Prev | Current Page 119 | Next

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"Under the Deodars"

'
'Not going out this journey,' gasped Bobby, as he was lifted from
the doolie. 'Not going out this journey.' Then with an air of
supreme conviction 'I can't, you see.'
'Not if I can do anything!' said the Surgeon-Major, who had
hastened over from the mess where he had been dining.
He and the Regimental Surgeon fought together with Death for the
life of Bobby Wick. Their work was interrupted by a hairy
apparition in a bluegray dressing-gown who stared in horror at the
bed and cried 'Oh, my Gawd! It can't be 'im!' until an indignant
Hospital Orderly whisked him away.
If care of man and desire to live could have done aught, Bobby
would have been saved. As it was, he made a fight of three days,
and the Surgeon-Major's brow uncreased. 'We'll save him yet,' he
said; and the Surgeon, who, though he ranked with the Captain,
had a very youthful heart, went out upon the word and pranced
joyously in the mud.
'Not going out this journey,' whispered Bobby Wick gallantly, at
the end of the third day.
'Bravo!' said the Surgeon-Major. 'That's the way to look at it,
Bobby.'
As evening fell a gray shade gathered round Bobby's mouth, and he
turned his face to the tent wall wearily. The Surgeon-Major
frowned.
'I'm awfully tired,' said Bobby, very faintly. 'What's the use of
bothering me with medicine? I don't want it.


Pages:
107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131