Part 15 (2/2)
”And so, after all your exertions and fatigue, you have been keeping watch at my bedside all night?”
”I am ashamed to say that I have not been keeping watch, Philip,”
Desmond replied with a smile. ”I had intended to, but you were sleeping so quietly, and everything was so still, that I went off and slept, as soundly as you have done, until within half an hour of the time when you opened your eyes; but I am sure that I should have awoke at once, had you moved.”
”Then I am glad that I did not move, Desmond, for you must sorely need a long sleep, after having pa.s.sed three days and almost three nights in the saddle.”
The surgeons now arrived, and were delighted at the change that had taken place in their patient.
”And when shall I be fit to travel, doctor?”
”Ah, well, we will talk of that in another fortnight's time. You need absolute quiet, for were you to move, before your wound is fairly healed, inflammation might set in, and that would throw you back for a very long time. You have had a very narrow escape, and you are fortunate, indeed, to have got off with only a trifling detention.”
”But I might be carried in a horse litter?”
”Certainly not, at present,” the surgeon said decidedly.
”Possibly, in ten days, you might without danger be so carried, providing they take you in short stages and with easy-paced horses; but I should say that it would be still better, were you to be carried on men's shoulders. There is never any difficulty in hiring men, and you could get relays every eight or ten miles, while it would be difficult to get horses accustomed to such work.”
”You don't think that I should be able to ride, doctor?”
”Certainly not in less than a month, probably not in six weeks.”
”Then I must be carried,” Philip said. ”I should work myself into the fever you talk of, if I were to be kept here.
”What are your plans, Desmond?”
”I have not thought of them, yet. At any rate, I shall stay with you till you are well enough to start.”
”I could not think of that, Desmond.”
”You have no say in the matter, Philip. In the first place, you will get on all the faster for my being with you. In the next place, ten days of my leave are already expired, and were we to go on straight to Pointdexter, I should only have a few days there before starting back for Paris, and I must therefore postpone my visit to some future time. I can stay here ten days, accompany you some four days on your journey, and then turn back again.”
”A nice way of spending a month's holiday!” Philip grumbled.
”It will be a holiday that I shall long look back to,” Desmond said quietly, ”and with pleasure. I do not say that I should not have enjoyed myself at the baron's chateau, for that I should have done; but the adventures that I have gone through will remain in my mind, all my life, as having gained the friends.h.i.+p of yourself, the baron, and his daughter.”
”Friends.h.i.+p seems to me too mild a word for it, Desmond. You have earned a grat.i.tude so deep that it will be a pain to us, if we cannot show it in deeds.”
”And now, Philip,” Desmond said, changing the subject abruptly, ”I suppose that you will be, at once, sending off one of your men with the news that you are in a fair way towards recovery.
Mademoiselle de Pointdexter is suffering at the thought that you were probably killed. I did my best to give her hope, but without much success. Your two retainers have been fretting greatly that they were not allowed to see you, but I think that now they can be brought up, and you can choose one of them to act as your messenger. He will, of course, ride post, and can arrive at Pointdexter very soon after the baron, if indeed he does not get there first. If he starts at once, and changes horses at each place, he may be there by tomorrow at noon, if not earlier; for it is not more, I believe, than a hundred and twenty miles to Pointdexter. If you will dictate a letter for him to take, I will write it for you.”
”It must be a short one,” the surgeon said, ”just a few words.
Monsieur de la Vallee has talked more than is good for him.”
Half an hour later the messenger started, carrying a note with a few words from Philip to Anne, and a longer letter from Desmond to the baron. Four days later answers were received. The messenger had arrived at Pointdexter two hours before the travellers reached home, and Anne's joy at the news that, not only was Philip alive, but might in a short time be with her, was deep indeed. The baron wrote to Desmond, as well as to Philip, again expressing the deep grat.i.tude of himself and his daughter, greatly regretting that he should not have the opportunity, at present, of thanking him personally. With the letter the messenger brought a bag of money, concerning which he wrote:
”You have, I know, dear Monsieur Kennedy, expended a considerable sum of money in hiring relays of horses, for yourself and Monsieur de la Vallee's men; and this, of course, is a debt you cannot object to my repaying. Without knowing the exact sum, I have roughly calculated the probable amount, and forward it to you by the messenger who will bring you this letter.”
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