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200 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
you can get along some other way. Of course, you must first
have permission from the surgeon in charge of the train."
Whilst I was waiting for the doctor I went to have a look
at a troop train—an infantry battalion, or something like it,
crowded into third-class carriages. These travellers had come
from Königsberg, and had swept East Prussia clear of the
enemy, so they said, and now they were on the way to Verdun.
Every compartment, with normally six seats, now also carried
six men. But instead of sitting they were lying down, two on
the floor, two on the seats, and two in the luggage racks.
They were in the most exuberant spirits, and the din was
fearful.
Presently a messenger came to tell me that my surgeon
had arrived and I went to see him. Judge of my surprise
when I found it was Chief Staff Surgeon Dr. Fröhlich, whom
I had met at Sedan and Vouziers !
" May I come by your train ?
" I asked.
" Why, of course, to Breslau, if you like."
" But, of course, you are going through Belgium ?
"
" Yes, as far as Libramont, then we turn eastward and in
four days we are at Breslau."
Dr. Fröhlich had now been travelling for some time between
that city and Vouziers with wounded officers and men. Now
he had upwards of three hundred patients on board, whom
he was to drop here and there on the way until only a few
remained to the journey’s end, where they would be taken
charge of at some home hospital. That done, he would return
as rapidly as possible with an empty hospital train to fetch
a fresh batch of wounded. He is therefore constantly on the
move with his staff of doctors and assistants, and he was
very pleased to have company for a while.
Time is up and the train starts with military punctuality,
after we have taken a hearty farewell of the cheery Major
von Plato, Presently we settled down in Dr. Frohlich’s com-
partment, which almost resembled a little study. One wall
was taken up by a sofa, the other by a couple of chairs, and
a writing-table decorated with flowers in empty cartridge
cases and still fresh, having been sent from the doctor’s
home. Other tokens of his domestic ties were portraits of his
wife and children and of a son and nephew fighting at Rheims.
Here also lay an open diary, in which the doctor notes the
incidents of his good work and enters such observations and
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