There at the bottom of the boulder lay Lieutenant Scotti. His face was covered with blood, and his right leg was twisted under him in a way that told Dick immediately that it was broken.
CHAPTER EIGHT
TWO VISITORS TO TOWN
The others came running to the boulder in a moment. Dick had felt the Lieutenant’s pulse and found it still strong. The blood on his face was from two deep gashes in his skull, obviously from the jagged rock against which he had fallen.
Vince Salamone picked up the lieutenant in his arms and carried him gently up the hill to the cave. Tony and Max ran ahead to get out some of the blanket beds from the supply containers, and finally Scotti was resting inside the cave.
“Tony and Max,” Dick said, “see if you can find water. There ought to be some little stream or springs near by in hills like this.”
The two men snatched up canteens and went out quickly. Meanwhile, Dick looked over Scotti’s broken leg. Salamone looked on as if he wished he could do something. Slade, who had said almost nothing, came to Dick’s side.
“I happen to know a little bit about such things,” he said, almost timidly. “Let me have a look.”
Deftly he ripped away the lieutenant’s trouser leg and examined the break in the bone, just a little above the knee.
“Seems to be pretty clean,” he said. “We’ll have to get it set right away. Need some long straight pieces of wood.”