ve marks. I
immediately collected my faculties to think what was the best thing to
do. I knew I had no time to lose. Mother was away in town shopping for
the cold-weather needs, Dad was out for the day on a riot case. I did
not even know if I should find Captain Dalton at home.

"On the instant, I tied a ligature as tight as I could under the knee,
and then started to run back to the Station as fast as my breath would
allow. As I reached the main road I heard the sound of a motor, and, to
my intense relief and thankfulness, it was the doctor on his way
somewhere--I never asked where--my case was as desperate as any, and I
put up my hand. He saw the 'S.O.S.' message in my face, which he
afterwards said was the hue of chalk, and when he found out what was
wrong, he just bundled me in and drove home like a streak of lightning.
I wonder we did not kill someone or something in the bazaar. I shall
remember to my dying day the way the people fell to right and left
thinking, no doubt, the doctor was mad.

"When we arrived at his bungalow he sprang out, ordering me to find my
way to his consulting room while he went straight to his medicine chest
for the remedies he keeps for cases of snake-bite. By that time my leg
was feeling as heavy as lead--whether from the ligature or the poison, I
do not know--but I could hardly put my foot to the ground. Still, I
hobbled in and sat down to wait. It seemed ages, but was in reality only
a minute or two, when he came and knelt down before me to deal with the
wound. There was very little to be seen, just the punctures and a livid
disk round them. Up till then we had scarcely spoken a word, or I have
no memory of words having passed between us, but I can see his face, all
set and stern, his mouth compressed, his eyes like living coals in his
head intent on his work of rescue.

"I hardly felt all he did; I was so deeply excited inwardly. Outwardly I
was as calm as a stoic. I felt whatever happened I would have to keep my
head to the last. I fully expected to feel desperately ill, and almost
imagined the sensation beginning to creep over me, of numbness and
chill. I had watched the symptoms in others, and could almost trace them
arriving in me. Oh, Joyce, I wouldn't go through that time again if you
gave me a fortune!--yet, I don't know--for one thing, I shall always be
glad."

"And that?" asked Joyce.

"Oh, nothing--just an idea," she said hastily. "Captain Dalton cut deep
into the flesh