It's only _poison_, Sir, deadly, barefaced poison!' he began sardonically, with a grin, and ended with a black glare and a knock on the table, like an auctioneer's 'gone!' 'There are no less than two--three--_five_ mortal poisons in it,' said the doctor with emphatic acerbity.

'You and Mr.Puddock will allow _that's_ rather strong.' O'Flaherty sat down and looked at Sturk, and wiping his damp face and forehead, he got up without appearing to know where he was going.
Puddock stood with his hands in his breeches pockets, staring with his little round eyes on the doctor, I must confess, with a very foolish and rather guilty vacuity all over his plump face, rigid and speechless, for three or four seconds; then he put his hand, which did actually tremble, upon the doctor's arm, and he said, very thickly-- 'I feel, Sir, you're right; it is my fault, Sir, I've poisoned him -- merthiful goodneth!--I--I--' Puddock's address acted for a moment on O'Flaherty.

He came up to him pale and queer, like a somnambulist, and shook his fingers very cordially with a very cold grasp.
'If it was the last word I ever spoke, Puddock, you're a good-natured--he's a gentleman, Sir--and it was _all_ my own fault; he warned me, he did, again' swallyin' a dhrop of it--remember what I'm saying, doctor--'twas _I_ that done it; I was _always_ a botch, Puddock, an' a fool; and--and--gentlemen--good-bye.' And the flowered dressing-gown and ungartered stockings disappeared through the door into the bed-room, from whence they heard a great souse on the bed, and the bedstead gave a dismal groan.
'Is there;--_is_ there nothing, doctor--for mercy's sake, think--doctor, do--I conjure you--pray think--there must be something'-- urged Puddock, imploringly.
'Ay, that's the way, Sir, fellows quacking themselves and one another; when they get frightened, and with good reason, come to us and expect miracles; but as in this case, the quantity was not very much, 'tis not, you see, overpowering, and he _may_ do if he takes what I'll send him.' Puddock was already at his bedside, shaking his hand hysterically, and tumbling his words out one over the other-- 'You're thafe, my dear Thir--_dum thpiro thpero_--he thayth--Dr.
Thturk--he can thave you, my dear Thir--my dear lieutenant--my dear O'Flaherty--he can thave you, Thir--thafe and thound, Thir.' O'Flaherty, who had turned his face to the wall in the bitterness of his situation--for like some other men, he had the intensest horror of death when he came peaceably to his bedside, though ready enough to meet him with a 'hurrah!' and a wave of his rapier, if he arrived at a moment's notice, with due dash and eclat--sat up like a shot, and gaping upon Puddock for a few seconds, relieved himself with a long sigh, a devotional upward roll of the eyes, and some muttered words, of which the little ensign heard only 'blessing,' very fervently, and 'catch me again,' and 'divil bellows it;' and forthwith out came one of the fireworker's long shanks, and O'Flaherty insisted on dressing, shaving, and otherwise preparing as a gentleman and an officer, with great gaiety of heart, to meet his fate on the Fifteen Acres.
In due time arrived the antidote.

It was enclosed in a gallipot, and was what I believe they called an electuary.

I don't know whether it is an obsolete abomination now, but it looked like brick-dust and treacle, and what it was made of even Puddock could not divine.