“Who went away and left you?”
“I recklect now. It was horrid. I dursen’t try and climb that tree again with the water all cissing up to get at me.”
“What!” cried Roby sharply.
“It was when the orders were given to retire, sir. I kept letting first one chap go and then another till I was last, and then I stood at the bottom trying to make up my mind to follow, till the lights up atop seemed to go out all at once. Then I turned cold and sick and all faint-like, holding on by the tree, till there was a horrid rush and a splash as if something was coming up to get at me, and I couldn’t help it—I turned and ran back through that archway place in the big hole, feeling sure that the water was coming to sweep me away. ’Fore I’d gone far in the black darkness I ketched my foot on a stone, pitched forward on to my head, and then I don’t remember any more for ever so long. It was just as if some one had hit me over the head with the butt of a rifle.”
“Where’s the lump, then, or the cut?” said Sergeant James sourly.
“Somewhere up atop there, sergeant. I dunno. Feel; I can’t move my arms, they’re so stiff.”
The sergeant raised his lantern and passed his hand over the man’s head.
“Lump as big as half an egg there, sir,” he said in a whisper.
“It’s a bad cut, ain’t it, sergeant?” said the corporal.
“No; big lump—bruise.”