"Very good," the doctor commented. "Probably he would have died before now but for those aids. He is pretty far gone but maybe we can pull him around."
He laid off his coat and went to work. From his case he produced a hypodermic syringe and a box of tablets. "Some warm water and a spoon," he requested.
Chris was instantly at his side with the required articles.
He filled the spoon with warm water and dropped one of the tablets into it. It colored the water a beautiful scarlet.
"Permanganate of potash," he explained. "You fishermen ought to keep some always by you. It's invaluable in cases of snake-bites or other poisonous wounds."
He filled his syringe from the spoon and baring Walter's arm injected it into a vein.
"I expect your warm water treatment has drawn most of the poison from the wound, but we had better be on the safe side," he observed.
He partly filled a basin with warm water and dissolved another of the tablets in it. Then, with his keen, surgeon's lancet, he cut open the flesh around the puncture, washed it out thoroughly with the solution, and then bound it up in soft, white gauze.
"That is all we can do, now, but watch," he observed, when he had finished.
He sat down with Walter's wrist in his hand and waited the effect of the treatment.