“What’s the coil?” he shouted back.
“The stable roofs ablaze—for the Lord’s sake come and save the hosses!”
He strode back, and in a minute the field was clear. Creeping out with caution, I grew aware of two mournful facts: first, that the stable was indeed afire, as I perceiv’d by standing on tiptoe and looking over the hedge; and second, that my knee was hurt by Black Dick’s bullet. The muscles had stiffened while we were crouching, and now pain’d me badly. Yet I kept it to myself as we started off again to run.
But at the stile that, at the top of the field, led into the woods, I pull’d up—
“Sorry I am to say it, but you must go on without me.”
“O—oh!” cried the girl.
“’Tis for your safety. See, I leave a trail of blood behind me, so that when day rises they will track us easily.”
And sure enough, even by the moon, ’twas easy to trace the dark spots on the grass and earth beside the stile. My left boot, too, was full of blood.
She was silent for awhile. Down in the valley we could hear the screams of the poor horses. The light of the flames lit up the pine trunks about us to a bright scarlet.
“Sir, you hold our gratitude cheaply.”