CHAPTER VII
HERBERT'S WOUND
At Herbert's cry, Pencroft letting his gun fall, rushed towards him. They have killed him!" he cried. "My boy! They have killed him!"
Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett ran to Herbert.
The reporter listened to hear if the lad's heart still beat. "He lives," said he; "but he must be carried———"
"To Granite House? it is impossible!" cried the engineer.
"Into the corral, then!" said Pencroft.
"In a moment," said Harding. And he ran round the corner of the palisade. There stood a convict, who aiming at him, sent a ball through his hat. In a few seconds, before the man had even time to fire his second barrel, he fell, struck to the heart by Harding's dagger, more sure even than his gun.
During this time, Gideon Spilett and the sailor hoisted themselves over the palisade, rushed across the enclosure, threw down the bar of the inner door, and ran into the empty house. Soon, poor Herbert was lying on Ayrton's bed. In a few moments, Harding was by his side.
On seeing Herbert senseless, the sailor's grief was terrible. He sobbed, he cried, he tried to beat his head against the wall. His companions couldn't calm him. They themselves were choked with emotion. They could not speak.
They knew that it depended on them to rescue from death the poor boy who was suffering beneath their eyes. Gideon Spilett had not passed through the many incidents by which his life had been chequered without acquiring some slight knowledge of medicine. Several times he had been obliged to attend to wounds produced either by a sword-bayonet or shot. Assisted by Harding, he proceeded to render the aid Herbert required.
The reporter was immediately struck by the complete stupor in which Herbert lay, a stupor due either to hemorrhage, or to the shock of the ball having struck a bone with violent force. Herbert was deadly pale, and his pulse so feeble that Spilett only felt it beat at long intervals, as if on the point of stopping. These symptoms were serious.
Herbert's chest was laid bare, and the blood having been staunched with handkerchiefs, it was bathed with cold
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