Tom Slade at Black Lake

by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

"Maybe you are," Tom said, "but safety first; lie still. Can you move your arms? Does your back hurt?"

"I don't want any doctor," Barnard said.

"See if you can—no, lie still; see if you can wiggle your fingers. I guess you're just cut, that's all. Here, let me put my handkerchief around it. You got off lucky."

"You don't call that lucky, do you?" Barnard asked. "My head aches like blazes."

"Sure it does," said Tom, feeling his friend's pulse, "but you're all right."

TOM HELPED BARNARD TO THEIR CABIN
Tom Slade at Black Lake—Page 134

"I got a good bang in the head," said Barnard; "I'll be all right," he added, sitting up and gazing about him. "Case of look before you leap, hey? Do you know what I did?"

"You stepped on the shadow instead of the log," Tom said. "I was going to call to you, but I thought that as long as you're a scout you'd know about that. It was on account of the fire—the way it was shining. That's what they call a false ford——"