“And he will not,” said Mr Raydon. “There, let’s get back. I never leave the place as a rule when Indians are about.”
“Are they dangerous?” I asked.
“No; and yet not to be trusted. What savages really are, Gordon? Thanks, my lad,” he said, as I dug up and placed a couple of fern-roots with their spreading fronds in the basket, so as to completely cover the fine gravel at the bottom, and the gold. “We must wash it again when we get back,” he continued, “and then divide it in two equal portions, for you lads to keep as a memento of to-day’s work. Now, Dean, give me my rifle.”
Esau ran back to where he had stood the rifle, and was coming back, when he tripped and fell.
At the same moment it seemed to me that some one struck me a violent blow beneath my left shoulder which drove me partly round, and made me drop the basket just as there was a sharp report, followed by a peculiar ringing in my ears, and then all was blank.
Chapter Thirty Six.
My Doctor and Nurse.
When I opened my eyes again it was with a horrible sensation of sickness at my heart, and my eyes swam, but I could dimly make out Mr Raydon’s face, as he leaned over me, and I heard him say, as if he was speaking a very long way from me in a very small voice—