As Jerry rushed into Lacey's room, it was with the full expectation of
seeing the master for whom he had begun to feel a warm respect
stretched, face downward, upon the carpet; but the place was vacant,
and, panting and trembling, he ran on to where the heavy curtain draped
the bedroom door, swung it aside, and rushed in--there to see that the
lieutenant, in shirt and trousers, had fallen upon the bed, from which
he was now evidently writhing and struggling to the floor.
Jerry was a man of resource. He had not been servant and valet to
gentlemen for years without picking up a great deal--nursing being one
of his accomplishments.
"Badly, perhaps fatally, wounded," he thought, "and immediate aid might
be invaluable;" so, with this idea uppermost, he flung himself upon the
young officer just as his feet touched the carpet, stooped down, and, by
a clever quick motion, seized him round the knees, lifted his legs, and
threw him on his back.
"Oh, how could you--how could you?" he cried, as he leant over him,
pressing him down with his head on the pillow, and searched him wildly
with his eyes, and then with one hand, for the wound.
"Do you hear?" he half-whimpered. "How could you? Oh, Mr Lacey, sir,
how could you?"
The young officer's eyes looked fixed and staring, his face was white
and drawn, and his mind was evidently confused and wandering. For the
first few moments he struggled violently; then he lay back panting with
his lips apart, while Jerry went on excitedly searching for the wound,
but without success.
Then he turned his eyes to the floor, looking about in all directions
for the pistol, then about the bed, which had not been turned down, but
without avail; and his eyes sought those of the young man again as he
held him, and with one hand felt for the pulsation at the heart.
"What's matter?" said Lacey, thickly.
At that moment Jerry caught sight of a glass on the dressing-table, and
he uttered a cry, but felt confused and puzzled directly after; for his
common sense told him that, if the lieutenant had tried to poison
himself, whatever he had taken would not have gone off with a tremendous
bang inside and made the windows rattle.
"What's matter?" said the lieutenant again, in a confused way; "did I--
did I--tumble out of bed?"
"No, no. I saved you, sir!" whimpered Jerry, hysterically. "Oh, sir,
where is it? What have you done?"
"I d' know," said Lacey, confusedly. Then, with the power to think
returning, he seized Jerry's hands, and tried to remove them from his
chest. "Here! what are you doing?"
"Doing! doing!" cried Jerry. "Oh, why don't you speak! Can you hold
out while I fetch the doctor?"
"Doctor? I d' know?" cried Lacey, staring in a stupefied way at his
servant, and then growing angry at being held down. "Here! what's the
matter? Have I been taken ill?"
"Ill? It's ten times worse than that, sir. Hold still. Where are you
hurt? Where's the pistol?"
"Confound you! Will you leave go?" cried the lieutenant, who grew angry
as his senses returned; and, gripping Jerry firmly, he wrenched himself
round, made a violent effort, forced his man back, and rose to a sitting
position on the edge of the bed.
"Mr Lacey, sir, don't!" cried Jerry.
"Oh, won't I!" cried the lieutenant. "What do you mean by it? How dare
you, sir? Couldn't you sit up late without getting at my spirit-stand?
What is it--brandy?"
"That it ain't, sir! I never touched a drop!" cried Jerry, indignantly.
"Don't, sir! You hurt me!"
"Hurt you? Yes, you dog, I mean to! You hurt me pretty well! Why,
you're as drunk as a piper!"
"Tell you I ain't, sir!" cried Jerry. "I took four cups o' coffee to
keep me awake. That's all. But--but, Mr Lacey, sir, didn't you do it?
Didn't you hurt yourself?--didn't--didn't--"
"`Didn't--didn't'--don't stammer and stutter like that! Confound you!
What do you mean by dragging me out of bed in this way? You must have
been at the spirits!"
"Tell you I haven't!" roared Jerry, indignantly. "It's taking a man's
character away, sir!"
"Then what do you mean by seizing me like this?"
"I heard a noise, sir--I thought you'd been losing money all night to
Mr Frayne, sir, and that you'd shot yourself, sir--with your pistol,
sir. Ain't yer, sir?"
"I shot myself? Pistol? Why, Brigley, you must be tipsy!"
"Which I ain't, sir; indeed, I ain't!" protested Jerry. "But are you
really all right, sir? I heered a horful bang."
"I'm so stupidly confused and sleepy, I hardly know," said Lacey. "I
suppose I must have rolled off the bed."
"Then you ain't hurt, sir?"
"Not that I know of."
"But something went off, sir."
"Soda-water."
"Oh, no, sir; hundred times as loud as that."
"Never mind. I'm thirsty. Bring me some."
"Yes, sir; directly, sir," cried Jerry, and he hurried out into the
lobby, to come back in a minute with a glass of the sparkling
anti-feverish water, to find the lieutenant bathing his face.
"Hah, that's refreshing!" said Lacey, returning the glass to the waiter
Jerry held in his trembling hands. "Why, you look as if you had seen a
ghost, Brigley!"
"I thought I was going to see one, sir--yours! And you ain't hurt a
bit?"
"It's quite bad enough to have to be shot by other people, Brigley,
without trying to hurt oneself. But how came you to think such a
thing?"
"Well, sir--I--"
"Well, you what?"
"--Have heered of such things, sir, with gents--as has been in great
trouble, sir--as lost a deal o' money, sir."
Lacey frowned.
"Ever been with a gentleman who did such a thing?"
"Well, yes, sir--almost, sir--not exactly, sir; but I thought he had,
sir."
"That's a nice clear way of expressing yourself. Well, don't run away
with that idea, again. I don't like to be snatched out of my sleep in
that fashion. What time is it? Morning gun fired?"
Jerry's jaw dropped, and he stood staring over the empty soda-water
glass.
"I said had the morning gun been fired!" remarked Lacey, sharply.
Jerry's face began to wrinkle all over, and there was a peculiar twinkle
in his eyes as they met his master's.
"Yes, sir, the gun's gone off a quarter of a hour ago."
"There, be off! Call me in time to dress for parade."
"Yes, sir; of course, sir. Very sorry, sir. My mistake, sir. But
don't you see how it was?"
"No; I'm too sleepy to see anything; but don't make any more such
mistakes."
"No, sir--cert'nly not, sir; but don't you see, sir, how it was,
really?"
"No; unless you'd had too much coffee!"
"Well, sir, then, as you will keep on thinking it was coffee or
something else, I must, for my character's sake, sir, explain."
"Not this morning, Brigley, thank you; some other time."
"Won't take a moment, sir," persisted Jerry. "You see, I'd got
thinking, sir, through having had a hawkward experience of the sort,
that you might do something of the kind; and I was actually meaning to
walk in and stop you, when there was that tremenjus noise, and I thought
you'd made it."
"And I did not!" said the lieutenant, angrily. "Now be off!"
"No, sir, it wasn't you," said Jerry, grinning; "and it only shows how
easy we can make mistakes. You see now, sir? It was the morning gun."