We were both too late. The corporal had touched the beast with the spurs, and man and horse were flying towards the tall and well-braced fence. I held my breath as I watched, for I had nailed the birch poles home securely, and had not much faith in the beast's leaping powers. It launched itself into the air, then there was a crash, and the top rail flew into splinters, while horse and rider parted company. The former, after rolling over, scrambled to its feet, but the uniformed figure smote the ground with a distressful thud and lay very still. Sally screamed, and must have climbed the fence, for when we had run around by the slip rails she was bending over the limp figure stretched upon the sod. Her eyes were wide with terror.
"He is dead, and I have killed him," she said.
I bent down with misgivings, for Cotton did not move, and there was something peculiar about his eyes. "Can you hear us? Are you badly hurt?" I asked.
"What's that?" he answered drowsily; and I gathered courage, remembering symptoms noticeable in similar cases; but Thorn had administered a dose of prohibited whisky before he became intelligible. I was not wholly sorry for Sally, but seeing that she had been sufficiently punished, I said: "There are no bones broken, and his pulse is regaining strength."
Cotton's scattered senses were evidently returning, for he looked up, saying: "I'm only shaken, Miss Steel, and I won the bet. Don't be in a hurry, Ormesby; I hardly fancy I could get up just yet."
We waited several minutes, then, forcibly refusing Miss Steel's assistance, carried him into the house and laid him on a makeshift couch in our general-room. His color was returning, but his face was awry with pain, and, so he expressed it, something had given way inside his back. It was a dismal termination to an inspiriting day, and the old depression returned with double force as I glanced at the untasted meal on the table, at Lucille Haldane's note, and around the disordered room. Sally looked badly frightened, Steel very grim, and Cotton seemed to be suffering.
"It will pass presently, and you had better get your supper," he said. "I must try to eat a morsel, for I have a long way to ride to-night."
"You are not going to move off that couch until morning at least," I said. But the corporal answered: "I simply must. Is the horse all right?"
"Doesn't seem much the worse," said Steel; and Sally held a teacup to the corporal's lips, and afterwards coaxed him very prettily to eat a little. Seeing this, the rest of us attacked the cold supper, for we had duties that must be attended to. Returning to the house some little time later, I found that Sally had disappeared and Cotton was standing upright. He moved a few paces, and then halted, leaning heavily on the table, while his face grew gray with pain.
"Lie down at once. You are not fit to move," I said.