"Then your head's not healed. Now, my dear boys, experience has told me that in this country very slight injuries develop into terrible ulcers and other blood-poisoning troubles. That renegade beast you tell me about is to answer for your limbs being in a very bad condition, and it will take all I know to set them right." "But, doctor, I wouldn't have cared if they were good honest wounds." "All wounds are wounds, sir, and injuries are injuries, to a surgeon. Frankly, neither of you must put a foot to the ground for weeks." "Oh doctor!" we exclaimed together. "My dear boys, trust me," he said. "I want to see you stout men, not cripples on crutches, and--How dare you, you black-looking scoundrel!" "Joeboy!" we shouted together excitedly. "Jump in. Hurrah!" As the doctor had spoken we noticed Joeboy's black face, with gleaming eyes and grinning mouth, rising above the big box at the end of the wagon. He wanted no further orders, but swung himself in lightly. "Um?" he exclaimed. "Boss Val, Boss Denham right?" "Yes," I cried, holding out my hand, which he took. "Joeboy, you frightened me; I thought you were killed." "Um? Joeboy killed? What for? Been look all among the dead ones and broken ones; um dead quite." "Who's dead?" I cried. "Um? Ugly white boss captain, Irish boss Boer. Joeboy meant to kill um, but um run away too." "That will do," said the doctor. "Just listen to my orders before I go off to the poor fellows waiting for me. You two are not to set foot to the ground. Promise me. I'll let you keep that black fellow to lift you about. He will do so, I suppose?" he added, turning to me. "He will. He'd be only too glad." The doctor rose, nodded, and went away; and soon after we had visits from the colonels of both the regiments, and from the young captain who had saved us from the zeal of his men, all these visitors congratulating us warmly upon our escape, and praising Joeboy for his bravery. That afternoon we were on the march in what Denham called our peripatetic hospital; but he was not happy. Pain and disappointment seemed always uppermost in spite of the friendly attentions we received from his brother-officers. "Yes, it's all very good of you," he said sadly; "but fancy being laid aside now, after the Boers have been thrashed and there's nothing to do but give them the finishing-cuts to make them behave better in the future." As days glided by, Denham, to his surprise, learned that there was no more fighting to do. First of all, our little forces of the Light Horse and the infantry were depressed by the news that the General, with the main body, had met with a terrible reverse from the Boers, whose peculiar way of fighting had stood them in good stead and made up for the qualities they lacked.