oor fellow's brow. "Humph! Not so feverish as you ought to
be, chattering like that."

"Then you've heard, doctor?" cried Dickenson excitedly.

"I heard talking, sir, where there ought to be none," replied the doctor
sharply.

"But did you hear that your precious theory was all wrong?"

"No, sir; I did not," said the doctor sharply. "I based my theory upon
what seemed to be facts, and facts they were. I told you that my
patient here was suffering from the tightening of a ligature about his
neck."

"And quite correct, too, doctor," said Lennox, holding out his hand. "I
suppose if that lanyard had not broken I shouldn't be alive here to talk
about it."

"Your theory, my dear boy, is as correct as mine," said the doctor,
taking his patient's hand, but not to shake it, for he proceeded to feel
Lennox's pulse in the most business-like manner, nodding his head with
satisfaction.

"Much better than I expected," he said. "But you must be quiet now. I
was horrified when I came by and heard such a jabbering going on. Let's
see: where are your duds?"

He went to the corner of the hut, where the orderly had placed the
patient's uniform, everything as neatly folded as if it had been new
instead of tattered and torn; while above, on a peg, hung belts, sword,
pouches, and the strong cord-like lanyard stiffened and strained about
the noose and slipping knots, while the other end was broken and frayed
where the spring snap had been.

"Humph!" said the doctor. "I wonder this cord didn't snap at once with
the drag made upon it. All the same I don't suppose you were dragged
very far."

He looked at his patient inquiringly, but Lennox shook his head slowly.

"It may have been for half-an-hour, doctor, or only for a minute. I
can't tell."

"Probabilities are in favour of the minute, sir," said the doctor.
"Well, it's a strange case. I never had but one injury in my experience
approaching it, and that was when an artillery driver was dragged over
the plain by his horses. A shell burst close to the team, and this man
somehow got the reins twisted about his neck, and he was dragged for
about a mile before he was released."

"Much hurt?" said Dickenson.

"Yes," said the doctor, with a short nod of the head. "He was very much
hurt indeed."

"And I was not, doctor?" said Lennox, smiling.

"Oh no, not in the least," said the doctor sarcastically. "You only
wanted your face washed and you'd have been all right in