"That means yes. Well, I was bringing the gun, when I tripped and fell
and it went off, and I wished it had shot me instead."
Esau gave a gulp here, and got up and began to walk up and down the
room, pressing first one hand and then the other under his arms as if in
pain from a cut at school with the cane; and for some moments the poor
fellow was suffering so from emotion that he could not continue. At
last he went on in obedience to an eager look from my eyes.
"I run up just as he caught you, and tore off your things. Oh, it was
horrid. I felt when I saw what I'd done, and him bandaging you up, as
if I'd killed you. But you don't feel so bad now. You ain't going to
die, are you? Say you ain't."
I kept my eyes fixed on his, forgetting in my excitement what I ought to
have done, when a cry brought me to myself, and I closed my eyes
sharply.
"Ah, that's better," cried Esau, and kneeling down by my bed he went on
telling me how, as soon as I was bandaged, Mr Raydon cut two light
poles and bound short pieces across them. Then on these he laid
pine-boughs, and I was lifted up, for them to convey me slowly down the
ravine, and back to the Fort.
"I say," whispered Esau, "I thought last night he meant to cheat us, and
get all the gold for himself; but I don't think so now. Wish he liked
me as much as he likes you. What? Do I think he does like you? Yes;
I'm sure of it. He was in a taking last night. And I say--ain't he
quite a doctor too? He could do anything, I believe. There, I mustn't
talk to you any more, because you were to be kept quiet."
It must not be imagined that Esau had kept on saying all the above to me
rapidly, for one of these sentences was whispered very slowly now and
then as I lay back feeling not much pain, but hot and feverish, and this
change was noticed soon after by Mr Raydon when he came into the room.
"You have been letting him talk," he said, angrily, as soon as he had
taken my hand.
"That I ain't, sir," cried Esau, indignantly. "Never let him speak a
word."
"That's right. He must be kept very still," said our friend, and he
hurriedly left the room.
"Rather hard on a chap when he has been so particular," grumbled Esau.
"Well, it was my doing, so I mustn't mind."
He was still grumbling when our host re-entered with something in a cup
which he gave me a little at a time, so that I should not have to move,
and soon after he had left me my eyelids grew heavy, and I fell into a
deep sleep, which lasted till it was growing dark, and I could only just
make out Esau's head as he sat watching by my bed.