"It must have been partly spent with the long distance it travelled." "I wish it had been quite spent," said Denham through his teeth, "Oh, what a fuss I'm making about such a trifle! Nothing worse than having a stone thrown at one." "It's gone right through the back of your jacket," said one of the men.
"Look, there's quite a big hole." "It has not broken the skin," I said, examining his back.
"No, of course not.

Here, give me that jacket again, you.

Let's get it on.

This is all waste of time." He winced a good deal and looked very white; but he bravely mastered his feeling of faintness, and struggled once more into his tunic, suffering greatly, as I could see by the pallor breaking through his sun-browned skin.
"Stings a bit," he said to me as he fastened the buttons; "but it might have been worse--eh, Val?
I always was a thick-skinned fellow, and it turns out lucky now.

How far is the nearest skirmisher ?" "A good thousand yards, I should say," I replied.
"Good, and no mistake, for the distance has saved me, Val, my lad.