.
"I'm not going to do it!" came back from under the surgeon's arm.
"There's half a chance--I'm going to try to save it! Hold on, old man,--here's the thing to do--we're going to try--" He went down now into the quivering tissues and laid bare the edge of the broken bone, deep to the inner lines.

Thus the front of the shattered bone lay exposed.

The doctor sighed, as he pushed at this with a steady finger, his eyes frowning, absorbed.

The bullet wound in the anterior edge was not clean cut.

Near it was a long, heavy splinter of bone, the cause of the inflammation--something not suspected in the hurried dressing of the wound in the half darkness at the river edge.