Men, Women and Guns by H.C. McNeile — Read

But the grey period for Jim was drawing to a close. To-day it's the man / over the road that tops the bill; to-morrow it's you, as I said before: / and a change of caste was imminent in our friend's performance. One does / not seek these things -- they occur; and then they're over, and one waits / for the next. There is no programme laid down, no book of the words / printed. Things just happen -- sometimes they lead to a near acquaintance / with iodine, and a kind woman in a grey dress who takes your temperature / and washes your face; and at others to a dinner with much good wine / where the laughter is merry and the revelry great. Of course there are / many other alternatives: you may never reach the hospital -- you may never / get the dinner; you may get a cold in the nose, and go to the / Riviera -- or you may get a bad corn and get blood-poisoning from using a / rusty jack knife to operate. The caprice of the spirit of Topsy Turvy is / quite wonderful.

For instance, on the very morning that the Staff Officer came back to / his job, and Jim returned to his battalion, his company commander asked / him to go to a general bomb store in a house just up the road, and see / that the men who were working there were getting on all right. The / regiment was for the support trenches that night, and preparing bombs / was the order of the day.