Colonel Thorndykes Secret | Page 7

but I fancy there is little chance for him.'
"'You had better carry him to the hospital tent at once; I will send a
surgeon there.'
"I called the regimental surgeon up, and went with him to the hospital
tent, telling him what had happened. He shook his head after examining
the man's wound, which was fairly between the shoulders.
"'He may live a few hours, but there is no chance of his getting better.'
"'Now,' I said, 'you may as well have a look at my wound, for the
villain stabbed me too.'
"'You have had a pretty narrow escape of it,' he said, as he examined it.
'If he had struck an inch or two nearer the shoulder the knife would
have gone right into you; but you see I expect he was springing as he
struck, and the blow fell nearly perpendicularly, and it glanced down
over your ribs, and made a gash six inches long. There is no danger. I
will bandage it now, and tomorrow morning I will sew the edges
together, and make a proper job of it.'
"In the morning one of the hospital attendants came to me and said the
soldier who had been wounded wanted to speak to me. The doctor said
he would not live long. I went across to him. He was on a bed some
little distance from any of the others, for it was the healthy season, and
there were only three or four others in the tent.
"'I hear, Major Thorndyke,' he said in a low voice, 'that you killed that
fellow who gave me this wound, and that you yourself were stabbed.'
"'Mine is not a serious business, my man,' I said. 'I wish you had got off
as easily.'

"'I have been expecting it, sir,' he said; 'and how I came to be fool
enough to go outside the tent by myself I cannot think. I was uneasy,
and could not sleep; I felt hot and feverish, and came out for a breath of
fresh air. I will tell you what caused it, sir. About two years ago a
cousin of mine, in one of the King's regiments, who was dying, they
said, of fever (but I know the doctors thought he had been poisoned),
said to me, "Here are some things that will make your fortune if ever
you get to England; but I tell you beforehand, they are dangerous things
to keep about you. I fancy that they have something to do with my
being like this now. A year ago I went with some others into one of
their great temples on a feast day. Well, the god had got on all his
trinkets, and among them was a bracelet with the biggest diamonds I
ever saw. I did not think so much of it at the time, but I kept on
thinking of them afterwards, and it happened that some months after
our visit we took the place by storm. I made straight for the temple, and
I got the jewels. It don't matter how I got them--I got them. Well, since
that I have never had any peace; pretty near every night one or other of
our tents was turned topsy turvy, all the kits turned out, and even the
ground dug up with knives. You know how silently Indian thieves can
work. However, nothing was ever stolen, and as for the diamonds, at
the end of every day's march I always went out as soon as it was quite
dark, and buried the bracelet between the tent pegs; it did not take a
minute to do. When we moved, of course, I took it up again. At last I
gave that up, for however early I turned out in the morning there was
sure to be a native about. I took then to dropping it down the barrel of
my gun; that way I beat them. Still, I have always somehow felt myself
watched, and my tent has been disturbed a great deal oftener than any
of the others. I have had half a mind to throw the things away many a
time, but I could not bring myself to do it."
"'Well, sir, I have carried the bracelet ever since. I have done as he did,
and always had it in my musket barrel--When we had fighting to do I
would drop it out into my hand and slip it into my ammunition pouch;
but I know that I have always been followed, just as Bill was. I suppose
they found out that I went to see him before he died. Anyhow, my tent
has been rummaged again and again. I have no doubt that fellow whom
you killed last night had been watching me all the time,