This was scarcely accomplished, when sounds of approaching footsteps and voices told him the danger was not yet over.
He crouched close in his hiding place, and hardly dared breathe as they passed and repassed, some almost stepping on him. But he remained undiscovered, and at length they abandoned the search, and returning to the vicinity of the house, gathered up their wounded and went away.
Yet Leland felt that it was not safe for him to venture back to his home, as they might return at any moment; but to remain where he was with his wound undressed was almost certain death.
He resolved to accept Mr. Travilla's offered hospitality, if his strength would carry him so far, and was rising to make the attempt, when the cracking of a dead branch told him that some living thing was near, and he fell back again, listening intently for the coming footsteps.
"Robert! Robert!" called a low tremulous voice.
"O Mary, is it you?" he responded, in low but joyous accents, and the next moment his wife's arms were about his neck, her tears warm upon his cheek, while Archie stood sobbing beside them.
"Thank God, thank God that you are alive!" she said, "But are you unhurt?"
"No, I am bleeding fast from a wound in my leg," Leland answered faintly.
"I've brought lint and bandages," she said, "let me bind it up as well as I can in the dark."
"Daren't we strike a light?" asked Archie.