an obstructed
struggle as though the mountain upon which he lay were lying instead
upon his breast. Through him went hot waves of pain under which he
clenched his teeth until he swooned again into a merciful numbness.

He heard in an interval of consciousness the thrashing of his
companion's boots through the tangle and the curses with which his
companion was vainly challenging his assailant to stand out and fight in
the open.

Then, for a little while, he dropped endlessly down through pits of
darkness and after that opened his eyes to recognize that he was being
held with his head on Rowlett's knee. Rowlett saw the fluttering of the
lids and whispered:

"I'm goin' ter tote ye back thar--ter Harper's house. Hit's ther only
chanst--an' I reckon I've got ter hurt ye right sensibly."

Bas rose and hefted him slowly and laboriously, straightening up with a
muscle-straining effort, until he stood with one arm under the limp
knees and one under the blood-wet shoulders of his charge.

For a moment he stood balancing himself with his feet wide apart, and
then he started staggering doggedly down the stony grade, groping, at
each step, for a foothold. In the light of the sinking moon the slowly
plodding rescuer offered an inviting target, with both hands engaged
beyond the possibility of drawing or using a weapon, but no shot was
fired.

The distance was not great, but the pace was slow, and the low moon
would shortly drop behind the spruce fringe of the ridges. Then the
burden-bearer would have to stumble forward through confused
blackness--so he hastened his steps until his own breath rattled into an
exhausted rasp and his own heart hammered with the bursting ache of
effort.

When he had reached the half-way point he put his load down and shouted
clamorously for help, until the black wall of the Harper house showed an
oblong of red light and the girl's voice came back in answer.

"I've got a dyin' man hyar," he called, briefly, "an' I needs aid."

Then as Maggard lay insensible in the mud, Bas squatted on his heels
beside him and wiped the sweat drench from his face with his
shirt-sleeve.

It was with unsteady eyes that he watched a lantern crawling toward him:
eyes to which it seemed to weave the tortuous course of a purposeless
glow-worm.

Then the moon dipped suddenly and the hills, ceasing to be visible
shapes, were felt like masses of close crowded walls, but at length the
lantern approached and, in its sha