Probing with his finger he located the ball
which had lodged in the muscles under his left arm. Taking his knife
he inserted the hook with which it was luckily supplied, and, after
much pain, and rending of the flesh and muscles, extracted the
bullet. The bleeding soon became less copious; and from this he took
much heart, for he was assured that no artery was severed. Having
washed the wound he proceeded to make some lint, which he applied as
skilfully as a surgeon could have done, after which he went to a fir
tree and therefrom obtained a quantity of balsam.
His long experience as a hunter had taught him how to manage wounds;
and he now prepared a number of narrow strips of linen. Upon each of
these he spread a quantity of the fir balsam; and then put the strip
across the wound. About a dozen similar pieces were laid across, and
these held the wound together; after which he placed a couple of
larger slips along the wound at right angles to the shorter pieces.
He then dressed and seated himself upon a tree-bole, and once more
became buried in his gloomy reflections.
It was not of his love that next he thought, but of his wretched
predicament.
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