For some minutes he lay down there, unable to speak or move, but gradually, as the Grizzly rubbed and chafed him, the power came back to his limbs and the sense to his brain.
‘Thet’s well!’ cried Ephraim, overjoyed. ‘Oh, Luce, it made me sick ter see ye so done. By time! ye did thet pull in grand style. Air ye all right now?’
Lucius nodded.
‘‘Cause ef ye air,’ went on Ephraim, ‘I hev got an idee. Ye see thar, right in front er us, is a cave. It’s not very deep. Fact is, it’s nuthin’ but a hole in the bank, but it’ll serve fer a restin’-place till we kin git some notion er what is goin’ ter happen. Git up thar. I’ll send up the things.’
Standing on the seat of the boat, the hole was just on a level with Luce’s chest, and with a little assistance from Ephraim he easily climbed in.
The Grizzly had passed up the clothes, the rifle, and the two belts, when something arrested his attention. He listened intently for a moment, and then clinging to the floor of the hole, gave a backward kick with his feet that sent the boat spinning out into the stream, and sprang in beside Lucius.
Scarcely had he done so, when a loud voice, not far away, shouted exultantly: ‘I see him, corporal! There he is!’
CHAPTER XII.
A DUEL IN THE DARK.
