The artery had broken out fresh.
Calling to the soldier's wife to run across to the doctor, Jess shook her patient till he awoke, for he was sleeping quite soundly, and would, no doubt, have continued to do so till he glided away into a still deeper sleep; and then between them they did what they could to quench that dreadful pumping flow, Jess knotting her handkerchief round his leg and twisting it with a stick, while he pressed his thumb upon the severed artery.

But, strive as they would, they were only partially successful, and Jess began to think that he would die in her arms from loss of blood.

It was agonising to wait there minute after minute and see his life ebbing away.
"I don't think I shall last much longer, Jess.

God bless you, dear!" he said.

"The place is beginning to go round and round." Poor soul! she could only set her teeth and wait for the end.
Presently John's pressure on the wounded artery relaxed, and he fainted off, and, oddly enough, just then the flow of blood diminished considerably.