The patient shrank from the application of the probe, and a smile stole
over the features of the surgeon, as he muttered,--
"There has been nothing before it in that quarter." He now applied
himself in earnest to his work, took off his spectacles, and threw aside
his wig. All this time Dunwoodie stood in feverish silence, holding one
of the hands of the sufferer in both his own, watching the countenance
of Doctor Sitgreaves. At length Singleton gave a slight groan, and the
surgeon rose with alacrity, and said aloud,--
"Ah! there is some pleasure in following a bullet; it may be said to
meander through the human body, injuring nothing vital; but as for
Captain Lawton's men--"
"Speak," interrupted Dunwoodie; "is there hope?--can you find the ball?"
"It's no difficult matter to find that which one has in his hand, Major
Dunwoodie," replied the surgeon, coolly, preparing his dressings. "It
took what that literal fellow, Captain Lawton, calls a circumbendibus,
a route never taken by the swords of his men, notwithstanding the
multiplied pains I have been at to teach him how to cut scientifically.
Now, I saw a horse this day with his head half severed from his body."
"That," said Dunwoodie, as the blood rushed to his cheeks again, and his
dark eyes sparkled with the rays of hope, "was some of my handiwork; I
killed that horse myself.
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