e Kamboja fevers, and to
be killed here at a pleasure party! Do you recollect, doctor, what you
said on the occasion of his second accident,--'Mind the third'?"

The old doctor did not listen. He had knelt down, and rapidly stripped
the coat off Daniel's back. The poor man had been struck by a shot. The
ball had entered on the right side, a little behind; and between the
fourth and the fifth rib, one could see a round wound, the edges drawn
in. But the most careful examination did not enable him to find the
place where the projectile had come out again. The doctor rose slowly,
and, while carefully dusting the knees of his trousers, he said,--

"All things considered, I would not bet that he may not escape. Who
knows where the ball may be lodged? It may have respected the vital
parts.

"Projectiles often take curious turns and twists. I should almost be
disposed to answer for M. Champcey, if I had him in a good bed in the
hospital at Saigon. At all events, we must try to get him there alive.
Let one of you gentlemen tell the sailors who have come with us to make
a litter of branches."

The noise of a struggle, of fearful oaths and inarticulate cries,
interrupted his orders. Some fifteen yards off, below the place where
Daniel had fallen, two sailors were coming out of the thicket, their
faces red with anger, dragging out a man with a wretched gun, who hurled
out,--

"Will you let me go, you parcel of good-for-nothings! Let me go, or I'll
hurt you!"

He was so furiously struggling in the arms of the two sailors, clinging
with an iron grip to roots and branches and rocks, turning and twisting
at every step, that the men at last, furious at his resistance, lifted
him up bodily, and threw him at the chief surgeon's feet, exclaiming,--

"Here is the scoundrel who has killed our lieutenant!"

It was a man of medium size, with a dejected air, and lack-lustre eyes,
wearing a mustache and chin-beard, and looking impudent. His costume
was that of an Annamite of the middle classes,--a blouse buttoned at
the side, trousers made in Chinese style, and sandals of red leather. It
was, nevertheless, quite evident that the man was a European.

"Where did you find him?" asked the surgeon of the men.

"Down there, commandant, behind that big bush, to the right of Lieut.
Champcey, and a little behind him."

"Why do you accuse him?"

"Why? We have good reasons, I should think. He was hiding. When we saw
him, he was lying flat o