summoned the guard.

We were all afoot upon the instant; more lanterns and soldiers
crowded in front of the shed; an officer elbowed his way in. In
the midst was the big naked body, soiled with blood. Some one had
covered him with his blanket; but as he lay there in agony, he had
partly thrown it off.

'This is murder!' cried the officer. 'You wild beasts, you will
hear of this to-morrow.'

As Goguelat was raised and laid upon a stretcher, he cried to us a
cheerful and blasphemous farewell.



CHAPTER III--MAJOR CHEVENIX COMES INTO THE STORY, AND GOGUELAT GOES
OUT



There was never any talk of a recovery, and no time was lost in
getting the man's deposition. He gave but the one account of it:
that he had committed suicide because he was sick of seeing so many
Englishmen. The doctor vowed it was impossible, the nature and
direction of the wound forbidding it. Goguelat replied that he was
more ingenious than the other thought for, and had propped up the
weapon in the ground and fallen on the point--'just like
Nebuchadnezzar,' he added, winking to the assistants. The doctor,
who was a little, spruce, ruddy man of an impatient temper, pished