Part 21 (1/2)
”Apply a tourniquet well on the femoral artery, and do what I could to check the bleeding.”
”Humph! Suppose a fellow had a bullet through him anywhere?”
”Plug and bandage the wound.”
”Sword-cut?”
”Depend on what and where it was. Most likely put in a few st.i.tches to draw it together, and then apply strapping.”
”All right,” said Wyatt; ”we're often right away from a doctor, and some of us get into trouble, so just you stick by me, d.i.c.k, in case I go down.”
d.i.c.k laughed.
”I suppose what you say is all right.”
”Oh, yes,” said the lad confidently. ”That is what my father would have done.”
”But your father was never in a battle.”
”In the battle of life every day,” said d.i.c.k.
”But he never treated a man who had had his leg taken off by a shot.”
”No; but he has treated poor fellows who have had their legs taken off by machines.”
”Well, no sword-cuts?”
”Worse ones--made by scythes.”
”I've got you this time! No holes made by bullets?”
”No: but I went with him once to see a poor fellow who had had an iron rod driven through one arm.”
”Bravo, old fellow--Well, has he quieted down?” This to Hulton, who was coming away from the cell door.
”I've sent for the doctor.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
WYATT'S OLD FATHER.
The prisoner's injury proved to be so slight, and his conduct so bad upon his being brought before his officers and those of the other regiments in barracks, that at last it was decided that a severe punishment must now follow the many breaches of discipline of which he had been guilty; and the sentence was no more than might have been expected, for in those days there was less hesitation over meting out punishment in the army than there is now.
d.i.c.k shuddered when he heard it, and Wyatt looked at him grimly.
”No use to make a face at it, my dear boy,” he said. ”He deserved it, and ought to have had it a twelvemonth ago.”
”Oh, yes, I dare say; but we all deserve more than we get.”
”Speak for yourself, d.i.c.ky, boy. I feel particularly good; nothing more on my conscience than a general feeling of laziness, and a stone too much weight.”