“To-day. On a little b-b-b-business. Who is our friend?” And he nodded towards the bed.
“Oh, I’ll let the girls tell you when you go downstairs. It is rather a long and strange story.”
When the doctor came he found the Don in a heavy sleep and decided to make no examination into his injuries, till he awoke. So he lay, just as he was, in his clothes, till eleven o’clock, at which time he began to exhibit symptoms of returning consciousness; and we sent off for the doctor again.
Mrs. Carter, Charley, and I sat in the room with him, though one or the other of us frequently left his side to convey tidings of his condition to the girls, who were naturally anxious to know how matters were going with him. A little after eleven, after turning uneasily from side to side for some time, he awoke. Mrs. Carter arose softly, and going to the bedside and leaning over him, asked if he wanted anything; and he called for a glass of water. He barely moistened his lips, however, and then, looking from one to another of us in a bewildered way, and scanning the room with feverish eyes, he raised his head from the pillow and asked, with a puzzled look, “Where am I?”
“Never mind,” said Mrs. Carter, gently; “you are among friends.”
“Ah, thanks!” said he; and his head falling back upon the pillow, he was silent for a little while. “I have been hurt somehow, have I not?” he asked, at last.
“Yes, you were hurt trying to save others.”
“Oh, yes! It seems to me that I tried to stop a run-away team, but they knocked me down and went on. Or did not some one else stop them? I remember seeing the ladies leap out and one of them fell, and there was a crowd of people, and some of them lifted me up.”
“Yes, and brought you in here; but you mustn’t talk.”
“Well, I won’t talk any more,” said he, closing his eyes.