Part 17 (2/2)

”No! no! I am too weak,” came more faintly than ever. ”Help me quickly, and Heaven will reward you!”

”I will do what I can--but you must hold tight for a minute,” answered Ben.

Just above his head a number of bushes were growing, and among these he had espied a long, stout-looking shoot. Clambering to this, he pulled out his pocket-knife and cut it off. Then he leaped down once more, and holding tight to the rocks with one hand, shoved out the branch with the other. ”Catch hold, if you can,” he cried.

The woman understood and gave up the rock for the stick, and Ben pulled her toward him. It was no easy task, and once it looked as if she would lose her hold and be swept away. But in a minute the danger was past, and the young captain was hauling her up to where he stood.

She was thoroughly exhausted, and no sooner did he have her in his arms than she fainted.

One difficulty had been overcome, but another still remained, and that was to get up to the safe ground above the rocks. But once again the bushes growing out of the crevices came into play, and, hauling himself from one to another, Ben at last found himself safe, with his burden resting heavily over his shoulder.

It was now that the young captain found the woman was suffering from a blow over the left temple, from which the blood was slowly trickling. Laying the form down, he brought out his handkerchief and bound up the wound as well as he was able. This had just been accomplished when the sufferer came again to her senses and stared around her in bewilderment.

”You--you--am I safe?” she asked, in broken English, but in a sweet voice which went straight to Ben's heart.

”Yes, madam, you are safe,” he answered. ”Did those two men throw you into the stream?”

”Yes, yes! Oh, they are villains, senor--great villains.”

”I must say they look it, even if they are of our troops,” replied the young captain. ”Come, do you think you can walk back to the mill with me?”

The woman said she would try, and he a.s.sisted her to her feet. She was still very weak, and readily consented to lean on his arm; and thus they moved slowly back the way the captain of Company D had come.

During all this time Ben had not heard a sound from the house, and he was anxious to know how Major Morris was faring, although feeling positive that the major was fully capable of taking care of himself.

Now, as they came closer, he heard loud talking.

”We ain't goin' to stay, major,--an' it ain't right fer you to ask us to,” the older of the regulars was saying.

”You will stay, and that's the end of it,” came in the major's clean-cut tones. ”If you attempt to pa.s.s through that doorway, I'll put a bullet through you.”

”But we are friends, major, and--”

”I don't know that I am a friend to you. It depends upon what my companion the captain will have to report when he gets back.”

”He won't have nuthin' to report, so far as we are concerned,” put in the younger regular. ”We ain't done any wrong, 'ceptin' to quarrel a bit between us. Everybody has a set-to once in a while, you know.”

By this time Ben was tramping up the outside stairs, supporting the woman as before. Now he pushed his way into the outer room of the mill-house, the woman following with some hesitancy. At the appearance of their late victim the regulars fell back as though struck a blow.

”Nice sort of chaps you are,” exclaimed Ben, hotly. ”You don't deserve to wear Uncle Sam's uniform. A set of prison stripes would suit both of you much better.”

”Hullo, you've found the lady,” cried the major. ”Sit down, madam, and tell us what this means.”

A bench was handy, and the sufferer dropped heavily upon it. The regulars looked as if they wished themselves anywhere but in their present situation, yet they did not dare to budge, for Major Morris still held ”the drop” upon them, and the commander of the first battalion looked as if he would stand no nonsense.

”These men came here to rob me,” said the woman, slowly. ”They are of your kind, but they are not honest.”

”Then they are not of our kind,” answered Ben, promptly. ”We do not allow our soldiers to rob anybody.”

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