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@@@@@ Wilson gained consciousness slowly, muttering incoherently for minutes at a timeHe seemed awake for almost a minute, but he recognized none of them "Doko koko cola," he muttered several times, giggling feebly They stopped, wiped the blood from his mouth, and then set out againIt took them more than an hour to reach the platoon, and they were very tired when they got thereThey laid Wilson down, slipped him off the stretcher, and flopped on the ground to restThe other men gathered about them nervously, asking questions, mildly jubilant that Wilson had been found, but they were too weary to talk much"Goddam it, you men, stop standing around with your finger in your ass They looked at him in bewilderment "Minetta and Polack and Wyman andRoth, git over there in that grove, and cut two poles about six feet long, and about two inches in diameter, and bring back a couple of struts about eighteen inches wide?" "What for?" Minetta asked "What the hell do you think it's for? For a stretcherNow git goin', you men Muttering, they picked up a couple of machetes, and filed out of the hollow to the groveIn a minute or so, the platoon could hear them hacking away at the treesCroft spat disgustedly"Them men are enough to frost your nuts There was a restless titterWilson, unconscious now, lay in the center of the hollow, very stillDespite themselves, they all kept looking at him Hearn had joined Croft, and after talking for a moment or two, they called Brown and Stanley and Martinez over to themIt was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun was still hotCroft, afraid of becoming sunburned, pulled the rifles out of his shirt sleeves, flapped it a few times, and put it onHe grimaced at the bloodstains on it, and then began to talk"The Lootenant thinks that all the noncoms ought to talk this over