He gently laid her on some firs he had arranged for her bed, and gazed at her for a moment with a look of delight impossible to describe. But then he felt considerably embarrassed. Accustomed to the hardships of a desert life, and a skilful hunter as he had proved himself, this man was naturally a very poor sick nurse. He knew how, at a pinch, to dress a wound or extract a bullet, but he was quite ignorant how to bring a fainting woman round.
"Still, I cannot leave her in this state, poor girl," gazing on her sorrowfully; "but what am I to do?—how can I relieve her?"
At length he knelt down by the young lady's side, gently raised her lovely head, which he laid on his knee, and, opening with his dagger point her closed lips, poured in a few drops of Catalonian refino contained in a gourd. The effect of this remedy was instantaneous. A nervous tremour passed over the maiden's body; she heaved a sigh, and opened her lips. At the first moment she looked around her wildly, but ideas seemed gradually to return to her brain; her contracted features grew brighter, and fixing her eyes on the hunter, who was still bending over her, she muttered, with an expression of gratitude which made the young man's heart beat, "Stronghand!"
"Have you recognised me, señorita?" he exclaimed, with joyous surprise.
"Are you not my Providence?" she answered. "Do you not always arrive when I have to be saved from some fearful danger?"
"Oh, señorita!" he murmured, in great embarrassment.
"Thanks! Thanks, my saviour!" she continued, seizing his hand, and pressing it to her heart; "Thanks for having come to my help, Stronghand, for this time again. I should have been lost without you."
"I really believe," he said, with a smile, "that I arrived just in time."
"But how is it that you came so opportunely?" she asked, curiously, as she sat up and wrapped herself in the furs, for the feminine instinct had regained its power over her.
At this question, simple though it was, the hunter turned red.