narrator finished, with a very genuine shudder, "if I had not
been rescued when I was. Such bloodthirsty brutes ought to be
shot!"

"He not only OUGHT to be," hotly agreed the chief surgeon, "but
he is GOING to be. Take him out into the street, one of you men,
and put a ball in his head."

The surgeon turned to the panting nurse.

"You're certain he didn't hurt you?" he asked. "I don't want a
newcomer, like yourself, to think this is the usual treatment our
nurses get. Lie down and rest. You look scared to death. And
don't be nervous about the cur attacking you again. He'll be dead
inside of three minutes."

The nurse, with a mumbled word of thanks, scuttled off into the
rear of the church, where the tumbledown vestry had been fitted
up as a dormitory.

Bruce had calmed down somewhat under Mahan's sharp reproof. But
he now struggled afresh to get at his vanished quarry. And again
the Sergeant had a tussle to hold him.

"I don't know what's got into the big fellow!" exclaimed Mahan to
Vivier as the old Frenchman joined the tumultuous group. "He's
gone clean daft. He'd of killed that poor woman, if I hadn't--"

"Get him out of here!" ordered the surgeon. "And clear out,
yourselves, all of you! This rumpus has probably set a lot of my