Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/365



Dusk was just creeping under the clouds as they left Elvin slowly breathing but still unconscious. "We'll have to get out of this land tonight dear. That's all. If he wakes and finds us still here, nothing will save us." Bennet gathered up his clothes and started toward the cave, half guiding, half carrying Lida in his arms. She was almost too weak to walk from the ordeal through which she had passed. By the time they reached the falls she had recovered, however.

Bennet prepared to wash the blood from his body and face. Lida was all tenderness now. "Let me do that. Let me do that.—Here, bend over."

Bennet leaned over the little stream as directed while Lida dipped the handkerchief he offered her into the water and tenderly laved his wounds. There were great scratches on his arms and body where Elvin's nails had dug in their effort to get a grip. His chin was swollen and bruised from the blows, landed there and his body was a mass of welts and blotches. An eye was almost closed. About the throat whole inches of flesh had been torn away. Lida closed her eyes from the sight as she carefully bathed and dressed them. That finished she said:

"I'll hurry home and get what things we need, and we'll have to get away in the darkness.—We'll have to use two horses."

"Where's the nearest minister?" Bennet asked. Lida blushed in the growing dark.