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The good news of the doctor\'s arrival turns bad. He gets to the hospital, but he and the two physicians with him prove to be additional examples of Hemingway\'s hated incompetents. They stall, they test, they mix up X rays, and at last they decide that Henry must wait six months before surgery to remove the shrapnel from his knee.
Henry\'s furious. He\'s noticed that the surgeon is only a first captain. If he were any good, Henry reasons, he\'d be at least a major. Henry asks the house doctor for another surgeon, hinting that he wants to get well so that he can return to the front. He\'s told that a Dr. Valentini will examine him.
Valentini bursts into the room like a whirlwind. He examines Henry, praises Catherine and jokes about taking her to dinner, drinks a cognac, and tells Henry he\'ll be operated on the next morning. Valentini joins the club of the skilled, the able, along with Miss Gage and the British ambulance driver.
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