nglish never hit
a foe when he is down, unless he is very obstinate and unreasonable, and
insists on biting or kicking."

But the wounded man made no reply. It is to be feared that he only
thought either that the speaker was a great liar, or else that his
countrymen were great fools. It was evident that, so far from being
touched, he would be the first to betray the secret of Harry's hiding-
place to his returning friends if he knew it. So as Harry did not like
to shoot him through the head, or draw his sword across his throat, he
made a detour as if going across the desert, and did not commence the
ascent until he was out of the other's sight. It was not very steep or
very high, but Harry had some difficulty in getting up it. He felt very
weak, giddy, and queer, and had hardly got to the wood, and sunk down
under the shade of trees behind a big black boulder, than he lost
consciousness, for he had bled more than he knew for, and it was that
which turned him faint.

How long he lay without consciousness he did not know; and I daresay
that you have noticed in story-books that people never _do_ know.
Indeed, it would take a very methodical person to look at his watch just
as he was going off in a swoon, and refer to it again as he came to.
Harry Forsyth certainly never looked at his watch, but he snatched his
water-bottle, for one effect of loss of blood is to cause intense
thirst. A quantity of liquid being taken out of the body. Nature seems
to point out in this way that the loss should be supplied; you know she
is said to abhor a vacuum. If he had had all his senses about him, he
would merely have taken a sup and held it in his mouth some time before
swallowing it; but he was half dazed, and did not know where he was, and
he yielded to the instinct of thirst and took a long, deep draught. For
the present it was the best thing he could have done, for the effect was
that he sank into a sound restoring sleep, which must have lasted many
hours, for when he woke again the night was far advanced, and there were
streaks of dawn in the east, and it was quite two hours to sunset when
he had begun his nap. The wound in his head smarted, but otherwise he
felt stronger and more refreshed, only hungry. He had crammed some
biscuits into his kharkee jacket the day before, and these he ate,
washing them down with what remained in the water-bottle, which he
emptied without much compunction, as he reckoned that he would easi