The Hour of the Donkey

down and his lower lip thrust out.

' Uh-huh . . .' He nodded to himself again. 'Uh-huh!'

This, decided Bastable, was how Wimpy imagined doctors ought to act, even if it was nothing how Doc Saunders had ever behaved. And, in spite of the awfulness of their situation, it would have been laughable if the hands clenched behind Wimpy's back hadn't been trembling as uncontrollably as ever.

But the effect on the Germans did seem satisfactory: they waited respectfully for Wimpy to pronounce on their comrade.

Suddenly Wimpy straightened up. He brought his hands out from behind him, held them up in front of him for an instant

—one was bloodstained and both were filthy—and then went through the motions of washing them.

The German sergeant-major—by his stripes that was what he must be—barked out an order to one of his men, A tin basin was produced, and a lump of greyish-looking soap. The German NCO uncorked his water-bottle and offered it to Wimpy.

Wimpy drank from the bottle greedily, and Bastable was aware that he too was horribly thirsty.

'Can I have a drink?' he said. 'Can I have some water?'

Before Wimpy could offer him the bottle, one of the German dummy4

soldiers came over to him and squatted beside him, uncorking his own water-bottle.

'Wasser, Hauptmann?' The German soldier held the bottle to Bastable's lips. The water had a strange chemical taste, but it was marvellous, nevertheless.

Wimpy had finished washing his hands and was drying them on what looked like a strip of grey blanket.

He knelt down beside the stretcher. 'Now, young fella, let's have a look at you,' he said confidently, parting the patient's clothing.

Bastable watched, fascinated, as Wimpy probed the fishy-white stomach, pressing and tapping as though he knew exactly what he was doing. Several times he saw, by the expansion of the boy's chest and the in-drawing of his breath, that a tender spot had been touched; and when Wimpy pushed down the boy's knee, which had been raised, he was rewarded with a grunt of agony.

' Uh-huh!' Wimpy welcomed the grunt as though he had been expecting it. Then he leant forward over the boy's face.

Without speaking he stuck out his tongue to indicate what he wanted.

'Nasty...' murmured Wimpy, sniffing at the boy's mouth.

'Pooh! Very nasty!' he sat back on his heels, wrinkling his nose.

Bastable was aware of a sudden stir in the audience, who had been similarly engrossed in Wimpy's performance. The ranks dummy4

stiffened and parted as they had done once before.

'Was ist denn hier los?' The German colonel appeared in the gap. 'What is this?'

Wimpy looked over his shoulder. 'Ah, Colonel! Just the very man I wanted! Would you be so good as to ask this young chap when the pain started? And you might also ask him when he last went to the lavatory, too.'

The Colonel took in the scene, and his eye settled on the NCO, who managed to stiffen himself even more rigidly.

'And there's one more test I'd like to make,' continued Wimpy. 'Only it does need some explaining—'

The Colonel addressed a sentence to the NCO, who replied at some length while staring at a fixed point slightly above his commanding officer's head.

The Colonel nodded finally, and looked down at Wimpy.

'What is it that you wish, Doctor?'

'When the pain started—how long ago? And when ... is he constipated?'

'Constipated?'

'Has he been to the lavatory at all recently?'

' Ach— so!' The Colonel addressed the NCO, who evidently found the question extremely embarrassing.

'So... He was in pain last evening, but only now and then ... I suspect that he did not report it because he did not desire to be left behind, Doctor. But now the pain is bad . . . And he dummy4

has been—how do you say?—constipated... constipated for several days.'

'Good.' Wimpy nodded. 'Now... I want to turn him over on his face, Colonel, if you please.'

The Colonel translated the order, and the sick man's comrades accomplished the task, though not without pain to the patient as they straightened his right leg again in the process.

Wimpy moistened his right index finger in the tin basin, pulled down the German's trousers v/ith his free hand, and then, to Bastable's consternation, proceeded to stick the finger up the lad's back passage.

He was rewarded with another groan of pain.

'Excellent!' exclaimed Wimpy, washing his hands again. He nodded to the NCO. 'You can turn him back right side.' He fitted a gesture to the words.

'Well, Doctor?' enquired the Colonel politely.