That bullet was mine, and had you not stumbled
over a Pandy's body, I suppose, just as I pulled my trigger, you
would have been a dead man.
"I did not know that I had failed, and, rushing forward with my
company, was in the thickest of the fight. I wanted to be killed,
but no shot struck me, and at last, when chasing a Pandy along a
passage in the Kaiser Bagh, he turned and levelled his piece at me.
Mine was loaded, and I could have shot him down as he turned, but I
stood and let him have his shot. When I found myself here I was
sorry that he had not finished me at once, but when I heard that
you were alive, and likely to recover, I thanked him in my heart
that he had left me a few more days of life, that I could let you
know that it was I who had fired, and that Martha's wrong had not
been wholly unavenged."
He sank back exhausted on to the pillow. Frank Mallett had made no
attempt to interrupt him: the sudden agony of his wound and his
astonishment at this strange accusation had given him so grave a
shock that he leaned against the wall behind him in silent wonder.
"Hello! Mallett, what the deuce is the matter with you?" the
surgeon exclaimed, as, looking up from a patient over whom he was
bending a short distance away, his eyes fell on the officer's face.
Pages:
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95