he finest horse that ever
followed the hounds."

There was a great smell of medicine in the air as he lubricated Paddy
over the bruised places; then Jem Bottles came under his hands, and
either he was not so much hurt as Paddy was, or he made less fuss
about it, for he glared at the Doctor all the time he was attending
him, and said nothing.

It seemed an inhospitable thing to misuse a man who had acted the good
Samaritan so arduously as the little Doctor with three quarters of his
bottle gone, but as he slapped the cork in it again I stepped to the
door and turned the key. Paddy was scowling now and then, and groaning
now and again, when the cheerful Doctor said to him, as is the way
with physicians when they wish to encourage a patient:

"Oh, you're not hurt nearly as bad as you think you are. You'll be a
little sore and stiff in the morning, that's all, and I'll leave the
bottle with you."

"You've never rubbed me at all on the worst place," said Paddy
angrily.

"Where was that?" asked Doctor Chord,--and the words were hardly out
of his mouth when Paddy hit him one in the right eye that sent him
staggering across the room.

"There's where I got the blow that knocked me down," cried Paddy.

Doctor Chord threw a wild glance at the door, when Jem Bottles, with a
little run and a lift of his foot, gave him one behind that caused the
Doctor to turn a somersault.

"Take that, you thief," said Jem; "and now you've something that
neither of us got, because we kept our faces to the villains that set
on us."

Paddy made a rush, but I cried:

"Don't touch the man when he's down."

"Sure," says Paddy, "that's when they all fell on me."

"Never strike a man when he's down," I cried.

"Do ye mean to say we shouldn't hit a man when he's down?" asked Jem
Bottles.

"You knew very well you shouldn't," I told him. "Sure you've been in
the ring before now."

"That I have," shouted Bottles, pouncing on the unfortunate Doctor. He
grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and flung him to his feet, then
gave him a bat on the side of the head that sent him reeling up toward
the ceiling again.

"That's enough, Jem," I cautioned him.

"I'm not only following the Doctor," said Jem, "but I'm following the
Doctor's advice. He told us to take a little gentle exercise and it
would allay the soreness."

"The exercise you're taking will not allay the soreness on the
Doctor's part. Stop it, Jem! Now leave him alone, Paddy; he's