the contusion. One of the chests must have been
driven against my head like a square shot. Well, there's one comfort,
the skull isn't cracked. Now cut some strips of that plaister, and
place them across and across."

I followed out his instructions, and ended by laying some lint over the
wound and securing all with a neatly sewn on bandage.

He turned very pale twice over as I was busy, and, in obedience to a
whisper, I took down a bottle and measured out some of its contents,
afterwards administering the dose in water.

"Not pleasant stuff, Dale," he said, smiling feebly, "and it's rather
hard lines, as you lads would call it, for a doctor to have to take his
own stuff; but you see I have a nasty crack, and if I had not been a
particularly thick-headed sort of fellow, I'm afraid I should not have
wanted another."

"What is that you have taken?" I asked. "Only ammonia--sal volatile--a
capital stimulus when faintness comes on. There, I'm better now, and I
dare say I shall do. I can examine you now. Ribs broken, eh?"

"I thought so, sir."

"And I'm sure you are wrong, my lad. If your ribs, or even one rib, had
been fractured, you could not have gone on working for me like that.
You would have been in agony."

"Well, it does hurt pretty tidily, sir."

"Perhaps so, Dale, but not to the extent it would under those
circumstances. There, I'm better now. Help me to sit up." I helped
him, and he turned ghastly.

"Feel faint, sir?" I said.

"Horrible, Dale, but I will master it. This is no time for giving way
like a young lady in a hot room. There, that's better. Nothing like
making a fight for it. Come."

"Oh no; I'm not very much hurt, sir," I cried. "Wait till you are
easier."

"Come closer," he said firmly. "Off with your jacket, and open the neck
of your shirt."

I obeyed him unwillingly, and making another determined effort to master
the faintness from which he suffered, he carefully examined my chest and
side, giving me such intense pain the while that I too felt sick, and
would gladly have prescribed for myself a draught of the medicine he had
taken.

"There," he cried at last, "that's perfectly satisfactory. No ribs
broken, Dale, but you had a tremendous blow there from the nearest box.
It's a wonder that we were not killed."

"Then I shan't want strapping or bandaging, sir?"

"No; I'll give you some arnica to bathe the place with. You'll have
some terrible bruises all up your