Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/224

Rh I'd a bullet of yours through my right arm, one through the chest from one of your slouches, and a crack over the head with a carbine stock that'd 'a knocked the gruel outer some people's skulls; so, you see, I hadn't much chance agin the critturs. But I thought I'd fight to a finish, and I should hev done if a Cape lad hadn't come through the kloof before I was all gone and toted what was left of me to his hut, and fetched an old kaffir medicine man to patch me up.

"No, you needn't trouble to make any remarks; you're weak yet, and I'm on deck just now. It'll make things shorter and pleasanter if you just make yourself comfortable an' hear me out. I sha'n't worry you with what happened to me just after. I got better, and I'd one eye and a mouth left, as you see, and the eye had to look around for something to put in the mouth.

"Waal, after considerable ups and downs,