"Good heavens, man!" yelled the Electrical Engineer, "he'll be dead by now!"
We all made a run for the house, clean forgetting our blankets, and burst open the hall door again.
It was strange; but there were not half the fumes we expected. What did it mean?... However, we did not stop to inquire....
Six-and-eightpence dragged open his bedroom door, and there, prone on the floor, lay Mr. H——, rolled in his blanket and kicking faintly. "Who's there?" he demanded. "I'm almost done for, you fellows!"
"Wonder you're not done for entirely," said they, hauling him out by his blanket and the hair of his head combined. "Didn't we say old Six-and-eightpence would do just this? Out you come!"
And in a few seconds the rescued one lay on the veldt, and kneeling beside him we all cried, "Saved!" and tried very hard to shed tears of joy....
The day passed somehow, all sitting on the veldt, and Mr. H—— (in the only arm-chair, propped up affectionately with pillows) described to us in moving terms what it had felt like to be face to face with death.
"Did you see the whole of your past life laid before you in a flash—like they say drowning people always do?" we asked.
"Yes," said Mr. H——, in tones of gloomy triumph; "I did, and I can tell you it wasn't pleasant."