Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing butmisfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whomI served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, whichshattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of themurderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, whothrew me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines. Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and hadalready improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon theverandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. Formonths my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I wasso weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending meback to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship "Orontes," and landed a monthlater on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternalgovernment to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve i