“As my senses grew more acute I became aware of an intense burning pain in the left side of my head, and felt a stream of warm fluid which I at once recognized as blood, trickling freely down my face. I touched the painful spot with my fingers, and knew at once what had happened—I had been shot through the temple! The serious nature of the injury would have suggested itself to the merest tyro. You may imagine how I felt, knowing as you do the extensive experience I had had with gunshot wounds. There did not seem to be one chance in a hundred that the ball had failed to penetrate my brain. Realizing this, I was only too well aware of the probably desperate character of my wound.
“I tried to rise, and after several painful efforts succeeded in raising myself on my elbow, only immediately to fall helplessly back to the floor again. As I lay there half dazed, and fearfully exhausted from the shock and loss of blood, I realized in a hazy sort of way that there was nothing to do but await the coming of assistance.
“I recalled in a confused fashion the vision of the station master and his gun, and wondered what had become of him and why he had not fired at the bandits during the fight. That he had fled from the scene of battle did not occur to me. It subsequently transpired, however, that the gallant fellow was too frightened to fire at the desperadoes and that, after several attempts to muster up courage enough to pull the trigger on them, he had dropped his weapon and fled incontinently through a rear window.
“I finally became apathetic and indifferent as to my fate—an experience by no means unusual to persons who have suffered from shock and great loss of blood—and lapsed into almost complete unconsciousness.
“How long I lay there upon the floor in my half dead condition is a matter for conjecture. I was finally aroused to full consciousness by the sound of voices and the noise of many feet at the door of the station. I heard some one say:
“‘I don’t think they both got away, boys. I only seen one feller run. Perhaps one o’ them men they was holdin’ up got one of ’em; there was a hull lot o’ shootin’ goin’ on.’
“‘We’d better go kind o’ careful, then,’ said another. ‘If there’s any of ’em in there, they may have just one kick left in ’em.’
“In my confused state of mind the significance of what I heard was entirely lost upon me. I knew only that help was at hand and felt that I must get to it.
“Struggling to my feet by a mighty effort I tottered to the door through which the feeble rays of a lantern in the hands of one of the crowd were gleaming. Reaching the door, I stumbled over the threshold and fairly fell into the arms of several men who were apparently too startled to follow the example of the rest of the crowd, which had scattered the instant my form appeared in the doorway.
“I was immediately thrown to the ground and pinned there by a big strapping fellow, who in his excitement very nearly finished the bandit’s work by squeezing what little breath I had remaining completely out of me.