"No more do I—of you, sir!" replied Villebois, becoming nettled at his reply.
The doctor and Pierre drove rapidly to the General's house, and on going to his room they found him lying on his bed groaning, and in a state of semi-consciousness. Blood had been slowly trickling down his right arm, and had formed a little pool on the ground. Ripping up his shirt with a pair of scissors, Villebois noticed that a bullet had passed through the fleshy part of his arm. It had struck the bone at an angle, and ricochetted off, missing the brachial artery by a hairsbreadth, and had passed out again near the shoulder.
After first disinfecting the wound, Dr. Villebois dressed it, and fixing the arm in a splint, ordered a hospital nurse to be sent for immediately, and gave strict orders that the patient was not to be disturbed.
"Is it very serious?" said Pierre.
"Not very, fortunately, but the median nerve is completely divided."
"How do you know that?"
"For two very simple reasons. First, the probe showed me that the nerve lay right in the track of the bullet, and in the second place his arm is paralysed."
"Will he ever get the use of it again?"
"There is no reason why he should not, if we can manage to sew the ends of the nerve together. I have good hopes that I shall succeed in doing so, but sometimes the operation proves unsuccessful."
"Well, anyhow, I shall go at once to the police and have him arrested for attempting to murder my father."