Chapters 16 and 17 Summary

The chapter begins with a brief narration of Bond's time in hospital, during which a conversation between an intern and a nurse reveals several important points—that Scaramanga's bullets were tipped with snake venom, that those bullets missed Bond's internal organs by millimeters, and that immediate attention to the wounds from a Jamaican doctor saved Bond's life. The next section of the chapter narrates a visit paid to Bond by several Jamaican officials, Mary Goodnight (who takes notes of the visit), and Leiter. On this visit, a Jamaican judge details the official, politically correct, legally uncomplicated, and diplomatically manipulated version of the events at the hotel and on the train (as opposed to the real version). He asks Bond and Leiter to confirm whether that version is true. When they do, the judge awards them both a medal and leaves...