Adventure, June 1911 — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

340 ever, she closed the door. I forgot my pains in my thankfulness that we were safe from the wolves, and slipped back into sleep. Sometimes I roused alittle at a pang of pain, or rather, after it. For I knew that I had been hurt, rather than felt it. Some- times I dreamed of green fields, and brooks, and music. Sometimes I dreamed that stones were being heaped and heaped on me. The dawn of another day was beginning when I became fully conscious again. The pains-were not so violent, and presently they left me almost entirely. I could not hear Mr. Raynor breathe, but I thought that he did. The others were still—quite still. I could not speak, but I could move my eyelids. I blinked and blinked. Pres- ently I could move a little finger; then all my fingers. Gradually the use of my limbs returned, and I sat up, aching all over—not violently, but with a kind of cramp, and feeling as if I had just come to from “gas” at the dentist’s. ' Mr. Raynor was still “sleeping,” and the Chief Physician had said that he would not wake until some time after us. So I was not worried on his account, after I had ascertained that he really breathed—which was the first thing I did. I was too weak to lift him, and I thought that probably the guards below were gone, and the wolves. So I decided to go up-stairs alone and untie our kind friend, if he still lived. In case I should never return I wrote on the cover of the history and put it beside Mr. Raynor: I have gone for the Chief Physician. Ji I do not return, I shall have died. If we live, I will do what you wish. God bless you. 214,713, London. ELSIE ANDERSON. The corridors were empty, but I felt sure that I heard wolves upon the floors below, so I ran as fast as my shaking legs would carry me. I found the Chief Physician alive and evidently coming to, but not able to speak. I unbound him and rubbed his hands and bathed his face. In about half an hour he could just stand. Then I heard a sound in the corridor. Pi%t-pat, pit-pat! I shut the door, and the wolf came and scratched at it and whined and barked. It went away and came again. At last the Chief Physician stumbled to a cupboard and got two axes and two revolvers. ‘Take some for him,” I proposed; for, of course, I knew that we should go down to Mr. Raynor at all risks. Adventure “He won’t wake yet,” our friend assured. me. “It’s no use burdening ourselves. We shall have to fight our way, I expect.” He seemed quite cheerful at the prospect of the struggle. “Use the ax when; you can, and take the revolver in your left hand. We'll settle this one first. J’ jam his head in the door. Get ready!” He opened the door a little. The wolf— it had been a big bull terrier—forced its head through the opening, and I brought the ax down. “That’s one!” said the Chief Physician. ‘“‘Come on!” And we went out. Strange to say, I had no fear; I felt like a machine. There were no other wolves on the two ‘upper floors, but some were coming up the stairs from the second floor, where Mr. Ray- nor was. ‘They retreated before us, growl- ing and snarling. About twenty waited at the foot of the stairs. We had to reach a, door some twenty yards‘along the corridor. We shot three of the beasts, and the others fell upon them; then we made a rush and reached the room. One wolf tore my dress, but the Chief Physician killed him. An- other got half through the door after us and caught the Chief Physician’s boot, but I blew out its brains. Mr. Raynor was breathing very faintly. The Chief Physician listened to his heart and felt his pulse. He shook his head sev- eral times, and I gasped for breath. “‘T do not know the exact effect of the poison and the antidote on a sleeper,” he said at last. ‘I hope he will wake, but— I do not know. I have done my best, Elsie.” “You have done your best,” I said, “your very best, dear friend. But if he does not live I do not want to. Is there nothing you can do? Nothing?” “Tf I could get a stimulant from my room,”’ he said, “‘it might help him. There is nothing really wrong. It is a question whether his heart is strong enough to out- last the struggle between the poison and the antidote. The heart beats more feebly in the sleep, you see. Are you brave enough to be left?” “T am brave enough not to let you go alone,” I answered. We went to the door, and peeped out. The wolves had gone. So we decided to take Mr. Raynor up-stairs again, carrying him between us. : We were half-way up the first stairs when COmiclboooks (©