d to talk so much as you are doing."

"As a surgeon, I know you are right, and I will talk no more for the
present."

And then, feeling rather drowsy, I composed myself to sleep. The last
thing I remembered before closing my eyes was the long, swarthy,
quixotic-looking face of my singular nurse, veiled in a blue cloud of
cigarette-smoke, which, as it rolled from the nostrils of his big,
aquiline nose, made those orifices look like the twin craters of an active
volcano, upside down.

When, after a short snooze, I woke a second time, my first sensation was
one of intense surprise, and being unable, without considerable
inconvenience, to rub my eyes, I winked several times in succession to
make sure that I was not dreaming; for while I slept the swart visage,
black eyes, and grizzled mustache of my nurse had, to all appearance, been
turned into a fair countenance, with blue eyes and a tawny head, while the
tiny cigarette had become a big meerschaum pipe.

"God bless me! You are surely not Ramon?" I exclaimed.

"No; I am Geist. It is my turn of duty as your nurse. Can I get you
anything?"

"Thank you very much; you are all very kind. I feel rather faint, and
perhaps if I had something to eat it might do me good."

"Certainly. There is some beef-tea ready. Here it is. Shall I feed you?"

"Thank you. My left arm is tied up, and this broken finger is very
painful. Bat I am giving you no end of trouble. I don't know how I shall
be able to repay you and Mr. Fortescue for all your kindness."

"_Ach Gott!_ Don't mention it, my dear sir. Mr. Fortescue said you were to
have every attention; and when a fellow-man has been broken all to pieces
it is our duty to do for him what we can. Who knows? Perhaps some time I
may be broken all to pieces myself. But I will not ride your fiery horses.
My weight is seventeen stone, and if I was to throw myself off a galloping
horse as you did, _ach Gott!_ I should be broken past mending."

Mr. Geist made an attentive and genial nurse, discoursing so pleasantly
and fluently that, greatly to my satisfaction (for I was very weak), my
part in the conversation was limited to an occasional monosyllable; but he
said nothing on the subject as to which I was most anxious for
information--Mr. Fortescue--and, as he clearly desired to avoid it, I
refrained from asking questions that might have put him in a difficulty
and exposed me to a rebuff.

I found out afterward that neither he nor Ramon ever