"I can make nothing of it and get nothing out of her," he
said, "but I have seen that look on a man's face before, and it is not
a look that I like to see. She seems unwilling to tell anything of the
reason for his illness, but there must be some story at the bottom of
it all, if we could only get at it. Go in and try."
So Lady Eleanor went in, while Colonel George stood at the door holding
the horses, and sat for a time looking at the sick man in silence, till
at last she asked the woman if she thought the bandsmen had hurt him
when they seized him.
"No, 'twasn't the bandsmen," said the woman absently, and without
looking up; "'twas the sarjint as did it."
"What did the serjeant do to him?" asked Colonel George from the door.
"It is a shameful thing if he hurt him, for Brimacott told me that he
had begged him not to be hard on him."
But the woman gave no answer, seeming rather ashamed to have said so
much; and after another silence Lady Eleanor asked another question or
two which was answered very shortly, and said something about calling
in a doctor.
"Doctor, no!" answered the woman fiercely. "They never do nought but
bleed a man to death."
"Are you sure?" said Colonel George. "I know there were army-doctors
who used to bleed men disgracefully. You remember," he added, turning
for a moment to Lady Eleanor, "what Charlie Napier of the Fiftieth
wrote from Hythe, that the doctors thought bleeding to death the best
way of recovering sick soldiers.
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