t all those hours. Just come and double up one of those
sacks and lay it underneath for a cushion. The pain keeps me from going
to sleep.'"

"Oh, that's how it happened--was it?" said the doctor, while we two
listened eagerly.

"I'm coming to it directly, sir," said the man querulously. "Well, sir,
seeing as I felt that, as I was sentry over the hospital, I was in
charge of a wounded man as well, I just rested my rifle against the
wall, picked up one of the sacks, and doubled it in four. Then, just as
innocent as a babby, I kneels down, lifts up his leg softly, bending
over him like, and was just shoving the bit of a cushion-like thing
under his knee, when it seemed as if one of the big stones up there had
fallen flat on the back of my head, and I heard some one say, `Take
that, you ugly Sassenach beast! and see how you like lying in hospital.'
Then it was all black, sir, till I opened my eyes and saw you holding
that stuff to my lips."

"Yes, my man," said the doctor; "now don't talk any more, but lie
still."

"Tell me about that crack on the head again, sir, please. It wasn't one
of the stones fell down, then?"

"No; the prisoner must have got hold of this piece somehow, then kept it
ready by the side of his bed, and struck you down."

"And a nasty, dirty, cowardly blow, too," said the poor fellow feebly.
"Beg pardon, sir; you'll pull me round as quickly as you can--won't
you?"

"Of course," said the doctor, smiling.

"Thank ye, sir. I want to have an interview with that gentleman again."

"I suppose so," said Denham; "and so do about four hundred of the corps.
He'd have been stood up with his back to one of the walls and shot by
this time, but the brute has got away."

"We shall run against him again, though, sir," said the wounded man
confidently, "and we shan't mistake him for any one else.--Beg pardon,
though, sir; you're quite sure my skull isn't broken?"

"Quite," said the doctor. "Now be quiet."

"Certainly, sir; but is it cracked?"

"No, nor yet cracked," said the doctor, smiling. "You're suffering from
concussion of the brain."

"And I'll concuss his brain, sir, if I can only get a chance; but I will
do it fair and--Yes, sir, I've done, and I'm going to sleep."

He smiled at us both, and then closed his eyes; while, after a few words
with the doctor, Denham picked up the lamp, and we went gently to the
other rough curtain.

"It's just as near to go back this way," said Denham as I