On reaching the first great curtain Denham called upon me to hold it aside, as his hands were full; and as I did so I caught sight, on the right-hand side, of our doctor down on one knee and bending over his patient, whose face could be seen by the light of a lantern placed upon a stone, while his voice sounded plainly, as if he were replying to something the surgeon had said. "Only me, Duncombe," said Denham. "Just come to see how Wren is." "Better, thank goodness," said the doctor. "He seemed to come-to about five minutes ago." "I am glad, Wren," said Denham, setting down the lamp beside the lantern. "Thank ye, sir," said the poor fellow, smiling. "Moray's come with me to look you up." The wounded man looked pleased to see me, and then his face puckered up as he turned his eyes again to the doctor and said: "I don't mind the crack on the head, sir, a bit. Soldiers deal in hard knocks, and they must expect to get some back in return. I know I've given plenty. It's being such a soft worries me." "Well, don't let it worry you. Help me by taking it all coolly, and I'll soon get you well again." "That you will, sir. I know that," said the man gently. "But I feel as if I should like to tell the Colonel that I was trying to do my duty." "He doesn't want telling that, Sam," said Denham. "Of course you were." "But I oughtn't to have been such a fool, sir--such a soft Tommy of a fellow. I knew he was a humbug; but he looked so bad, and pulled such a long face, that I didn't like to be hard. `Here, sentry,' he says, as he sat up with his back to the wall, just after you'd gone, `this right leg's gone all dead again. It's strained and wrenched through the horse lying upon it all those hours. Just come and double up one of those sacks and lay it underneath for a cushion. The pain keeps me from going to sleep.'" "Oh, that's how it happened--was it?" said the doctor, while we two listened eagerly. "I'm coming to it directly, sir," said the man querulously. "Well, sir, seeing as I felt that, as I was sentry over the hospital, I was in charge of a wounded man as well, I just rested my rifle against the wall, picked up one of the sacks, and doubled it in four. Then, just as innocent as a babby, I kneels down, lifts up his leg softly, bending over him like, and was just shoving the bit of a cushion-like thing under his knee, when it seemed as if one of the big stones up there had fallen flat on the back of my head, and I heard some one say, `Take that, you ugly Sassenach beast! and see how you like lying in hospital.' Then it was all black, sir, till I opened my eyes and saw you holding that stuff to my lips." "Yes, my man," said the doctor; "now don't talk any more, but lie still." "Tell me about that crack on the head again, sir, please. It wasn't one of the stones fell down, then?" "No; the prisoner must have got hold of this piece somehow, then kept it ready by the side of his bed, and struck you down."