r and over again rang the lines, till Strachan himself
dissipated them by moving his hand and murmuring. It was evident that
what he wanted was water, and so Green put his gourd to his mouth, and
after a refreshing draught, consciousness returned to the wounded man's
eyes.

Then Green gently disengaged the sword-knot from his wrist, and,
unbuckling his belt, returned the weapon to its scabbard, not without
having to wipe it first.

Strachan made a movement of his hand again towards it, evidently knowing
that something was taken from him. But Green showed him the sword, and
said, "It is all right, I am only wiping it for you;" and the other was
placid again immediately, and closed his eyes.

It was not long before the surgeon came, and they got Strachan's kharkee
jacket off, and bandaged him up.

"He has lost a lot of blood," said the surgeon, "and that is why he
fainted, probably."

"Will it kill him?"

"Not necessarily at all. It is a nice clean wound, and all depends upon
how far it has penetrated. Of course, a man cannot have a sharp
instrument thrust into his body without some danger to the vital organs.
The pressing matter, however, is how to lower him from this. I have
got a stretcher at the bottom all right, but the sides of this rock are
pretty steep for a badly wounded man to get down."

"Yes," said Green.

"But I have examined carefully all round it, and this is the best
place."

And he indicated a corner where there were ledges which formed steps;
and here they carried Tom Strachan, and lowered him as gently and
carefully as might be.

They could not avoid a jolt or two, which elicited a moan; but it was
not far to the bottom, and there was the stretcher. Just as they had
managed to get him settled the sun sank, and it was amidst the usual
display of orange, crimson, and purple fireworks that they picked their
way amongst the corpses which strewed the nullah. It was another job to
carry their burden up the steep sides of this, but they managed it
before darkness settled down on the battle-field.

At the other side, however, they were soon forced to halt, and wait for
the rising of the moon. She was up, but had not appeared over the hills
yet, and the ground where they were was in such deep shadow that the
bearers could not go a dozen yards without stumbling either over a dead
body or the inequalities of the surface. It was a weird thing to wait
there in the gloom in the midst of those