replied Gedge, grinning. "Doctor says it was the
excitement set him going, and then he couldn't stop hisself. You know
how he was a bit ago, gentlemen, when he hit out and kicked, and
couldn't help it."

Roberts nodded.

"And he did fight wonderful, and never got a scratch. That's what the
Doctor said it was, and when he zamined his bandages he found this here
under his back."

"That! What is it?" said Drummond, now taking the object and examining
it curiously.

"His complaint, sir, that kept him bad so long. The bit of iron the
Doctor said he dursen't try to get out. It worked out last night in the
fight. He's going to get well now."

It was Roberts's turn now to examine the little ragged scrap of
discoloured iron.

"Seems wonderful," he said, "that so trifling a thing as that should
cause so much agony, and bring a man so low."

"Oh, I dunno, sir," said Gedge respectfully. "I had a horful toe once
as got bigger and bigger and sorer till I couldn't get a boot on, only
the sole; and when my leg got as big as a Dan'l Lambert's, some un says,
`Why don't you go to the orspital?' he says, sir; and so I did, and as
soon as I got there I began to wish I hadn't gone, for there was a lot
o' doctors looked at it, and they said my leg must come off half-way up
my thigh, but they'd wait a day or two first, and they did; but only the
next morning one of 'em has another good look, and he gets out
something--just a teeny bit of a nail as had gone into my toe out of my
boot."

"Humph!" said Roberts rather contemptuously.

"Lor' bless yer, gentlemen, I was 'nother sort o' feller that night, and
was just like Mr Bracy here; hadn't had no proper sleep for weeks, and
there I was at it like one o'clock, going to sleep as you may say all
over the place. Shouldn't ha' been here if it hadn't been for that
there doctor. Wouldn't have had a one-legged un in the ridgiment, sir--
would yer?"

"No," said Roberts, who was leaning over and gazing at his sleeping
comrade curiously. "Yes, he is sleeping as peacefully as a child. And
what about you, Gedge?"

"Me, sir? Oh, I'm all right, sir. Bit stiff in the arms with all that
bay'net exercise, and got the skin off one elber with ketching it agen
the wall. Yer see, we'd no room."

"We've been there this morning," said Roberts, with a slight shudder.
"The woodwork is chipped and cut into splinters, and the sight is
horrible."

"Well, yus, I s'pose so, sir. It was horr