During this time, the forester seemed to be undergoing exquisite pain; but presently, with an effort worthy of a hero, he struggled to an erect posture, and said, with a faltering tongue: “Young men—perhaps—I’m, I’m gone.—I—can’t blame—you, sir;—a man—can’t tell—how his ball—may glance.—Go,—both of you,—go—and get a—doctor.—Bring a—doctor—you,” to Will; “and you—” to Marmaduke, “go east—from—from here—half a-mile—to my—father’s.—I—I—can stay—alone.”
“Poor, poor fellow,” said Will, with tears in his eyes. “Can you stay here alone and suffer till we come back?”
“Yes,” groaned the wounded man. “I can—stay-till—the other—fellow—finds my—father.—It won’t—be long.”
“Let me at least see your wound before I go,” Will entreated. “Perhaps I could ease you, or even save your life.”
“Go! oh go!” urged the wounded man. “I’ll—hold out—if you are—quick.”
Then the two hunters strode sorrowfully away in their different directions—Will with a vague notion that the nearest surgeon lived several miles to the south—Marmaduke thinking that the “peasants” of his country are a hardy and noble race.
They were barely out of sight on their errands of mercy when a change most magical came over the sufferer’s face. Two minutes before, and his features wore the tortured look of an invalid “before taking our prescription;” now they wore the happy smirk of a convalescent, relieved from all pain, “after taking our prescription.”
Then, villain-like, he muttered: “I hardly expected to make so much out of the two fools—a whole deer! That’s striking it pretty rich! I don’t shoot a deer in a month; but this is just as good, for I can make off with this one at my leisure. Well, I reckoned that little ‘wound’ would work.”
A horrible chuckle escaped from his lips, he sprang to his feet as sound in health as a person could expect to be, walked up to Will’s deer, and coolly began to drag it away into the depths of the forest. All that part of the forest was known to him, and he soon dragged his prey into a place of concealment where its rightful owners would hardly find it.