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"Of course! You’re the hero of the day!"

Crossing the muddy yard, I notice the balmy air has turned chilly but it doesn’t da stood me well, and once I started the head-to-toe assesse roos I got before I cah about these fellows and I realize how fond of the with Milliken at the officers’ table and he beckons me over In front of me is a plate of baked beans, white bread with butter, and collard greens

"How’s he doing?" Milliken asks

"Fine Sleeping now Did you hear any more about the accident?"

Captain Wolfe shakes his head "There were four round Nobody sa it happened Boggs was al the cabin, and he must have slipped, h the scaffolding and then hit the ground It’s a he lived The cook left some apple pie in the kitchen Want some?"

"Sure," I say with my mouth full

"Nurse Becky!" A carrot-headed corpsman waves frantically fro to decide whether to s my pie or spit it out "Come quick! Boodean says you have to come quick!"

Captain Wolfe and Major Milliken follow as I run across the compound, but I slam the infirmary door in their faces Whatever’s happened, a crowd of observers isn’t going to help

"What!" I ask, but I shouldn’t have bothered Linus is seizing Mouth stretched wide, he looks like he’s screa the whites His knees are drawn up and he keeps rubbing the left side of his head with his cast as if he’s trying to pull off a vise

There’s no way I can get vital signs, nothing I can do but protect hi hiue blade, wrapped in gauze, crossways in hishe must have learned in his first-aid class

"I didn’t do anything, ma’am I swear I didn’t," he defends hins like you said and wrote the down to read the ca his head like it was going to explode and then he fell back and started shaking all over"

The seizure lasts tenis dead

Washing Death Off

It’s dark by the time I cross the Hope River, and the caht on the stonework I’d stayed two hours after the boy expired, cleaned up his soiled underclothes, washed his body, and with Boodean’s help wrapped him in a clean sheet for the undertaker Then I finished my nurse’s notes, filled out the death report, and called Dr Crane on the shortwave radio

"You did what you could," the physician said, trying to comfort me "It wouldn’t have eon and an operating rooet hiton, that’s a three-hour drive and he would have seized and expired in the truck You did what you could," he said again "I’ll contact the next of kin" And that was the end of it