The young
surgeon was very much annoyed. The staff surgeon went away next
day. There was a good deal of inflammation, and the young surgeon
decided to amputate. The man never rallied from the operation, and
died next day."
"I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to good
advice. I was not a wise man in those days--I was a pig headed
young fool. I thought I knew all about it, and I was quite right
according to my experience in London hospitals. In the case of an
Englishman, the hand would have been amputated, and the man would
have been all right three weeks afterwards. But I knew nothing
about these soft hearted Hindoos, and never dreamt that an operation
which would be a trifle to an Englishman would be fatal to one of
them, and that simply because, although they are plucky enough in
some respects, they have no more heart than a mouse when anything
is the matter with them. Yes, if it hadn't been for the old Colonel,
who gave me a private hint to say nothing about the affair, but
merely to put down in my report, 'Died from the effect of a gunshot
wound,' I should have got into a deuce of a scrape over that affair.
As it was, it only cost me a hundred rupees to satisfy the man's
family and send them back to their native village. That was for
years a standing joke against me, Miss Hannay; except your uncle
and the Colonel, there is no one left in the regiment who was there,
but it was a sore subject for a long time.
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