He is next the door at the further end;
we put him there to let him get as much fresh air as possible, for, by the
powers, this place is like a furnace!"
Captain O'Connor was lying on his back, the straw having been arranged so
as to raise his shoulders and head. He smiled when Terence came up to him.
"Thank God you have got safely through it, lad!"
"I should not have minded being hit, father, if you had escaped," Terence
said, with difficulty suppressing a sob, while in spite of his efforts the
tears rolled down his cheeks.
"The doctors say I shall pull through all right. I hear poor Harrison is
killed; he was a good fellow. Though it has given me my step, I am
heartily sorry. So we have thrashed them, lad; that is a comfort. I was
afraid when they went up the hill that they might be too much for us, and
I was delighted when I heard them coming tearing down again, though I had
not much time to think about it. They had stepped over me pretty much as
they went up, but they had no time to pick their way as they came back
again, and after one or two had jumped on me, I remembered no more about
it until I found myself here with O'Flaherty probing the wound and hurting
me horribly. I am bruised all over, and I wonder some of my ribs are not
broken; at present they hurt me a good deal more than this wound in the
hip.
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