Part 19 (1/2)

With a child's perfect faith in the invulnerable superiority of his friends, he had not even looked at the master, but only at his destined victim. Yet as the word ”two” rang out Johnny's attention was suddenly attracted to the surprising fact that the master's second, Seth Davis, had also drawn a pistol, and from behind his tree was deliberately and stealthily aiming at McKinstry! He understood it all now--he was a friend of the master's. Bully for Seth!

”Three!”

Crack! Z-i-i-p! Crackle! What a funny noise! And yet he was obliged to throw himself flat upon the bough to keep from falling. It seemed to have snapped beneath him and benumbed his right leg. He did not know that the master's bullet, fired in the air, had ranged along the bough, stripping the bark throughout its length, and glancing with half-spent force to inflict a slight flesh wound on his leg!

He was giddy and a little frightened. And he had seen n.o.body hit, nor nothin'. It was all a humbug! Seth had disappeared. So had the others.

There was a faint sound of voices and something like a group in the distance--that was all. It was getting dark, too, and his leg was still asleep, but warm and wet. He would get down. This was very difficult, for his leg would not wake up, and but for the occasional support he got by striking his hatchet in the tree he would have fallen in descending.

When he reached the ground his leg began to pain, and looking down he saw that his stocking and shoe were soaked with blood.

His small and dirty handkerchief, a hard wad in his pocket, was insufficient to staunch the flow. With a vague recollection of a certain poultice applied to a boil on his father's neck, he collected a quant.i.ty of soft moss and dried yerba buena leaves, and with the aid of his check ap.r.o.n and of one of his torn suspenders tightly wound round the whole ma.s.s, achieved a bandage of such elephantine proportions that he could scarcely move with it. In fact, like most imaginative children, he became slightly terrified at his own alarming precautions. Nevertheless, although a word or an outcry from him would have at that moment brought the distant group to his a.s.sistance, a certain respect to himself and his brother kept him from uttering even a whimper of weakness.

Yet he found refuge, oddly enough, in a suppressed but bitter denunciation of the other boys of his acquaintance. What was Cal.

Harrison doing, while he, Johnny, was alone in the woods, wounded in a grown-up duel--for nothing would convince this doughty infant that he had not been an active partic.i.p.ant? Where was Jimmy Snyder that he didn't come to his a.s.sistance with the other fellers? Cowards all; they were afraid. Ho, ho! And he, Johnny, wasn't afraid! ho--he didn't mind it! Nevertheless he had to repeat the phrase two or three times until, after repeated struggles to move forward through the brush, he at last sank down exhausted. By this time the distant group had slowly moved away, carrying something between them, and leaving Johnny alone in the fast coming darkness. Yet even this desertion did not affect him as strongly as his implicit belief in the cowardly treachery of his old a.s.sociates.

It grew darker and darker, until the open theatre of the late conflict appeared enclosed in funereal walls; a cool searching breath of air that seemed to have crept through the bracken and undergrowth like a stealthy animal, lifted the curls on his hot forehead. He grasped his hatchet firmly as against possible wild beasts, and as a medicinal and remedial precaution, took another turn with his suspender around his bandage.

It occurred to him then that he would probably die. They would all feel exceedingly sorry and alarmed, and regret having made him wash himself on Sat.u.r.day night. They would attend his funeral in large numbers in the little graveyard, where a white tombstone inscribed to ”John Filgee, fell in a duel at the age of seven,” would be awaiting him. He would forgive his brother, his father, and Mr. Ford. Yet even then he vaguely resented a few leaves and twigs dropped by a woodp.e.c.k.e.r in the tree above him, with a shake of his weak fist and an incoherent declaration that they couldn't ”play no babes in the wood on HIM.” And then having composed himself he once more turned on his side to die, as became the scion of a heroic race! The free woods, touched by an upspringing wind, waved their dark arms above him, and higher yet a few patient stars silently ranged themselves around his pillow.

But with the rising wind and stars came the swift trampling of horses'

hoofs and the flas.h.i.+ng of lanterns, and Doctor d.u.c.h.esne and the master swept down into the opening.

”It was here,” said the master quickly, ”but they must have taken him on to his own home. Let us follow.”

”Hold on a moment,” said the doctor, who had halted before the tree.

”What's all this? Why, it's baby Filgee--by thunder!”

In another moment they had both dismounted and were leaning over the half conscious child. Johnny turned his feverishly bright eyes from the lantern to the master and back again.

”What is it, Johnny boy?” asked the master tenderly. ”Were you lost?”

With a gleam of feverish exaltation, Johnny rose, albeit wanderingly, to the occasion!

”Hit!” he lisped feebly, ”Hit in a doell! at the age of theven.”

”What!” asked the bewildered master.

But Doctor d.u.c.h.esne, after a single swift scrutiny of the boy's face, had unearthed him from his nest of leaves, laid him in his lap, and deftly ripped away the preposterous bandage. ”Hold the light here. By Jove! he tells the truth. Who did it, Johnny?”

But Johnny was silent. In an interval of feverish consciousness and pain, his perception and memory had been quickened; a suspicion of the real cause of his disaster had dawned upon him--but his childish lips were heroically sealed. The master glanced appealingly at the Doctor.

”Take him before you in the saddle to McKinstry's,” said the latter promptly. ”I can attend to both.”

The master lifted the boy tenderly in his arms. Johnny, stimulated by the prospect of a free ride, became feebly interested in his fellow sufferer.

”Did Theth hit him bad?” he asked.

”Seth?” echoed the master, wildly.