“No!”
“Then send for Dr. Green at once, and tell him from me to come up here instantly.”
Ned sat down in a chair for a few minutes, for he was still dazed and stupid; but his brain was gradually clearing. Presently he looked up at the men who were still standing silently near the door.
“I have no doubt,” he said, “that I have to thank you all for saving my life, but at present I do not know how it has all come about. I will see you tomorrow. But unless it has already got known, please say nothing about this. I don't want it talked about—at any rate until we see how Bill gets on.
“Now, Luke,” he continued, when the men had gone, “tell me all about it. My brain is in a whirl, and I can hardly think.”
Luke related the incidents of the fight and the flight of the assailants, and said that they had carried off a dead man with them. Ned sat for some time in silence.
“Yes,” he said at last, “I shot one. I was walking along with Bill when suddenly a gun was fired from a bush close by; then a number of men jumped up and rushed upon us. I had my pistol, and had just time to fire two shots. I saw one man go straight down, and then they were upon us. They shouted to Bill to get out of the way, but he went at them like a lion. I don't think any of the others had guns; at any rate they only attacked us with sticks and knives. I fought with my back to Bill as well as I could, and we were keeping them off, till suddenly I don't remember any more.”
“One on them hit ye from behind wi' a loaded stick,” Luke said, “and thou must ha' gone doon like a felled ox; then oi expects as Bill stood across thee and kept them off as well as he could, but they war too much for t' lad; beside that cut on the head he ha' one on shoulder and one behind. Oi war only joost in toime, another quarter of a minute and they'd ha' got their knives into thee.”
“Poor old Bill,” Ned said sadly, going up to the bedside and laying his hand on the unconscious figure. “I fear you have given your life to save one of little value to myself or any one else.”
“Don't say that, Master Ned,” Polly said softly; “you cannot say what your life may be as yet, and if so be that Bill is to die, and God grant it isn't so, he himself would not think his life thrown away if it were given to save yours.”