roll in
blood. I am sick--sick--I faint--

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

OLD COMRADES.

I fancied myself in a future world, battling with some fearful demon.
No; those forms I see around me are of the earth. I still live!

My wounds pain me. Some one is binding them up. His hand is rude; but
the tender expression of his eye tells me that his heart is kind. Who
is he? Whence came he?

I am still upon the wide prairie; I see that clearly enough. Where is
my terrible antagonist? I remember our fierce fight--everything that
occurred; but--_I thought he had killed me_!

I certainly _was_ dead. But no; it cannot have been. I still live!

I see above me the blue sky--around me the green plain. Near me are
forms--the forms of men, and yonder are horses too!

Into whose hands have I fallen? Whoever they be they are friends; they
must have rescued me from the gripe of the monster?

But how? No one was in sight: how could they have arrived in time? I
would ask, but have not strength.

The men are still bending over me. I observe one with large beard and
brown bushy workers. There is another face, old and thin, and tanned to
a copper colour. My eyes wander from one to the other; some distant
recollections stir within me. Those faces--

Now I see them but dimly--I see them no longer I fainted, and was again
insensible.

Once more I became conscious, and this time felt stronger: I could
better understand what was passing around me. I observed that the sun
was going down; a buffalo robe, suspended upon two upright saplings,
guarded his slanting rays from the spot where I lay. My seraph was
under me, and my head rested in my saddle, over which another robe had
been laid. I lay upon my side, and the position gave me a view of all
that was passing. A fire was burning near, by which were two persons,
one seated, the other standing. My eyes passed from one to the other,
scanning each in turn.

The younger stood leaning on his rifle, looking into the fire. He was
the type of a "mountain man," a trapper. He was full six feet in his
moccasins, and of a build that suggested the idea of strength and Saxon
ancestry. His arms were like young oaks; and his hand grasping the
muzzle of his gun, appeared large, fleshless, and muscular. His cheek
was broad and firm, and was partially covered with a bushy whisker, that
met over the chin; while a beard of the same colour--dull brown--fringed
his lips. The eye wa