ill, after having
first satisfied the officer commanding a strong guard placed at
the bridge that they were friends.

Another ten minutes, and they were upon the plateau. Desmond had
no difficulty in finding out where the headquarters were
established at Hayse, and, riding there, he at once went into the
house occupied by Berwick, and reported his return.

"I am glad to see you back again, Kennedy," the duke said,
heartily. "It is something to have recovered one friend from the
wreck. Now, what is your news?"

Desmond related what had happened to him from the time he left,
and said that a large proportion of the troops at Diepenbeck had
already left, and, as he heard no outburst of firing, he hoped
most of them had got safely away.

"I see you are wounded."

"I have had my wrist smashed with a musket ball, fired by a party
on a hill to the right, belonging, I suppose, to the force that
came up from Oycke."

"You had a narrow escape of your life," Berwick said. "If you had
been hit a little farther back, the ball would have gone through
your body. Sit down at once. I will send for my surgeon."

And he instantly gave orders for the surgeon of the staff to come
to his tent, and then made Desmond, who was suffering terribly
from the agony of the wound, drink a tumbler of wine.

"I know you are all busy, doctor," the duke said, as the surgeon
entered, "but you must do something for Mr. Kennedy, who is badly
wounded in the arm."

The surgeon examined the wound, and shook his head.

"Both bones are fractured," he said, "and I am afraid that there
is nothing for it but amputation."

"Then leave it till tomorrow, doctor," Desmond said faintly.
"There must be a number of poor fellows who want your attention
much more than I do."

"That would do, if I could make you a cradle, but we are badly off
for all surgical appliances."

"Could you cut one out of one of my jack boots?"

"A capital idea, Mr. Kennedy. Nothing could be better. And I will
put it in operation, at once, with some of my other patients."

"Mr. Kennedy is full of expedients, doctor, and it seems to me
that this may be really a valuable one. All the cavalry men have
jack boots, and I will give you an order to requisition as many as
may be required. The men can get new ones from the stores at
Ghent."

The surgeon at once cut off the foot of one of Desmond's boots,
and then divided the leg longways. "There," he said, taking up one
of the halves;