lish?" said Denis. "Of course."

"Oh, I did not mean that," said the other. "Of course I know that you
fellows embrace; but I meant about your arm. Can you shake hands
without its hurting? Because we always do it with our right."

"Try," said Denis, smiling, as, passing his left hand under his wrist,
he softly raised the injured limb, and the next moment the two lads
seemed to seal the beginning of a long friendship in a warm, firm
pressure, which had not ended when they became conscious that the door
had softly opened and Master Leoni was standing there, a
dark, peculiar-looking, living picture in an oaken frame, an
inscrutable-looking smile upon his lips and his eyes half closed.

The blood flushed to the cheeks of both the lads, as the young
Englishman tightened his grip and stood firm, while without appearing to
have noticed the lads' action, Leoni came forward, and they saw that he
had a little silver _flacon_ in his hand.

"Feel faint now, Denis?" he said.

"Oh no," was the reply. "That passed away at once. Is that what you
have been to fetch?"

"Yes," said Leoni, smiling, "and you need not think that I am going to
give you drops in water such as will make you shudder. I am only going
to moisten this linen pad and lay it beneath your waistcoat. I believe
it will quite dull the pain. There," he said, a few minutes later,
after carefully securing the moistened linen so that it should not slip,
and fastening the lad's doublet to his throat, "it feels better now,
does it not?"

"Better?" said Denis with a low hiss, and speaking through his teeth.
"Why, it's as if a red-hot point was boring through my shoulder."

"Yes," said Leoni, smiling; "and that's a good sign. In another minute
you will not feel the same. Come, Master Carrbroke, let us both finish
dressing our patient and get him to his breakfast."

"Oh, I couldn't have believed it," cried Denis, five minutes later.
"Master Carrbroke--"

"Ned," said the young man correctively. "Ned always to my friends."

"Ned, then," said Denis warmly; "once more, this is Master Leoni, and
you ought to make him one, for you never before met such a man as he."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A FEW BARS' REST.

A short time later, the dull aching pain seemed to have passed
completely out of the injured shoulder, and after a few words evincing
his gratitude, which Leoni received with a rather cynical smile, they
passed together, led by their new young friend, i