ugh his trouser leg half way down the shin.

"Compound!" he groaned. "A three months' job," and fainted.

When he came to himself the groom was gone, for he had scudded off to
the Squire's house for help, but a small page was holding a gig-lamp in
front of his injured leg, and a woman, with an open case of polished
instruments gleaming in the yellow light, was deftly slitting up his
trouser with a crooked pair of scissors.

"It's all right, doctor," said she soothingly. "I am so sorry about
it. You can have Dr. Horton to-morrow, but I am sure you will allow me
to help you to-night. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw you by
the roadside."

"The groom has gone for help," groaned the sufferer.

"When it comes we can move you into the gig. A little more light,
John! So! Ah, dear, dear, we shall have laceration unless we reduce
this before we move you. Allow me to give you a whiff of chloroform,
and I have no doubt that I can secure it sufficiently to----"

Dr. Ripley never heard the end of that sentence. He tried to raise a
hand and to murmur something in protest, but a sweet smell was in his
nostrils, and a sense of rich peace and lethargy stole over his jangled
nerves. Down he sank, through clear, cool water, ever down and down
into the green shadows beneath, gently, without effort, while the
pleasant chiming of a great belfry rose and fell in his ears. Then he
rose again, up and up, and ever up, with a terrible tightness about his
temples, until at last he shot out of those green shadows and was in
the light once more. Two bright, shining, golden spots gleamed before
his dazed eyes. He blinked and blinked before he could give a name to
them. They were only the two brass balls at the end posts of his bed,
and he was lying in his own little room, with a head like a cannon
ball, and a leg like an iron bar. Turning his eyes, he saw the calm
face of Dr. Verrinder Smith looking down at him.

"Ah, at last!" said she. "I kept you under all the way home, for I
knew how painful the jolting would be. It is in good position now with
a strong side splint. I have ordered a morphia draught for you. Shall
I tell your groom to ride for Dr. Horton in the morning?"

"I should prefer that you should continue the case," said Dr. Ripley
feebly, and then, with a half hysterical laugh,--"You have all the rest
of the parish as patients, you know, so you may as well make the thing
complete by having me also."