others, that the women had started the row and that the owner of the
house had tried to kill them in order to make them stop. But no one knew
anything definite. M. _le commissaire_ was greatly perplexed and the
_garde_ perfectly nonplussed.

As the doctor was away, and as it might be that the good people did not
wish his services, because it meant expense, we had the audacity to
offer the help of our limited knowledge and rushed off for our satchels,
a piece of cerecloth, and some linen and lint which we had brought with
us in anticipation of possible accidents.

It would really have been an amusing sight for our friends, had they
been able to see us spread out our bistoury, our pincers, and three
pairs of scissors, one with gold branches, on the table of this hut. The
_commissaire_ praised our philanthropy, the women watched us in awed
silence, and the tallow candle melted and ran down the iron candle-stick
in spite of the efforts of the _garde_, who kept trimming the wick with
his fingers. We attended to the old woman first. The cut had been given
conscientiously; the bare arm showed the bone, and a triangle of flesh
about four inches long hung over it like a cuff. We tried to put this
back in its place by adjusting it carefully over the edge of the gaping
wound and bandaging the arm. It is quite possible that the violent
compression the member was subjected to caused mortification to set in,
and that the patient may have died.

We did not know exactly what ailed the girl. The blood trickled through
her hair, but we could not see whence it came; it formed oily blotches
all over it and ran down into her neck. The _garde_, our interpreter,
bade her remove the cotton band she wore on her head, and her tresses
tumbled down in a dull, dark mass and uncoiled like a cascade full of
bloody threads. We parted the thick, soft, abundant locks, and found a
swelling as large as a nut and pierced by an oval hole on the back of
her head. We shaved the surrounding parts; and after we had washed and
stanched the wound, we melted some tallow and spread it over some lint,
which we adapted to the swelling with strips of diachylum. Over this we
placed first a bandage, then the cotton band, and then the cap. While
this was taking place, the justice of the peace arrived. The first thing
he did was to ask for the rake, and the only thing he seemed to care
about was to examine it. He took hold of the handle, counted the teeth,
waved it in