Without another word the three friends hurried off to the hospital, and there learnt that it was indeed Tim who was one of the patients, but further they could not learn until the house-surgeon appeared, who gave them particulars of the case, and then, in answer to their questions, said that Tim was now out of danger, and that one of them might visit him; so it was settled that Mat should go to his brother, whilst the others, Bell and Tabor, would transact some business in the town and call for him again.
Our forester found his brother looking very white and wan, lying in a small bed in one of the wards. One of the nurses, before ushering him in, had warned Mat not to let the patient talk above a whisper by exciting him in any way, and not to stay long.
So he went in very softly, took his brother’s thin hand, in his, and pressed it, saying,—
“Don’t talk, Tim, only a little whisper now and again. The doctor has told us all about you, and I would have come before, but have been away from the station, and only heard you were here by accident. Squire and the parson are in the town—”
Tim here interrupted him with a questioning look, so Mat bent his head to hear what he had to say.
Tim’s whispered words came faintly to him,—
“I want to get to the station where you and t’parson are.”
Mat replied,—
“I will go and ask the doctor,” and was leaving the room, when Tim motioned him back with a plaintive look,—
“I want to go to-morrow.”