hooked my elbow in the reins, and lay on my belly, grunting with
pain. I felt better, having got my breath, and a rod of beech to
bite upon--a good thing if one has been badly stung and has a
journey to make. In five minutes I was up and off at a slow jog,
for I knew I was near safety.

I thought much of poor D'ri and how he might be faring. The last I
had seen of him, he was making good use of pistol and legs, running
from tree to tree. He was a dead shot, little given to wasting
lead. The drums were what worried me, for they indicated a big
camp, and unless he got to the stirrups in short order, he must
have been taken by overwhelming odds. It was near sundown when I
came to a brook and falls I could not remember passing. I looked
about me. Somewhere I had gone off the old trail--everything was
new to me. It widened, as I rode on, up a steep hill. Where the
tree-tops opened, the hill was covered with mossy turf, and there
were fragrant ferns on each side of me. The ground was clear of
brush and dead timber. Suddenly I heard a voice singing--a sweet
girl voice that thrilled me, I do not know why, save that I always
longed for the touch of a woman if badly hurt. But then I have
felt that way having the pain of neither lead nor steel. The voice
rang in the silent woods, but I could see no one nor any sign of
human habitation. Shortly I came out upon a smooth roadway
carpeted with sawdust. It led through a grove, and following it, I
came suddenly upon a big green mansion among the trees, with Doric
pillars and a great portico where hammocks hung with soft cushions
in them, and easy-chairs of old mahogany stood empty. I have said
as little as possible of my aching wound: I have always thought it
bad enough for one to suffer his own pain. But I must say I was
never so tried to keep my head above me as when I came to that