Part 20 (1/2)

It was about mid-afternoon when Rayton altered his course for home. He studied the sky and his compa.s.s, and then turned his back to the brown brook. He calculated that this line would take him out to Samson's Mill Settlement shortly after sunset.

An hour later Rayton was still far from home, and among tall timber and heavy underbrush. Red rays of sun flooded from the west, low and level, and became tangled and lost among the black screens of the forest.

Rayton moved slowly, pus.h.i.+ng his way through moosewood saplings. He halted, drew his compa.s.s from an inner pocket, and rea.s.sured himself as to his position.

And then, on the left, a rifle shot rang out, sharp and vicious. Rayton jumped, spun round on his heels, then dashed forward, shouting strongly and angrily. He heard the swis.h.i.+ng and crackling of flight ahead of him.

He halted, raised his fowling piece, and let fly both barrels. He bellowed murderous threats after the retreating, unseen sniper.

Then, quick as lightning, the strength went out of him. Voice and knees failed together, and he sank silently to the forest loam. So he lay for a minute, dizzy and faint, and stunned with wonder. In a dazed way he set all his senses on a vague inquiry, searching for pain. But he felt no pain--only a quick, strong pulsing in his left shoulder. He took note of this cloudily. Then, of a sudden, his brain cleared, and anxiety sprang alive in his heart.

He sat up, and put his right hand across his body. His shoulder--the thick blanket stuff that covered it--was wet and hot. He held his hand close to his eyes in the waning light, and saw that it was reeking red from finger tips to wrist. A gasp of dismay escaped him. Again he felt all about the wet place with his right hand. Now the blood was streaming down his arm. He discovered the wound--a tender spot, high up.

”I must stop it,” he muttered. ”It's working like a pump. If I don't plug it up, or tie it up, mighty quick, I'll be drained dry.”

A vision of his bloodless corpse p.r.o.ne on the forest moss flashed across his mind. Then he set swiftly and cleverly to work to check the flow of blood. First, he made a thick pad of dry moss and a handkerchief, and bound it tightly over the wound with a silk scarf from his neck. Then he removed his elastic suspenders, and twisted them over his shoulder and under his armpit four times. The pulsing became fainter and fainter, and at last could not be felt at all.

”Thank G.o.d!” he exclaimed. ”I do believe I've done the trick. Fine thing, these patent Yankee suspenders.”

He got to his feet, swayed, and sat down again.

”I must have lost a quart or two,” he muttered. ”No head--no knees--no insides.”

He sat very stiff for a little while in deep but meaningless thought.

His mind felt like a feather--a puff of smoke--drifting dust. An impish wind was blowing it, and would not allow it to settle.

”This is queer,” he said. ”Is it loss of blood--or shock? Must do something.”

He scrambled to his feet again, picked up his gun, and pressed forward a distance of about twenty yards. He felt a tickling in his shoulder again. It strengthened to a faint throbbing. The horror of bleeding to death returned to him with a grip on his heart. Pain he could struggle against, and perhaps dominate; but this was not pain. This was tender and warm--this flowing out of life.

He sat down again, and again the pulsing quieted and ceased. He saw that he must make a night of it in the woods, unless help came to him. He could not go forward in search of help. He must keep still--or bleed to death. He saw this very clearly, as if written in great white letters on a wall of blackness. And, more dimly, he saw the danger of freezing during the long, cold night. Though warmly clothed, he had no blanket or wrap of any kind.

Fire was the only thing at his command that could keep the frost away.

Reaching about with his right hand, he pulled up a great quant.i.ty of dry moss. Then he s.h.i.+fted his position a little, and repeated the operation.

His arm was feeling numb now, and he could not detect any hint of the pulsing sensation.

Twilight had deepened to night in the forest, and a still cold was creeping in from the vast overhead and the wide, empty portals of the north. Rayton felt about in the underbrush, and discovered plenty of dry fuel, some of it even lying detached upon the ground. He piled his brush and moss to one side of the irregular circle which he had cleared down to the rock and soil, working with the least possible effort. With his sheath knife he cut some living brush, some young spruces, and a few small saplings.

By this time, his left arm and side were aching dully, but his head felt steadier. He placed a bunch of moss, twigs, and larger sticks in the cleared s.p.a.ce, and struck a match. The flame curled up, grew, crowned the dry heap, and painted the crowding walls of the forest with red, dancing shadows. There was no wind--nothing astir in the air but the drifting frost. The smoke of the fire went straight up toward the high, aching stars, and the heat spread around in a narrow circle. Rayton squatted close to the fire, and fed it with more dry sticks, and soon with some of the green wood.

A sudden drowsiness came to him with the soothing glow of the fire. He fought against it for a few minutes, and even nerved himself to crawl away and drag in a large half-rotted stump. He placed this valuable addition to his store of fuel fairly on the top of the fire, banked more dry stuff beneath and around it, and then lay down on his couch of moss.

He felt comfortably warm, deliciously sleepy, and absolutely care free.

The pain in his arm was almost as numb as the arm itself. He scarcely noticed it.

”This isn't so very bad, after all,” he murmured. ”So long as that pumping doesn't begin again, I really don't care.”

He lay on his right side, deep in the dry moss, and gazed into the fire.

He saw the red and yellow flames crawl up the flanks of the shattered and hollow stump.

”It will catch,” he murmured. ”It will be all right. That's--a good--fire. I'll just lie--here--and watch it--burn. Don't think I'd--better--go to sleep. Not sleepy--any--way.”