"It is a marvellous escape. Not a bone broken, but of course he is terribly bruised and shaken, and very stiff."
"I'll sit with him till we can get a proper nurse," said good-natured Mrs. Selby; "he seems to have no kith or kin belonging to him. It will be a lesson to him, for life, I hope, and will put a stop to all this delving and digging and unearthing what is best left alone. It only fosters scepticism in the minds of the ignorant, and teaches them to disbelieve their Bibles!"
Old Principle looked up with a smile after the doctor's visit.
"Is little Master Roy there?"
Roy pressed forward eagerly.
"I'm thinking, laddie, that you and Master Dudley have had a rare good opportunity of saving a poor old man's life, and he is duly grateful to you."
But Roy was very near tears.
"I'm so glad—so glad your legs aren't broken," he said, in a quivering voice, "anything is better than being suddenly turned into a cripple!"
And then bending over him he kissed the furrowed brow, and crept out of the room.