Seeing that Philip was so much stronger that he could hear, without being overexcited, the story of the rescue, Desmond related all the details to him.

“You have indeed done wonders,” Philip said.  “You do not seem to know what fatigue is.  How strange that you, whose name I had never heard until ten days back, should have rendered to Baron Pointdexter and myself two such inestimable services.

“And so, after all your exertions and fatigue, you have been keeping watch at my bedside all night?”

“I am ashamed to say that I have not been keeping watch, Philip,” Desmond replied with a smile.  “I had intended to, but you were sleeping so quietly, and everything was so still, that I went off and slept, as soundly as you have done, until within half an hour of the time when you opened your eyes; but I am sure that I should have awoke at once, had you moved.”

“Then I am glad that I did not move, Desmond, for you must sorely need a long sleep, after having passed three days and almost three nights in the saddle.”

The surgeons now arrived, and were delighted at the change that had taken place in their patient.

“And when shall I be fit to travel, doctor?”

“Ah, well, we will talk of that in another fortnight’s time.  You need absolute quiet, for were you to move, before your wound is fairly healed, inflammation might set in, and that would throw you back for a very long time.  You have had a very narrow escape, and you are fortunate, indeed, to have got off with only a trifling detention.”

“But I might be carried in a horse litter?”

“Certainly not, at present,” the surgeon said decidedly.  “Possibly, in ten days, you might without danger be so carried, providing they take you in short stages and with easy-paced horses; but I should say that it would be still better, were you to be carried on men’s shoulders.  There is never any difficulty in hiring men, and you could get relays every eight or ten miles, while it would be difficult to get horses accustomed to such work.”

“You don’t think that I should be able to ride, doctor?”

“Certainly not in less than a month, probably not in six weeks.”

“Then I must be carried,” Philip said.  “I should work myself into the fever you talk of, if I were to be kept here.

“What are your plans, Desmond?”

“I have not thought of them, yet.  At any rate, I shall stay with you till you are well enough to start.”

“I could not think of that, Desmond.”

“You have no say in the matter, Philip.  In the first place, you will get on all the faster for my being with you.  In the next place, ten days of my leave are already expired, and were we to go on straight to Pointdexter, I should only have a few days there before starting back for Paris, and I must therefore postpone my visit to some future time.  I can stay here ten days, accompany you some four days on your journey, and then turn back again.”