“It’s a slight concussion,” said the doctor. “Probably struck his head violently when he fell. He’ll come to after a little, but I guess we’d better take him home.”
The cab was already at the armory entrance, and McCrae and the doctor, between them, lifted the still unconscious boy and carried him to it. The motion seemed to rouse him, and he opened his eyes and began to mutter something about being responsible for what the crowd had done.
“You’d best go home,” said McCrae, addressing Ben. “You won’t be fit to work this morning anyway. If we need you I’ll call you up. Oh, say; suppose you telephone to Captain McCormack that his boy is slightly hurt and we’re takin’ him home.”
He squeezed his big body into the cab, which the doctor had already entered; and Hal, supported by the two men, was driven rapidly to his father’s house.
[CHAPTER III]
When Ben reached home on the morning of the encounter at the armory he found his father still at breakfast. Mr. Barriscale looked up in surprise as his son entered the dining-room.
“What brings you back at this hour?” he inquired.
“We had a little accident up at the armory,” was the reply, “and Mr. McCrae thought I’d better come home.”