Estelle came to watch the cricket after luncheon.  She had driven into Bridport with her father and Raymond in the morning and gone on to Jenny Ironsyde for the midday meal.  Now she arrived in time to witness a catastrophe.  A very fast bowler went on immediately after lunch.  He was a tall and powerful youth with a sinister reputation for bowling at the man rather than the wicket.  At any rate he pitched them short and with his lofty delivery bumped them very steeply on a lively pitch.  Now, in his second over, he sent down a short one at tremendous speed, and the batsman, failing to get out of the way, was hit on the point of the jaw.  He fell as though shot and proved to be quite unconscious when picked up.

They carried him to the pavilion, and it was not until twenty minutes had passed that Raymond came round and the game went on.  But Ironsyde could take no further part.  There was concussion of doubtful severity and he found himself half blind and suffering great pain in the neck and head.

Estelle came to him and advised that he should go to his aunt’s house, which was close at hand.  He could not speak, but signified agreement, and they took him there in an ambulance, while the girl ran on to advise his aunt of the accident.

A doctor came with him and helped to get him to bed.  His mind seemed affected and he wandered in his speech.  But he recognised Estelle and begged her not to leave him.  She sat near him, therefore, in a darkened room and Miss Ironsyde also came.

Waldron dropped in before dusk with the news that Bridport had won, by a smaller margin than promised, on the first innings.  But he found Raymond sleeping and did not waken him.  Estelle believed the injured man would want her when he woke again.  The doctor could say nothing till some hours had passed, so she went home, but returned a few hours later to stop the night and help, if need be, to nurse the patient.  A professional nurse shared the vigil; but their duties amounted to nothing, for Raymond slept through the greater part of the night and declared himself better in the morning.

He had to stop with his aunt, however, for two or three days, and while Estelle, her ministration ended, was going away after the doctor pronounced Raymond on the road to recovery, the patient begged her to remain.  He appeared in a sentimental vein, and the experience of being nursed was so novel that Ironsyde endured it without a murmur.  To Estelle, who did not guess he was rather enjoying it, the spectacle of his patience under pain awoke admiration.  Indeed, she thought him most heroic and he made no effort to undeceive her.

Incidentally, during his brief convalescence the man saw more of his aunt than he had seen for many days.  She also must needs nurse him and exhaust her ingenuity to pass the time.  The room was kept dark for eight-and-forty hours, so her method of entertaining her nephew consisted chiefly in conversation.