"It looks a worse case than it actually is," she declared in her best professional manner. "And there's no water to be had nearer than the village. The best thing we can do is to get him to the house."
"But how?" asked her brother. "It is almost impossible to get a cart of any description over this rough ground."
"We'll have to carry him," replied Winifred. "Get a couple of those young trees," and she pointed to a clump of ash saplings, the only trees to be found for miles, though fortunately close at hand.
Quickly Eric felled two of the young trees by the simple expedient of firing a charge of shot into each at close range. A knife soon cleared off the shoots, and a pair of serviceable poles, ten or twelve feet in length, were at the disposal of the amateur ambulance party.
The two men's coats—they were in mufti—were then pressed into service to complete the rough-and-ready stretcher, and with Winifred walking by the patient's side to steady any unwonted jolt to the conveyance, the sub and the A.P. carried their unconscious burden, one of the dogs being left to guard the guns until they could be sent for.
It was a back-aching task. The man was heavy, the way rough, and the heat terrific, yet gamely the two naval officers "carried on," resolutely declining to allow Miss Greenwood to bear a hand with the stretcher. Not until they were within a mile of "The Croft" did they fall in with a sturdy Cornish countryman, who willingly relieved Eric of his share. A little farther on another villager was able to perform a like service to the fairly "baked" Farrar, and by the time the party drew within sight of the house nearly a score of curious country folk tailed on. An intelligent youth volunteered to ride on his cycle into Trebalda to fetch a doctor, while the rest of the crowd of spectators hung about the gates as the stretcher was borne through the grounds to the house.
CHAPTER XV
LAID BY THE HEELS
"EXCUSE me," said Mr. Greenwood diplomatically, after having welcomed his guest's friend and given him a second invitation to lunch. "I've some work to do in the garden, but I know you two would like to have a yarn together. If, however," he added as he made for the door, "you are in need of a little gentle exercise before lunch I can introduce you to a really healthful and intellectual task—chopping wood. Failing that there are two serviceable prongs in the tool-house."