Then Jack on his part began to have his say in the matter. Perhaps his German was pretty faulty, and at another time might have caused the man to laugh; but the situation for him was much too serious just then for anything like that.
He heard the words “friends—American boys—not your enemies—would even try to bind up your hurts after a fashion if you let us!” They certainly must have given him an intense feeling of relief, for that strained look on his scratched and set face gradually relaxed.
He nodded his head and said something in his own language which Amos believed to be his readiness to trust the two boys who had so suddenly appeared before him. Then he sank to the ground in a heap.
“Jack, he’s gone!” ejaculated Amos, feeling rather faint himself.
The other sprang forward and bent over the prostrate Uhlan. Hurriedly he looked the man over, while Amos waited to hear his decision. Certainly the poor fellow appeared as though the “silver cord” had been broken in his case, for there was no sign of life about him.
“How about it, Jack?” asked Amos, anxiously, for while he did not know the man from Adam, at the same time he felt an interest in him, probably based upon the fact that they had seen him struck down, and were now at his side.
“He’s only swooned, I think,” Jack told his chum presently. “You see he’s been pretty seriously hurt, arm broken, and I’m afraid his ribs are in bad shape, not to mention the wound he got from that bullet which has cost him a heap of blood.”
Jack started at once to try and do what he could while the man remained unconscious. In a crude but effective fashion he stanched the flow of blood. Then he managed to get the man’s jacket off, and see to his arm, Amos assisting in setting the broken bone and bandaging the injured extremity, even sacrificing a part of his own shirt so as to accomplish this, which was surely a strong evidence of his earnestness.
“That’s the best we can do,” said Jack, after they had finished, and he stepped back to look critically at the work accomplished.
“Will he live, do you think?” asked Amos.