es, when answering shouts were heard,
whereupon he drew three or four matches from the box, bunched them
together, ignited them, and held the tiny torch aloft to guide Mafuta
and Jantje, whose voices he recognised. A minute later they both
arrived upon the scene, anxious to know what was amiss, and received
Dick's hurried explanation with many _Au's_! of surprise and
apprehension. Then, in obedience to his brief but concise instruction,
they hurried away again at a run, to return with very commendable
celerity, bearing Grosvenor's hammock and a long pole, hacked from the
nearest tree they could find. The hammock having been spread upon the
ground, the patient was, under Dick's anxious supervision, laid very
carefully upon it, so that there might be as little movement of his body
as possible; and finally, the hammock having been securely lashed to the
pole, the whole was raised upon the shoulders of the two blacks and by
them borne to the camp. Arrived there, the hammock was, still with the
utmost gentleness and care, slung inside the tent, the lamp was lighted,
and Dick proceeded to examine his patient afresh.

By this time the wounded limb had become terribly swollen, and Grosvenor
complained of severe pain about the injured region. This, of course,
was not to be wondered at, considering the rather heroic treatment to
which the leg had been subjected, and Dick was not very greatly
concerned about it. But what caused him to look very grave was the fact
that his patient also complained of feeling cold, and manifested
symptoms of approaching delirium, while his whole body was now beginning
to be convulsed, at rapidly shortening intervals, by spasms of violent
and uncontrollable twitching. Without wasting a moment Dick now had
recourse to alcohol, freely dosing his patient with neat brandy, in the
hope of inducing a condition of intoxication--for he knew that if he
could succeed in this the excess of alcohol in the system would
neutralise the venom, and his patient would be saved. But it was not
until he had administered nearly a quart of the spirit that the desired
symptoms began to appear; and it was long past midnight before the
twitching convulsions entirely ceased and the patient sank into a
deathlike sleep; by this time also the swelling of the limb was
perceptibly subsiding; and when at length Dick turned down the lamp and
disposed himself to take such rest as he might be able to snatch in a
folding chair by