Part 23 (1/2)

It was difficult to grasp that this huddled, helpless figure was Bob, the big, the strong But when at last Eustace saw the white, drawn face he knew there was no ain, but this tiht, Bob,” he said huskily ”I've co to help you all I can You shan't die--you shan't--you shan't”

He spoke the last words through set teeth, for he had taken out his clasp-knife, and was hacking at the cruel bonds with all his ht

It needed no explanation to tell Eustace how Bob had got there The thing was as plain as daylight He ainst some ”wait-a-bit,” which rebounded like a bit of twisted elastic, and caught hirip that he was powerless to free hiht and struggled the tighter he becaled Had his arth of the cane was marvellous--moreover, it was covered with vicious thorns That Bob had fought desperately for his life was to be seen by the condition of his shi+rt and his deeply-scored skin He was now in a state of more than semi-unconsciousness from exhaustion and starvation; still, at intervals, he half roused hi for days

It was no easy ain round him But bit by bit Eustace worked at it, with a ferocity that was bound to tell He was th extraordinarily

More by good luck than good guidance the boy was not caught in the meshes himself, for he took no care

As the last coils were cut, and Bob was bereft of hisin the pathway Eustace had made to reach him, and fro to the change of position Bob had stopped groaning at last; but though Eustace called hin

”I suppose it is faintness,” Eustace thought in deep trouble, for this was so so terribly new in Bob He did not see ought to be done for him, and that quickly; this much Eustace knew At home he would have rushed for water; but here where there was none--where there was nothing--as he to do?

If only he were a man, and carried a brandy flask, as his father always did! A sudden brilliant idea struck him--perhaps Bob carried a flask himself!

It was the work of but a few seconds to search him, and to the boy's joy he found a little flask full of spirit It was not very long since Eustace had had a practical demonstration of what to do with some one in a faint He reht of their fright about Becky

So first he moistened the dry blue lips, then put a few drops between the to describe; and nothing scared Eustacehich Bob ca of his life

It took Bob a long tin to Eustace that he knew hi, dazed study of the boy's white, miserable face, Bob's lips parted in a pitiful attempt at a smile

To his own after-annoyance and sha hiround and fairly sobbed What fear for his own safety and all the horrors he had gone through had no power to do, the relaxation of this tension of anxiety about Bob did

”Say, old chap,” came in a far-ahisper to his ears, ”don't!”

It pulled him up short Bob's eyes were closed, and he looked so like fainting again that Eustace gave hiood effect; but later, not even when he had regained his full consciousness, could BobJust as he had been bound rigidly upright, so he reth

”Guess I'm pretty helpless,” he said in a thin, weak voice ”I shall have to be oiled before I canstaring at his companion meditatively so here, will you?”

Fro--the return of Bolter--Eustace told the story of the last few days, and Bob listened with growing eagerness in his eyes

”So you lost yourself finding me,” he said at the end ”And there isn't a doubt you've saved my life, old boy”

But even this assertion did not cheer Eustace

”I'h,” he said miserably, ”because you see we are lost”

”Not a bit of it,” Bob said ”If I had any legs I could walk you out of the wood in two hours I know the way perfectly”

”Do you?” Eustace exclaimed ”Then what did you come here for?”