the match began to burn, and we could see his fingers
look transparent as he sheltered the flame and held it to a piece of
candle, which directly after lit up the mess-room, one wreck now of
broken glass, shattered chairs, and ragged curtain and cloth.

I saw all that at a glance, but as my eyes wandered about the room, they
rested upon a couch at the side, upon which lay something covered
completely by a tablecloth, whose whiteness was horribly stained.

I shuddered, and tried to turn my eyes away, but I could not, and
involuntarily I followed Brace and the doctor, as Dost went to the
couch.

"Better keep away, Gil, lad," said Brace, in a low voice, full of
emotion. "You will have enough horrors forced upon you without seeking
them out."

I made no answer, but I did not retire, as Brace softly raised the cloth
from the face of our commanding officer, and I saw that, though
disfigured by a couple of terrible cuts, it was quite placid; and my
heart warmed--in my sorrow for my poor friend--toward the Hindu servant
who had so reverently treated his remains.

Then a thrill ran through me, for as Brace stood holding the cloth
raised, and Dost held the candle for us to see, the doctor uttered an
ejaculation, pushed Brace rudely aside, and then laid his rifle on the
ground, and began to tear open the light cotton garment the major wore,
while his busy hands played, in the dim light, about his breast.

"Here, Dost," he whispered, "put down the light. Tear this cloth into
narrow bandages. Vincent, lad, take out my pocket-book from my breast,
and open it."

"Great heavens, Danby!" began Brace.

"Thank Heaven, you mean," said the doctor, in his quick, business-like
way. "Good job I'm here. Dost, you fool, you shouldn't be in such a
hurry. Why, you might have buried him. The man's not dead."

No word was uttered, but there was a quick expiration of the breath, and
then a busy silence, only broken by the rustling movements of the
doctor, who kept on examining and bandaging.

At last he began to speak.

"Wonderful how nature stops bleeding," he whispered. "He has cuts and
stabs enough to have bled any one to death, but there's a spark left
yet."

"Hist! what's that?" said Brace, as a sound came from the door.

"Right, sir," said a voice, which I knew to be Sergeant Craig's. "Mr
Haynes is getting uneasy."

"Go and tell him," said Brace, who was kneeling and holding one end of a
bandage.

I crossed to the d