"I think I will do so, Hallett. It hurts a good deal, I can tell you and, as you see, I can hardly drink my tea."
After breakfast was over, he went to the tent of the principal doctor.
"I have come, sir," he said, "to ask you about my neck."
"You don't say so, Bullen! Why, yours is the third case I have seen this morning! Let me look at it.
"Yes, the symptoms are just the same as in the others. If this were England, I should say that an epidemic of mumps has broken out; but of course it cannot be that.
"Well, I have sent the other two into hospital, and you had better go there, too. Is it painful?"
"It is rather painful, and I can hardly swallow at all."
"Well, when I come across to the hospital, I will put you in with the others. I certainly cannot make out what it is, nor why it came on so suddenly. The only thing I can put it down to is the constant rains that we have been having, though I really don't see why wet weather should have that effect. I should advise you to keep on hot poultices."
In the evening another patient came in, and Lisle burst out laughing, when he saw that it was Hallett.
"Oh, you have come to the nursery, have you? I hope you have made up your mind to go through scarlet fever, or measles, Hallett?"