Then he discovered a slight movement, as the sound again came to his ears; and realized that some one was sitting upon the ground, holding fast to his arm, as if in great distress and pain. The sight of red blood trickling between the bronzed fingers of the party told Felix that he had come upon the scene just in time to be very useful along his chosen line. Undoubtedly the dark-faced stranger had been badly injured by the accidental discharge of his own gun; which would account for the single shot Felix had heard.
Without question the man was an Indian, perhaps a halfbreed; though he dressed pretty much as did any white man who spent much of his time in the wilderness; wearing corduroy trousers; and a blue flannel shirt, covered by a faded heavy jacket; while a greasy slouch hat lay upon the ground, where it had evidently fallen at the time he hurriedly dropped his gun.
Felix hastened forward to reach the side of the suffering man, whose raven black locks he now saw were being touched with the frost of years. The prospect of a job along his favorite line caused the lad to quicken his steps; for all the professional instincts of his nature were aroused.
The Indian seemed to maintain the usual stoicism of his race; though the pain and the weakness at times caused him to shut his teeth hard, in the effort to stifle the groan that tried to well forth.
Any one could easily see that in this quarter at least the boy was quite at home, even though there might be a few things connected with woodcraft wherein he could blunder.
He immediately took hold, examined the ugly gunshot wound that was bleeding so freely, in the fleshy part of the left arm, made a rude but effective tourniquet by twisting a stout stick in his handkerchief, which he had carefully knotted, so that the protuberance rested exactly on the artery; and in this fashion stopped the cut from bleeding.
Then he bound it up as best he could, showing considerable skill in so doing.
The old Indian did not utter a single word while all this was going on. He had shown considerable disappointment upon first seeing that the newcomer was only a mere lad; but presently his black eyes began to glitter with satisfaction, when he saw the business-like way in which Felix took hold of his job, and the astonishingly clever way in which he accomplished that which the other had in vain tried to do by working the wrong way.
"There, my friend," said Felix, as he finished his job, "I guess you'll hold out now, until you get home. Listen, and I'll tell you just what must be done after that," and then he proceeded to explain in simple language what should follow his "first aid to the injured work;" to all of which the other listened gravely, with an occasional nod of his head, to indicate that he understood.
"How far away do you live?" asked the young hunter, finally, wondering whether he had not better volunteer to accompany the wounded man home; though he understood that an Indian's pride would be terribly hurt by such a happening.