So, disappointingly though they might have behaved, he could not resist the hope that those unfortunate—weak, perhaps, but still unfortunate—members of his own division were being treated as well as these unfortunate Canadians were being treated here. Most of the Canadians had taken their helmets off and lay back exhausted against the wall of the granary, but a few were talking among themselves in very subdued, low voices. One had a bandage on his head. It was a clean and expert bandage, not the improvised wad of field dressing an unskilled comrade might have helped him fumble into place right after he was hit. No, this was a new, professional bandage; it could have been applied only by a stretcher-bearer or perhaps even a field doctor after the man had been captured.
For a moment Franz p
