not serious, and when we have got rid of
the fever and inflammation I have no doubt we shall pull him round
before long."

"I know the wound is nothing," Vincent said; "I have told Miss Kingston
so all along. It is nothing at all to one I got at the first battle of
Bull Run, where I had three ribs badly broken by a shell. I was laid up
a long time over that business. Now I hope in a week I shall be fit to
travel."

The doctor shook his head. "Not as soon as that. Still we will hope it
will not be long. Now all you have to do is to lie quiet and not worry,
and to get to sleep as quick as you can. You must not let your patient
talk, Miss Kingston. It will be satisfactory to you, no doubt," he went
on, turning to Vincent, "to know that there is no fear whatever of your
being disturbed here. The road leads nowhere, and is entirely out of the
way of traffic. I should say you might be here six months without even a
chance of a visitor. Everyone knows the house is shut up, and as you
have no neighbor within half a mile no one is likely to call in. Even if
anyone did by accident come here you would be in no danger; we are all
one way of thinking about here."

"Shall we make some broth for him?" Lucy asked after they had left the
room.

"No; he had better take nothing whatever during the next twenty-four
hours except his medicine and cooling drinks. The great thing is to get
down the fever. We can soon build him up afterward."

By nightfall the exertions of Dan, Lucy, and Chloe had made the house
tidy. Beds of rushes and grass had been made in the room upstairs for
the women, and Dan had no occasion for one for himself, as he was going
to stop up with his master. He, however, brought a bundle of rushes into
the kitchen, and when it became dark threw himself down upon them for a
few hours' sleep, Lucy and her old nurse taking their place in Vincent's
room and promising to rouse Dan at twelve o'clock.

During the early part of the night Vincent was restless and uneasy, but
toward morning he became more quiet and dozed off, and had but just
awoke when the doctor drove up at ten o'clock. He found the inflammation
and swelling so much abated that he was able at once to probe for the
ball. Chloe was his assistant. Lucy felt that her nerves would not be
equal to it, and Dan's hand shook so that he could not hold the basin.
In a quarter of an hour, which seemed to Lucy to be an age, the doctor
came out of the room.

"There is t