“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Phil, throwing the matter off lightly. “You might have stopped him yourself after a while. He couldn’t have run on forever. But how are you feeling now? Arms and legs all right?”
“Sore as the mischief but nothing broken,” was the reply, as he moved them about. “I see my head was cut,” he went on, as he raised his hand to the bandage.
“Rather deep cut,” remarked Dick, “but nothing to worry about as long as the skull wasn’t fractured.”
“Oh, that skull has had many a hard knock in its time,” the man said with a smile. “I guess it was pretty thick to begin with and it’s been toughened by what’s happened to it since.”
He raised himself to a sitting position and the boys helped to settle him comfortably with his back to a tree.
“I’m afraid I’m taking up your time and interfering with your plans,” he said apologetically, as he glanced from one to the other.
“Not a bit of it,” Phil hastened to reassure him. “We’d just been on a fishing trip and were on our way home. We’ve got all the time there is, and we’re going to stick around until we see you safe to your home or hotel or wherever it is you want to go.”
“That’s mighty good of you,” said the stranger gratefully. “I was figuring on staying at Castleton over night.”
“That’s where we hail from,” replied Phil, “and as soon as you’ve rested a bit more we’ll harness up the horse and drive you over, I guess he’s had his fill of running away.”
“The old pirate was sure full of ambition,” laughed Tom. “He tore along—”