Page:Three Young Ranchmen.djvu/231

Rh Presently they heard something which served to increase their surprise. Slavin was groaning as if in extreme pain.

"The fall hurt him," said Allen, "Look after my horse, will you? I am going ahead."

He hurried on around a slight turn of the trail and through a clump of bushes and trees growing close to the edge of the hollow. As he emerged from the bushes a sight met his gaze that thrilled him to the backbone.

Slavin had fallen over the edge of the trail at a point where lay a huge half-rotted trunk of a tree. The trunk of the tree had slipped in the wet, rolled partly over the man, and was slowly but surely crushing the life out of him!