Soldiers

Back at the hut Ronald was delirious still, and unaware that his captors had abandoned him.

Outside the hut, five men stepped into the clearing. One of them turned to the man next to him. “You say that there were three of them, Mr. Alton?” he asked.

“Yes, and they were carrying something too.” Mr. Alton replied.

“Okay, men! Get ready, we’re going in!” cried the captain.

They charged in, pistols ready. To their surprise they didn’t find three criminals, but one young boy lying on some blankets. There was silence. The stillness was broken by Ronald’s voice, “Oh, please don’t hit me! My foot! It’s slipping! Help! I’m falling! Oh, my chest hurts!” on and on he rambled.

The captain, whose name was Mark, walked over to Ronald. He knelt next to the boy. Gently he checked Ronald’s chest. Standing up he walked back to Mr. Alton. “The boy’s got a couple broken ribs. We had better get him to a hospital, he also has a fever.”

Mark told the two soldiers to carry Ronald. The two men carried Ronald out the door.

After a couple minutes of walking they reached a wagon. After putting Ronald in the carriage, Mark and the two men that had carried Ronald mounted their horses. Mr. Alton got into the wagon and off they went.

Ronald didn’t know it, but he was in Talio, the capital of Sirine.

As they rode along the streets, Mark read the signs on the buildings. “Stop here.” He told the driver.

The wagon stopped in front of a building. Mark got out and said, to the two soldiers, “Get the boy out of the wagon and carry him in.”

The soldiers quickly obeyed. They carried Ronald up the steps and into the building, which was the hospital. A nurse hurried up. “May I help you?” she asked.

“Yes, this boy is injured.” Mark said.

The nurse took one look at Ronald and gasped. “I’ll be right back!” she said and hurried off.

A couple minutes later, she came back with a doctor.

“Step right into this room.” The doctor told them, motioning towards a door.

They carefully carried Ronald into the room and laid him on the table. Then the doctor motioned them out of the room.

About half an hour later, the doctor appeared. “He broke three ribs, has, a cut on the leg and quite a few bruises.” The doctor said in reply to Mark’s question concerning Ronald, “Where on earth did you find him, and who is he?”

“We found him in a hut in the woods. A gentleman, Mr. Alton, said the he was hunting and saw three men go into the hut, they were carrying this boy.” Said Mark, “He was delirious when we found him. He had no identification.”

“Well, we have him bandaged and we gave him some medicine to help him sleep. The medicine should take effect soon; his fever was better when I left him.” The doctor said.

The doctor led the way down a corridor and motioned towards a door. “He’s in there, well, I have patients waiting.” The doctor said, he left.

Mark pushed open the door of the room. A nurse greeted him. “He went to sleep. The medicine is taking effect and his fever has lowered noticeably.” She said.

Inside the room, Mark saw Ronald lying on a bed. He looked pale and tired, but he was not delirious any longer. So, the captain withdrew from the room quietly.

Mark went across the street to the inn and got rooms for the night.

Every day Mark went across the street to the hospital and checked on Ronald. They still didn’t know his name, so they called him Tom.

Three days after Ronald was brought to the hospital, he woke up. Looking around he couldn’t figure out where he was. His last memory was of Mike rolling him onto the stretcher.

As Ronald lay there, a nurse entered the room “Hello! So, you finally woke up.” She said, smiling at him.

“Where am I?” asked Ronald, bewildered.

“You’re in the hospital.” The nurse replied.

“The hospital!” Exclaimed Ronald.

“Yes.” another voice said.

Ronald, turning, saw a doctor standing beside him. “Careful, don’t move around.” The doctor continued, laying his hand on Ronald’s shoulder “Who are you? When the soldiers brought you in there wasn’t anything to identify you.”

“The soldiers!” Ronald exclaimed, “You mean Mike, Ovie and Pat didn’t bring me here?”

“Who are they?” Asked the doctor.

So Ronald told the doctor about how he had chased the robbers and had been captured and then how he had fallen down the cliff.

“So, you’re Ronald Milton. The soldiers have been looking everywhere for you. Your father put out an advertisement for news of you. I’ll send a message saying that we found you.” The doctor said, “Well, Ronald, you were lucky in only getting bruises, cuts, and three broken ribs falling down that cliff. You might have been injured a lot worse.

You’re going to have to stay here until you recover enough to go home. You don’t have much strength, a lack of food didn’t help that, and we don’t want to risk more infection.”

“How long will I have to stay?” Ronald asked.

“At least a month.”

“A month!” Ronald exclaimed.

“Yes, and possibly more. And you’re going to stay right in that bed until then.” The doctor said firmly.

“Okay, I suppose haven’t much choice.”

The doctor smiled and patted him on the shoulder. Then, he left.

End of Chapter Three