Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/173

Rh, while Forbes was laid on the floor of the store-room. All through the night Kate, Gordon, Briant, Wilcox, and Mr. Evans watched over the wounded.

That Donagan had been seriously hurt was only too evident. But as he respired regularly, it looked as though the lung had not been touched. To dress the wound, Kate had used certain leaves such as are used in Western America, which she found growing on some of the bushes at the river-side. They were leaves of the alder-tree which rubbed and made into compresses, are very good for checking internal bleeding, in which the chief danger consisted. But with Forbes it was different; Walston had wounded him in the stomach. He knew the thrust was mortal, and when he returned to consciousness, and saw Kate bending over him, he had murmured, — "Thank you, Kate! Thanks! It is useless! I am done for!"

And the tears welled into his eyes. "Hope, Forbes!" said Evans. "You have atoned for your crimes. You will live."

No! the unfortunate man was to die. In spite of all that was done, he grew hourly worse, and about four o'clock his spirit passed away.

They buried him in the morning near Baudoin, and two crosses now mark the two graves.

But the presence of Rock and Cope was dangerous; security could not be complete until they were unable to do injury. And Evans decided to have done with them before starting for Bear Rock. With Gordon, Briant, Baxter, and Wilcox, he went off that very day, fully armed, and accompanied by Fan, to whose instinct they trusted to recover the trail. The search was neither difficult, nor long, nor dangerous. There was nothing to fear from Walston's mates. Cope was found dead a few yards from where he had received the volley in his back. Pike was found where he had been shot at the beginning of the battle,