Part 50 (2/2)
”Oh!”
The scene in the gloomy wood came back now clearly enough; and in an excited tone Fred exclaimed--
”And the prisoners, Samson?”
”Oh, they were taken again! They're right enough.”
”Scarlett Markham?”
”Yes; he came up here yesterday to see how we were.”
”Oh!”
”What's the matter, my lad?”
”My father--my charge. Samson, I'm disgraced for ever.”
”What, because about sixty men surprised us in that hollow road, and cut us all down? I don't see no disgrace in fighting like a man, and being beaten by five to one, or more than that.”
”But how came we to be surprised so suddenly?”
”Dunno, Master Fred. Some one must have known we were going through that wood, and set a trap for us.”
”And I allowed my poor fellows to walk right into it. Oh, Samson, I can never look my father in the face again!”
”Hark at him! Nonsense! It's all ups and downs--sometimes one side wins, sometimes t'other side. We had the best of it, and then they have the best of it, and we're prisoners. Wait till we get well, and it will be our side again. Long as we're not killed, what does it matter?”
”Then you are wounded, Samson?”
”Well, yes, lad; I got a tidy chop aside of the head, and a kick in the ribs from a horse in the scrummage. Leastwise, it wasn't a kick, 'cause it was done with a fore leg, when somebody's horse reared up after I'd cut his master down.”
”And there is some one else wounded?”
”Yes, sir--Duggen.”
”Badly?”
”Tidy, sir; tidy chop. But we shall soon mend again. Bark 'll grow over, same as it does when we've chopped an apple tree. I was afraid, though, as you was badly, sir?”
”Was I wounded, Samson? I feel so weak.”
”Wounded, sir! Well, it was a mercy you wasn't killed!”
”It seems all so confused. I cannot recollect much.”
”Of course you can't, sir. All the sense was knocked out of your head.
But it'll soon come back again.”
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