He came to himself again, and it was all black about him--thick, heavy, chill darkness, full of groans and curses and the smell of blood and dead men. The heavy little windows came slowly out of the black void first, then the massive pillars, and after a long, long time he saw dim figures moving slowly about in the twilight. One passed close to him, and he wanted to call to him to ask him about Jack, but when he tried to speak he found he could not. Then two more men came and dragged away the bodies of the two who lay in the straw on each side of him. Their clothes rubbed his as they went. He had not thought about them because they had lain so quiet. The men came back with another man, who groaned as they laid him down, and then with another on the other side who groaned also, and Jim wished they had left him the quieter ones. It was a very long time before a surgeon came round to look at the new-comers, and Jim had had plenty of time to think as well as he was able to. If he lay there much longer he would die. He must get them to take him away. How? His dulled wits, roaming for possibilities, came on thought of the Grand Duke's doctor who had pulled Jack through. If he could get them to send for him. . . . Though why he should come was quite beyond him. . . . Still it was a chance. The surgeon took off his right-hand neighbour's leg where he lay, by the light of a lamp. The man gave a sudden gasp and a choke, the surgeon said "Ach!" and they carried the body away. He took off the left-hand man's arm and strapped it up. Jim with a mighty effort said, "Monsieur!" And the rumpled surgeon looked down at him and wiped his fingers on a piece of dirty rag. "I beg you," said Jim, and the surgeon bent down to him. "Well?" he said brusquely, for loads of broken men lay waiting for him, and he had cut and carved till his hands and arms were tired and his back stiff with bending. "I want . . . the Grand Duke's doctor," murmured Jim. "The deuce you do? Anything else?" And he was going. "The Grand Duke's own orders. . . He will tell you." And then he went out into the darkness again. But the feeble words had caused the surgeon to look more closely, and then to make inquiries, and when Jim came back to life he was in bed at Mme Greski's, and Tatia was sitting by the bedside. And to Jim it was like a sudden leap from hell to heaven. Tatia nodded cheerfully to him. "Where's Jack?" he asked in a whisper. "They've not found him yet. They're searching for him," said Tatia, after a moment's hesitation. "You're not to talk, or to think, or do anything but what I tell you. Drink this." And he drank, and fell asleep again.