AN UNPLEASANT ADVENTURE. 243 
I saw a gleam of light. I have a vague remem- 
brance of being dragged out, plunged into cold 
water, and savagely rubbed with a kind of 
hempen rasp. 
As I became quite conscious of what was going 
on, I was partly dressed, and lying on the grass, 
the Doctor and the Major standing close by, 
the bathers rubbing my hands and feet; whilst 
Aunty, squatted on a log, was holding a cup 
containing some steaming mixture. 
‘OQ Doctor!’ I said, as well as I could articu- 
late, ‘a little more, and you would have had to 
bury me; I was nearly gone!’ 
‘Waal, Cap’en, I kind of guess you must have 
had a near shave for life, but it warn’t meant no- 
how. You see the Major and me just strolled up 
to take a peep at the mustangs, and the darned 
brutes stampeded, breaking clean out of the 
“ corral,” and went past the bath-house like mad. 
The boys see ’em, and hearin’ us a-hollerin’, 
made tracks right after ’em, and never thought 
‘about your bein’ a-steamin’. Old Aunty, by 
sheer luck, heard you a-screamin’ and a-snortin’, 
and it mighty nigh skeert the old woman to 
death, for she thought “Old Hoof” was a-bilin’ 
himself. Up she came a-tearin’ and a-shriekin’ 
that somethin’ unearthly was in the steam- 
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