About three o'clock
` I 'm rare an ' lucky that it 's to be ma richt leg an ' no the left , for that richt shank o ' mine was aye a wee thing crookit at the knee , and didna dae credit tae the airchitecture o ' tither ane . ' Thus , amid the rough encouragement of his fellows , and by no means unconscious of the dignity of his position , the Highland soldier was taken away to the operating-room . The French-Canadian made a remark to Selwyn , but it was not until the second repetition that he heard him . About three o'clock that afternoon a little stream of visitors began to arrive , and Thomas Atkins , with his extraordinary adaptability , gravely , if somewhat inaccurately , answered the catechism of well-meaning old ladies , and flirted heartily and openly with giggling ` flappers . ' To the visitors , however , Austin Selwyn paid no heed . He was enduring the lassitude which follows a fever . He knew that the crisis had come , the hour when he must face fairly the crash and ruin of his work ; but he put it off as something to which his brain was unequal .