"Shot! I knowed there'd be'n a pistol used, though where they got it beats me--we stripped 'em--and it wasn't Mr.
Harkless's; he never carried one.

But a shot-gun!" An attendant entered and spoke to the surgeon, and Gay rose wearily, touched the drowsy young man on the shoulder, and led the way to the door.

"You can come now," he said to the others; "though I doubt its being any good to you.

He's delirious." They went down a long hall and up a narrow corridor, then stepped softly into a small, quiet ward.
There was a pungent smell of chemicals in the room; the light was low, and the dimness was imbued with a thick, confused murmur, incoherent whisperings that came from a cot in the corner.

It was the only cot in use in the ward, and Meredith was conscious of a terror that made him dread, to look at it, to go near it.