“I cannot tell you, my lad,” I heard Mr Raydon say. “Please God! no.”
“But I shot him, sir; I shot him. It was me, and I declare to goodness I’d sooner have shot myself.”
“Yes, my lad, I believe you,” said Mr Raydon, very faintly, from further away now.
“Is it—is it right through the heart?”
“No, no, no, not, so bad as that. The bullet has passed right through just below the shoulder.”
“There—then he’ll bleed to death,” groaned Esau.
“No; I’ve stopped that. Quick! more water; he’s going off again.”
“He’s dying! he’s dying!” cried Esau, very close to me now, as it seemed to me; but his voice died out quickly, beginning as a shrill cry and ending in a faint whisper, and it all grew dark and silent for a time. Then once more I seemed to wake up with a shrill-toned bell ringing loudly in my ears; and I lay with a terrible sensation of deathly faintness till I heard Esau say, close to me—“I’ll carry him, sir.”
“No, no, my lad.”
“But you don’t know how strong I am, sir.”