He raised his head slightly, and glanced down at the bandaged limb, then he smiled a trifle wanly.
"It has a most workmanlike look," he said in a faint voice.
"Now I want to get you on this bed. I ought to have done so before I set your leg. I had forgotten that there was no one to help me lift you on to it. But perhaps we shall be able to manage, though I am afraid it will be a very painful ordeal for you. Still it must be done—we can't have you lie upon the ground."
The ordeal was certainly a painful one, but by no means so difficult as the girl had anticipated. Making a sling out of the pack ropes, Helen held the injured leg clear of the ground, whilst Stane, using his arms and his other leg, managed to lift himself backward on to his improvised couch.
The strain of the effort tried him severely, and he lay for a long time in an exhausted condition, with his eyes closed. This was no more than Helen had expected, and she did not let the fact trouble her unduly. Working methodically she erected the little tent in such a position that it covered the injured man's bed; and then prepared a meal of such things as their resources afforded, lacing the coffee she had made with a little brandy.
Stane was too done up to eat much, but he swallowed a fair quantity of coffee, whilst the girl forced herself to eat, having already realized that the welfare of both of them for the time being depended upon her and upon her strength. When the meal was ended, she found his pipe, charged it for him, and procured him a light, and with a murmur of thanks, Stane began to smoke.
From where he lay, through the open tent-fly, he could see a portion of the windfall barrier which had been the cause of the disaster.
"I thought I was done for," he said as he looked towards the tangled trunks. "I slipped and plunged right into a sort of crevasse, didn't I?"
"Yes," answered Helen quietly. "It was a little time before I could find you. There was a kind of den made by crossed trunks, and you had slipped between them into it."
"How did you manage to get me out?" he asked, his eyes on the amazing jumble of trunks and branches.