When her senses returned her first feeling was that of movement. She seemed to be carried along in some one’s arms; but she felt too weak and knocked about to open her eyes, and indeed, feeling was all too confused and transitory to enable her to realise where she was or what had happened.
She must have swooned again, and some time elapsed between her first awakening and her second; for when she came to once more, she found herself lying on a soft bed of leaves, beneath a green canopy of interwoven branches, which sheltered her from the hot rays of the sun. Her first impulse was to call Shag, and to put out her hand to feel for him. As she did so, it came in contact with a soft, hairy skin; but Topsie had enough consciousness to know, that what she touched was not the rough Labrador coat of her faithful dog, nor had Shag, in response to her call, come near her.
What then could this soft hair be? It was warm, and apparently belonged to some living creature.
With an effort Topsie turned her head to look. Then she gave a terrified cry, and attempted to spring to her feet, but a strong arm restrained her, an arm in which both gentleness and herculean strength appeared to be blended; for though it resisted and repelled her attempt to rise, its grasp was neither rough nor brutal. What was it that drew from the naturally plucky girl, this cry of terror? What was it whose grasp was strong yet tender? A tall hairy man was bending over her, a man or huge ape, or monster baboon. Topsie could not make out what the apparition was as she scanned it with creeping horror, but it looked to her more like a human being than a monkey. Yet such a curious human being. As Topsie, bravely submitting to circumstances, took stock of her strange captor, she noticed that his face was hairy all over, and, unlike the ape, showed no sign of bare skin anywhere. The hair was of a lightish brown, which became darker on the head, where it was slightly longer, and somewhat curly. The hair upon the neck and arms, like the face, was much lighter, as was also that on the chest and back. But what inclined Topsie more than ever to the belief that this strange being was human, was the short kilt or narrow skirt of skins which he wore round his loins, and which reached almost to his knees. Just below the knees, and sinking deep into the hair of his legs, glittered two golden rings, the same adorning his ankles and arms. Then his aspect was not savage, nor was his head formed after the hideous appearance of the ape, gorilla, or baboon. It was a perfectly human face, one, that if it had been white-skinned, would have been called handsome, while the eyes were dark with just a snatch of blue, which showed itself from time to time. But the lips of this extraordinary man were quite black, and there was not a tinge of red of any kind in them.
“Who are you?” Topsie found courage to say when she found that her captor apparently meditated no harm to her. “Speak, and tell me who you are.”
But the hairy man made no reply; not even a guttural sound escaped him.
What was she to do? Where on earth was she? Was it all a dream? Could it possibly be real? Over and over again the girl put these questions anxiously to herself, without being able to give to them any intelligible reply. Then gradually the recollection of the wild horse hunt came back to her, her tussle with the stallion, and the mad gallop across the plain.
Where then was Shag? Surely under no circumstances would the faithful dog have left her, unless he had been killed, or unless—and here Topsie’s heart throbbed with hope—he had returned to fetch her uncles, brother, cousins, Aniwee, and the other hunters to the rescue. She lay back and closed her eyes, and tried to realise the situation. She could not recall being knocked from her horse, and yet she clearly must have been, and struck senseless. She could feel that her rifle was gone, though the cartridge belt was still slung around her shoulders; and when her hand sought her side, she found that her revolver pouch was empty, though her knife remained in its sheath.
Remaining very quiet for a time, she heard the silent creature by her side move gently away, and then surreptitiously unclosing her eyes, she sought to make out his movements.
He was standing with his back to her, leaning against a tall tree around which his right arm was thrown, and in his left hand Topsie made out that he held a light bow and a pair of beautifully fashioned arrows tipped with gold. And in looking she perceived that she was no longer on a plain, but high up a mountain side, and beneath her was a deep, precipitous gorge, and across it ranges of wooded heights, which rose one above the other, until they came in contact with the snow line of the glittering Andes.