“He may have only fainted from fright after all, or been struck by a passing bullet and knocked unconscious,” the boy was telling himself eagerly as he increased his pace until he was almost running.
In this fashion, then, he arrived on the scene, and bent over the figure lying there on the ground. Gently, Hugh turned him over, but strange to say he did not see any sign of a wound.
He dropped down beside the man and placed his ear close to his chest. Immediately he discovered that his heart was beating, faintly it is true, and with a peculiar flutter, but at least he was alive.
Hugh had a canteen along with him, which had been filled with cold water before they started from their camp. This he now made use of, and sprinkled some of the contents on the dark face of the foreigner.
“He’s coming to his senses!” Hugh told himself, with a sense of great relief, “and there’s a mark on the side of his head that may have been made by a passing bullet; either that or else he tripped and, in falling, struck himself there. But I saw his eyelids quiver then; and there, they opened part way! I believe he’s going to be all right yet.”
Why, the boy felt so relieved that it might have been thought he was hovering over one of his beloved chums instead of an unknown foreigner whose language he could not understand. But he was a human being in distress, and scouts are taught never to stop and consider more than this when a necessity calling for prompt aid faces them.
When he sprinkled a little more of the water over the man’s face, the puzzled black eyes were looking up at him. Evidently the poor fellow wondered what had happened to him. Hugh knew that his chums would soon be returning, and that minutes were therefore precious to him.
“Can you get up?” he asked, making a beckoning movement with his hand which the other could hardly fail to understand.
He struggled into a sitting position and stared around. When he saw the figure of the other wounded man he shivered violently. Doubtless once again he was passing through the horror of that dreadful minute when the mob in flight was fired on by the guards, and shrieks of pain and fright arose all around him, followed by darkness as he fell.
Then he looked toward the frowning stockade so near by, above which the heads of the curious guards could be seen, as also their guns.