"You shall be obeyed, sir," said Barnwell, hurrying from the room, glad to carry out such an order in the dead old exile's behalf.
CHAPTER X.
BURIED DECENTLY.
It was a mournful pleasure to William Barnwell to be able to place the body of poor old Batavsky in a respectable coffin and see it given a Christian burial, instead of being thrown, like hundreds of others, into a ravine, for the wolves to devour and fight over.
And it caused no little comment and speculation among those employed about the hospital, for they had become so used to seeing the dead barbarously disposed of, that it was an event to see one given Christian burial.
Some said Batavsky was an exiled nobleman, and that he had been thus buried by order of the governor, but no one suspected for a moment that it was at the orders of the surgeon-in-chief, whose dream had frightened him into the semblance of a human being.
When all had been done, and the grave marked with Batavsky's prison number, Barnwell returned, as ordered, to Kanoffskie.
"Is he buried?" was his first question.
"He is, sir."
"And decently?"