"Oh, let me lift his head! I can't pull on those poor crushed legs! Be so careful! Oh, God! oh, God! how cruel! Be so careful!—oh, Roy! Roy!—We are trying to be so careful, Roy! We try not to hurt you so! My God, how cruel! I cannot bear it, brother!"
The body was on the stretcher at last, and Beverly was wiping great beads of anguish from his own face. One poor leg was crushed near the hip, and had been hard to manage. The groans had become more distinct and frequent. Then,"Dr—dr," came from the lips.
"Here, here, give me a canteen! I lost mine down there. Quick, he wants a drink, I think. Here, brother Roy." Beverly put a hand under his head. "Here, Roy, dear, can you swallow? Oh, it hurts him so! Here, brother, my brother! Oh, Roy, I wish it were I! Can you hear me? Can you hear me, Roy?"
The men with the stretcher turned their faces away and drew their sleeves across their eyes. Even they who had worked all night with and for the dead and dying were moved anew by the young officer's sorrow. Beverly looked up hopefully.
"I think he swallowed just a little. Let us get him to a surgeon, quick. Perhaps, perhaps—" Beverly looked from one to the other and could not finish his sentence. The little group moved wearily toward the hospital tents, and Beverly ran for the surgeon of his own company.
"My God, doctor, he has been driven over, and he is wounded in the breast besides! Do you think there is any hope? Oh, how I wish it were I! Oh, doctor, can't you save him? It is my brother—my brother Roy!"
The surgeon was listening as he worked.
"The best thing that could have happened to him is that he was so deep in that mud. It has kept the fever down. It has saved his leg. It isn't badly swollen. I can set this bone. I don't think the other one is——" He was examining and talking slowly. He changed to the wound in the breast. "This is the most—this is the worst, but I don't think the lung is badly—this plaster of mud on his breast——"
"I took it nearly all off, doctor. It was very thick when I found him, and this——" Beverly took a large jagged piece of shell from his pocket. "This was down in it. I think it must have struck and stunned him, and while he was helpless those cruel wheels went over him. His body was as if he had fallen on his back, but the legs were twisted as if he had been on his side. The mud was nearly two feet deep. It was an awful place, awful! And to think that they should have driven over Roy! Do you think——?"
"That was the best place he could have been. That mud has acted like——" The doctor was taking professional pride in the case. The wounded man groaned.