y from one to the other.

"Then all at once I hears him calling, and I went in. `Here, Gedge, my
lad,' he says--just like that, sir, all wild-like--`take this here arm
away; it's trying to strangle me.'

"`What! yer own arm, sir?' I says, laughing. `That won't do.'--`Yes,
it will,' he says, just in that squeezy, buzzy way, sir; `I can't bear
it. Take it off, or it'll choke me!'"

"Well?" said Drummond anxiously; "did you?"

"Yes, sir, of course I did; for he spoke just as if it was so; and I got
hold of it and tried to pull it away, but he wouldn't let me. He kep'
it tight down close to his throat, and looked quite bad in the face."

"You should have used force," said Drummond.

"I did, sir; lots o' force; but he'd got it crooked, and it was just as
if the joint had gone fast, so that I was afraid that if I pulled too
hard I might break something; and it was just while I was hanging fire
like that you came, and he let it come then quite easy. Didn't you,
sir?"

"Yes, yes," said Bracy hurriedly. "It had gone to sleep, I suppose, and
was as heavy and as cold as marble."

"Oh, I see," said Drummond, smiling; "been lying in an awkward position,
I suppose?"

Bracy nodded, but there was a curious look in his eyes that his visitor
did not see.

"Come to take a look at you and have a chat.--I say. You heard about me
getting in for it?"

"Yes, I heard," said Bracy sadly. "You were wounded."

"Bit of a chop from a tulwar," replied Drummond, touching his bandaged
arm lightly. "Nothing much, but I am off duty for a bit. Precious
nuisance, isn't it?"

Bracy looked at him so piteously that the young fellow coloured.

"Of course," he said hurriedly; "I understand. Precious stupid of me to
talk like that and make a fuss about being off duty for a few days, when
you're in for it for weeks. But I say, you know, you are a lot better.
Old Morton said you only wanted time."

"He told you that?" cried Bracy eagerly.

"Yes, last night when I met him and he asked me about my scratch. Said
he was proud of your case, for with some surgeons you would have died.
Ha, ha! He looked at my arm the while, with his face screwed up as if
he pitied me for not being under his hands. I say, he's a rum chap,
isn't he?"

"He has been very good and patient with me," sighed Bracy; "and I'm
afraid I have been very ungrateful."

"Tchah! Not you, old fellow. We're all disagreeable and grumble when
we're knocked over. That