said. "It
will be difficult to find a surgeon, now that they are all up to
their eyes in work, somewhere in the rear."

Fergus had received two severe wounds in the face, and a bayonet
thrust through his leg. The officer did his best to stanch the
bleeding, and was still occupied in doing so when Karl rode up,
jumped from his horse, and ran to his master's side.

"Where have you been, Karl?" Fergus asked, for the soldier had also
received a severe wound in the head.

"I followed you, master, as in duty bound; but I was some distance
behind you, and in that melee I could not get near you; and being
mixed up with one of the squadrons, I did not see you as you came
back, and was in a great state about you until, on riding up to the
staff, one of the officers pointed you out to me."

"I think that you are in good hands now," the officer said. "I will
join the king again."

Fergus thanked him warmly, but in a weak voice.

"The first thing, master, is for you to get a drink," Karl said;
and he took, from the holster of Fergus's saddle, a flask that he
had placed there that morning. "Take a good drink of this," he
said, "then I will see to your wounds. It is plain enough to see
that that officer knew nothing about them."

Fergus drank half of the contents of the flask, and then handed it
to Karl.

"You finish it up," he said. "You want it as much as I do."

"Not so much, master; but I want it badly enough, I own."

Having drank, he proceeded to rebandage his master's wounds, first
laying on them rolls of lint he took from his own saddlebag.

"I never go on a campaign without lint and a bandage or two," he
said. "Many a life has been lost that might easily enough have been
saved, had they been at hand."

He laid the lint on the wounds, and then bound them firmly and
evenly. He had a bandage left, when he had finished this. With the
aid of a man who was limping to the rear, he used it for stanching
his own wounds.

"Well, master," he said, "you cannot do better than lie here, for
the present. I will look after the horses, and fasten them up to
that bush. The battle is going on as fiercely as ever, and looks as
if it would go on until dark. If so, there will be no collecting
the wounded tonight; but as soon as I see where the king bivouacs,
I will get you there somehow."

"I shall do very well here--at any rate, for the present, Karl. In
the meantime, it would be a good thing if you would take the two
horses d