human
All right, Jack; he's coming round. I'm quite certain that no serious damage is done. I know well what sort o' rap he must have got. It'll bother him a little at first, but it won't last long.
gpt
What has happened?
human
Ah! that's right, Ralph. I'm glad to hear your voice again. D'you know, I thought at first it was all over with you?
gpt
Over with him! echoed Peterkin;
human
No, not until you tell me what has occurred,
gpt
Then I _won't_ tell you a word until you drink,
human
Now, continued Peterkin,
gpt
I'll tell you what has happened. We've floored a rhinoceros and a giraffe and a lion, which, to my thinking, is a pretty fair bag to make after dusk of a Saturday night! And my big rifle has floored _you_, which is the least satisfactory part of the night's entertainment, but which wouldn't have occurred had you remembered my instructions, which you never do.
human
Oh, I recollect now, said I, as the spirits revived me.
gpt
I'm all right.--But, Jack, I trust that you have not received damage?
human
Not a scratch, I'm thankful to say; though I must confess I was near catching an ugly wound.
gpt
How so?
human
Oh, make your mind easy, put in Peterkin;
gpt
You don't mean it!
human
Come, come, said he, smiling;
gpt
Peterkin, you should not talk lightly of so narrow an escape, said I reproachfully.
human
The fact that such a terrible catastrophe has nearly occurred ought to solemnise one.
gpt
Granted, my dear boy; but the fact that such a catastrophe did _not_ occur, ought, I hold, to make us jolly. There's no managing a fellow like you, Ralph. I knew that if I told you of this gravely, you would get into such a state of consternational self-reproachativeness, so to speak, that you would infallibly make yourself worse. And now that I tell it to you `lightly,' as you call it, you take to blowing me up.