derfully well, colonel," the senior officer said.
"You must have received good surgical attention, immediately on
being wounded. Judging by your pulse, you can have lost but little
blood."

"It hardly bled at all, Doctor, and I had it bandaged up by two of
my own men. I have seen a good many serious wounds, in the course
of the last four years; and know pretty well what ought to be
done."

"It has been uncommonly well done, anyhow. I think we had better
not disturb the bandages, for a few days. If no bleeding sets in by
that time, clots of blood will have formed, and you will be
comparatively safe.

"Your pulse is very quiet. Your men must have carried you down very
carefully."

"If I had been a basket of eggs, they could not have taken more
care of me. I was scarcely conscious of any movement."

"Well, you have youth and good health and good spirits in your
favour. If all our patients took things as cheerfully as you do,
there would not be so many of them slip through our hands."

Bull, who had been brought in immediately after Terence, was next
attended to. He was unconscious. He had been struck by a round shot
in the shoulder, which had not only smashed the bone, but almost
carried away the upper part of the arm.

"An ugly wound," the surgeon said to his colleague. "At any rate,
we may as well take off the arm while he is unconscious. It will
save him a second shock, and we can better bandage the wound when
it is removed."

A low moan was the only sign that the wounded man had any
consciousness that the operation was being performed.

"Will he get over it, Doctor?" Terence asked, when the surgeon had
finished.

"There is just a chance, but it is a faint one. Has he been a sober
man?"

"Very; I can answer for the last four years, at any rate. All the
Portuguese officers were abstemious men; and I think that Bull felt
that it would not do for him, commanding a battalion, to be less
sober than they were."

"That increases his chance. Men who drink have everything against
them when they get a severe wound; but he has lost a great deal of
blood, and the shock has, of course, been a terrible one."

An orderly was told to administer a few spoonfuls of brandy and
water, and the surgeon then moved on to the next bed.

Chapter 21: Home Again.

The next morning, one of the surgeons brought a basketful of fruit
to Terence.

"There is a young woman outside, colonel," he said, with a slight
smile, "w