[4] Long live our country!
CHAPTER XX.
THE DYING SOLDIER'S BEQUEST.
It was dark when Richard recovered consciousness. At first the gloom seemed to him like something dense and heavy pressing against his head, and when he raised his hand he was surprised to find its movement unimpeded by this thick, black substance.
"Oho!" he cried, discovering at length that his tongue was movable.
At his call a door opened and Mausmann's face looked in, lighted by a lantern which he held in his hand.
"Well, are you awake at last?" asked the student, still wearing his droll expression.
"Am I really alive?" asked the other.
"Hardly a scratch on you," was the cheerful reply. "You were only a transient guest in the other world."
"But where am I now?"