"Get me aboard the '_B.A._'; I shall be all right soon:" but the effort
of speaking forced more blood into my mouth, and I had to stop.
With a frightened expression on his face he bade me stop talking and lie
still.
"I'll have you carried down," he said; "wait till we can get a
stretcher."
By this time there was a whole crowd of people round me, though I seemed
hardly to notice them; someone put my topee over my eyes, to shield them
from the slanting sun.
Presently, as if in a dream, I heard Mr. Fisher's voice.
"He's shot through the lung--the right side, thank God!" and someone
touched my wrist very gently; and although I could not see her, on
account of the topee over my face, I knew it was Miss Borsen's hand. My
mouth filled with blood again, and everything became quite dark and
peaceful.
I opened my eyes, feeling most horribly weak, and not knowing what had
happened or where I was.
Opposite me were two parallel streaks of white light, and these seemed
to hypnotize me. I could not move my eyes from them for a long time;
but gradually my brain pulled itself together, and my sense of
surroundings came back. I was in a square room with shutter-closed
windows all round it. Deep shadows on the whitewashed walls seemed to
come from a lamp behind me, and I was lying on a little trestle-bed.
Presently I realized that those two streaks of light were made by the
moonlight forcing its way in through cracks in one of the shutters, and
just below them I saw something white resting on a chest of drawers, and
recognized my own topee.
I noticed that I could hardly breathe; something seemed to be squeezing
my chest, and I put up one hand--very shakily--to find out what it was.
As I did this there was a rustle behind my shoulder, and a very small
white hand took hold of mine and put it back where it had lain, and Miss
Borsen's voice, sounding ever so far away, told me to lie absolutely
still and not attempt to speak.
I felt so extraordinarily weak--just as if I had lost all control of
myself--that I obeyed without the slightest effort to resist. I did try
to turn my head, but it seemed to be wedged on each side with pillows,
and a finger she placed on my forehead stopped me immediately.
I lay quite still, staring at the ceiling and the round patch of light
thrown on it by the lamp, until all that had happened came back to me.
I looked at my topee to make sure, and the hard luck of being knocked
over just when there was so much to be done made me so miserable that I
could not help groaning.
"You must not make the least noise or speak; you must not move your
hands or feet; it's your only chance," Miss Borsen said, speaking from
the head of the bed: and her voice had such a soothing, hypnotizing
effect that I closed my eyes and seemed to float away into space almost
immediately.
When I woke again Mr. Fisher was sitting by my bedside. He turned
quickly when my eyes opened, and he too said the same thing: "Lie
absolutely still, and don't speak."
He saw by my face that I wanted to ask him something, and guessed what
it was.
"Jassim is dead," he said. "I shot him."
"Poor devil!" I thought, and was sorry.
He then went on to tell me that Mr. Scarlett had been informed of all
that had happened, and had come ashore to see me whilst I was asleep,
and make all arrangements for the night in case the Afghans attacked.
"We are all ready. Your two men (the signal-man and the man you sent
with the Maxim) and I are taking it in turn to keep watch down by the
fence all through the night. The signal-man is there now, and half my
fellows and twenty of the coolies are lining the wall, so they can't
take us by surprise. The greater part of the trench is filled in, and
there is nothing more to be done until daylight. I've wired to Muscat
to tell the political agent about everything, and of you being wounded,
and have asked him to inform the _Intrepid_, but she is not back yet.
"It's nearly midnight now, and my turn for the wire fence. Keep
absolutely still, and try to go to sleep until I come back."
He rose--his shadow was thrown on the wall as he bent over to lower the
lamp--and I heard him go out.
But sleep was now impossible; my chest was so tightly bandaged that I
could hardly breathe, and though I counted all the cracks in the shutter
through which the moonlight was showing, counted them time after time
until it was almost maddening, sleep would not come.
It seemed ages before I heard a very soft footstep creeping towards me,
and the lamp threw the shadow of a woman on the wall, and for a moment
the silhouette of Miss Borsen's face.
For a second I had a great longing to ask her if she would forgive me,
but I still seemed to be under the spell of her orders not to speak or
move, and, fearful of seeing her, I closed my eyes.
She felt my pulse, lowered the lamp the slightest degree more, and I
heard her go out as noiselessly as she had entered.
After that the night dragged on somehow. I seemed to be rather
delirious, and fancied all sorts of strange things. At one time the
shadows on the wall took on the shape of old Popple Opstein, and I
thought we were sitting yarning on the little deck outside the cabin;
and at another they turned to Jassim, and I thought he was "coming" for
me again. Then I thought I was once more trying to carry Miss Borsen
down to the dinghy, but my feet would not move, and Jassim was after us.
It was horrid.
With the first streaks of daylight I came to my senses again, and waited
and waited to hear the sound of firing and the yells of the Afghans
charging up to the loopholed wall. I strained my ears to catch the
noise of the six-pounder, but all was still. Gradually the light grew
stronger, people began moving about in the house, and presently, when it
was quite daylight--even though the shutters were closed--Mr. Fisher
came in with a joyous expression on his face.
"They've thought better of it," he said. "They're still down there, but
aren't making a move.
"Don't talk," he added as he saw I wanted to ask him something, and he
brought me a block of notepaper and a pencil. He held the note-paper
whilst I wrote in a very shaky way: "Thirsty", for I was most terribly
dry.
He gave me some beef-tea of "sorts", holding the cup to my lips. My
aunt, but it was good! I could have drunk a bucketful.
I pleaded with my eyes for more, but he shook his head. "Acting under
orders--Miss Borsen's orders; can't," he said, and, thinking to relieve
my mind, told me that his men were already at work on the trench.
He could only spare me a very few moments, but came in every now and
then throughout the day.
Ellis and Hartley occasionally put their heads inside the door to tell
me that everything was quiet, and Mr. Scarlett paid me a visit during
the afternoon. He was fearfully apologetic about my wound, and seemed to
think it was his fault entirely. In case I wanted them he had brought
me a clean uniform and my dispatch-box with all my letters.
"I've been down the slope, sir, to have a look for that chap, Jassim,"
he said, "but I'm hanged if I can find him."