urse I had not the vaguest
notion of what was the matter with the man, for all Pepper could tell me
was that "Fenwick's been powerful bad, you bet." This does not sound
a minute diagnosis to go on, and the only remedies which presented
themselves to my mind were those I had studied as being useful for the
recovery of drowned persons. So to work I set, as if the poor fellow had
just been fished out of the creek; and whenever any one wanted to teaze
me afterwards they would declare I had insisted on Fenwick's being held
up by his heels. But of course that was all nonsense. What I did really
do was this, and a doctor in Christchurch, whom I afterwards consulted
as to my treatment, assured me, laughingly, that it was "capital."

I made Pepper and another man both rub the cold clammy body, as hard as
they could with mustard and hot flannel. I got some bottles filled with
hot water (for it did not take five minutes to boil the kettle) and
placed to his icy-cold feet and under his arms, then I mixed a little
very strong and hot brandy and water, to which I added a few drops of
chlorodyne, and gave him a teaspoonful every five minutes. For the
first half-hour there was no sign of life to be detected, and the same
horrible bluish pallor made poor Fenwick's really handsome face
look ghastly in the flickering light. My two assistants were getting
exhausted, and Pepper had more than once murmured, with the recollection
of the past fortnight's work strong upon him, "Spell, oh!" or else
"Shears!" [Note: the shearer's demand for a few minutes rest] whilst
his companion inquired pathetically, "What was the use of flaying a dead
man?" To these hints I paid no attention, though my damp riding habit
was steaming from the heat of the fire and I felt dreadfully tired; for
certainly there seemed to my eyes a healthier tinge stealing over the
rigid features, and it could not be my fancy which detected a stronger
effort to swallow the last spoonful of brandy.

I need not go into the details of my jumbled-up remedies; probably I
should bring upon myself serious remonstrances from the Royal Humane
Society, if my treatment of that unhappy man were made public. It is
enough to say that I "exhibited" mustard by the pound and brandy by the
quart, that I roasted him first on one side and then on the other, that
his true skin was rubbed off, that I chlorodyned him until he slept for
nearly a week, and that when he finally recovered he declared he felt