he saw that part of a charge of shot had torn away some of the
large muscular development of the upper arm. The hunter seemed to have
fainted and the youth worked quickly. Tying his handkerchief above the
wound and inserting a small stone under the cloth, so that the pebble
would press on the main artery, Tom put a stick in the handkerchief and
began to twist it. This had the effect of tightening the linen around
the arm, and in a few seconds the lad was glad to see that the blood
had stopped spurting out with every beat of the heart. Giving the
tourniquet a few more twists to completely stop the flow of blood, Tom
fastened the stick-lever in place by a bit of string.

"That's--that's better," murmured Mr. Duncan. "Now if you can go for a
doctor--" He had to pause for breath.

"I'll not leave you here alone while I go for a doctor," declared Tom.
"I have my motor-boat on the lake. Do you think I could get you down
to it and take you home?"

"Perhaps--maybe. I'll be stronger in a moment, now that the bleeding
has stopped. But not--not home--frighten my wife. Take me to the
sanitarium if you can--sanitarium up the lake, a few miles from here."

The unfortunate man, who had tried to sit upright, had to lean back
against the tree again. Tom understood what he meant in spite of the
broken sentences. Mr. Duncan did not want to be taken home in the
condition he was then in, for fear of alarming his wife. He wanted to
be taken to the sanitarium, and Tom knew where this was, a well-known
resort for the treatment of various diseases and surgical cases. It
was about five miles away and on the opposite shore of the lake.

"Water--a drink!" murmured Mr. Duncan.

Seeing that his patient would be all right, for a few minutes at least,
Tom hurried to his motor-boat, got a cup and, filling it with water
from a jug he carried, he hastened with it to the hunter. The fluid
revived the man wonderfully and now that the bleeding had almost
completely stopped, Mr. Duncan was much stronger.

"Do you think you can get to the boat, if I help you?" asked Tom.

"Yes, I believe so. To think of meeting you again, and under such
circumstances! It is providential."

"Did someone shoot you?" inquired Tom, who could not get out of his
head the notion of the men who had once assaulted him.

"No, I shot myself," answered Mr. Duncan as he got to his feet with
Tom's help. "I was out with my gun, practicing just as I was that da