later, however, after being placed on a cot in the military hospital at Fort Clowdry, Soldier Hal opened his eyes with a keener realization of the world about him.
"How do you feel, Overton?" asked one of the hospital corps men, bending over him.
"Like a fool," sighed Hal.
"Why?"