Cursed by a Fortune Part 78

Leigh made no answer, but rose to his feet and sat down on one of the hall chairs.

"What is it--faint?" said Claud.

"Yes--get me--something--he cannot move."

"She seems to be more like sleeping now, sir," said the housekeeper, appearing at the door. "Oh, no, no; don't let him get up!"

"It's all right, old lady. Here, got any brandy? The doctor's hurt, and faint."

"Yes, sir; yes, sir," said the woman, glancing in a horrified way, at the two injured men, as she pa.s.sed into the dining-room, from which she returned directly with a decanter and gla.s.s.

"It's port wine, sir," she said in a trembling voice; and she poured out a gla.s.s.

Leigh drained it, and rose to his feet.

"I will come back directly," he said.

"That's right. I say, I don't quite like his looks."

Leigh bent over the prostrate man, but said nothing, and pa.s.sed into the library, where he spent five minutes in attendance upon Kate; and at the end of that time he rose with a sigh of relief.

"Will she come to, sir?" whispered the housekeeper, with her voice trembling.

"Yes, I think the worst is over. The medicine I gave her is counteracting the effects of the drug."

"Oh, oh, oh!" burst out Becky; and she flumped down on the carpet and caught one of Kate's hands, to lay it against her cheek and hold it there, as she rocked herself to and fro.

"Becky! Becky! you mustn't," whispered her mother.

"Let her alone; she will do no harm," said Leigh, quietly.

"Are--are you going to send for the police, sir?" faltered the woman.

"No, certainly not yet," replied Leigh; and he went back into the hall.

"I say," said Claud, in a voice full of awe, "I'm jolly glad you've come. He ain't dying, is he?"

For answer Leigh went down on one knee, and made a fresh examination.

"No," he said at last; "but he is very bad. I cannot help carry him, but he must be got into one of the rooms."

"Fetch that old girl out, and we'll carry him," said Claud; and after a moment or two's thought Leigh went to the library, stood for a while examining his patient there, and then signed to Becky and her mother to follow him.

Under his directions a blanket was brought, pa.s.sed under the injured man, and then each took a corner, and he was borne into the dining-room and laid upon a couch.

"I don't like to call in police, or a strange surgeon," Leigh whispered to Claud. "We do not want this affair to become public."

"By George, no!" said Claud, hastily.

"Then you must help me. I can do what is necessary; and these women can nurse him."

"But I can't help you," protested the young man. "If it was a horse I could do something. Don't understand men."

"I do, to some extent," said Leigh, smiling faintly. Then, to the woman, "You can go back now. Call me at once if there is any change."

The two trembling women went out, and after another feeble protest Claud manfully took off his coat, and acting under Leigh's instructions, properly bandaged the painful wound made by Garstang's bullet, which had struck high up in Leigh's arm, and pa.s.sed right through, a very short distance beneath the skin.

"A mere nothing," said Leigh, coolly, as the wound was plugged and bandaged, the table napkins coming in handy. "Why, Wilton, you'd make a capital dresser."

"Ugh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the young man, with a shudder. "I should like to be down on one. Sick as a cat."

"Take a gla.s.s of wine, man," said Leigh, smiling.

"I just will," said Claud, gulping one down. "Thank you, since you are so pressing, I think I will take another. Hah! that puts Dutch courage in a fellow," he sighed, after a second goodly sip. "It's good port, Garstang. Here's bad health to you--you beast."

He drank the rest of his wine.

"I say, doctor, you don't expect me to help timber his head, do you?"

Leigh nodded, as he drew his shirt-sleeve down over his bandages.

"But the brute would have shot me, too."

"Yes, but he's hors de combat, my lad, and you don't want to jump on a fallen enemy."

"Don't know so much about that, doctor," said the young man, dryly, "but you ought."

"Perhaps so," replied Leigh, "but I am what you would call crotchety, and I must treat him as I would a man who never did me harm. Come, your wine has strung you up. Let's get to work."

"Must I? Hadn't you better put the beggar out of his misery? He isn't a bit of good in the world, and has done a lot of harm to everyone he knows."

"Bad fracture," said Leigh, gravely, as he pa.s.sed his hand round the insensible man's head, "but not complicated. He must have fallen with tremendous violence."

"Of course he did," said Claud. "He had my weight on him, as well as his own. Can he hear what we say?"

"No, and will not for some time to come. Now, take the scissors out of my pocket-book, and cut away all the hair round the back. There, cut close: don't be afraid."

"Afraid! Not I," said Claud, with a laugh, "I'll take it all off, and make him look like a--what I hope he will be--a convict."

He began snipping away industriously, talking flippantly the while, to keep down the feeling of faintness which still troubled him.

"Fancy me coming to be old Garstang's barber! I say, doctor, you'd like to keep a lock of the beggar's hair, wouldn't you? I mean to have one."

"Mind what you are doing," said Leigh, quietly; and as Claud went on cutting he prepared bandages with one hand and his teeth, from another of the fine damask napkins; and in spite of the pain he suffered, bandaged the injury, and at last sank exhausted in a chair, but rose directly to go across to the library.

"How is she?" said Claud, anxiously, upon his return.

"The effects are pa.s.sing off, and in two or three hours I hope she will come to."