Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/100

88 months, an' there was nothin' but the divilmint av the boys till we wint to the front cheerin', to wollop the ribils. "What happened I dunno, fer right to the start av it, I got a bullet in me right arrm—here!" He stretched out his deformed wrist. "An' while I was huntin' fer a doctor, all the boys came runnin' back through the woods on top av me, cursin', an' weepin', an' talkin' to thimsilves—an' the sight av thim scared the soul out av me, an' I tied mesilf up in a han'kerchief an' run till the groun' lifted up an' bumped into me—an' that 's all I rimimber fer a week."

He shook his head. "'Twas a bad bus'ness. 'Twas that."

Feeny grunted.

"An' whin I heard the doctors talkin'—er thought I did—I was not in me right mind, no doubt—talkin' av cuttin' off me arrm at th' elbow, I says to mesilf, 'No soree! If yez can't fix me togither, I know a man that can.' An' I slid out av hospital, an' crawled to the depot, an' the nex' thing I rimimber I was bein' bandaged be ol' Doc. McGrath right here in Cherry Street. But how I got there, no one niver cud tell."

Feeny coughed apologetically.

The old man hastened to add: "Anyways it made no matter. Me time was up, an' I was no good fer soldierin' with the hole in the hinge av me hand. 'Not a bit. Not a bit. … Rot the pipe! Have yeh the makin's av a smoke about yeh, at all?"