Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/176

160 the sight of the ruins of the home and the recollection of the sounds that had startled him there was nothing apparently in all the region to alarm him.

Carefully pushing aside the outer bushes, he was startled to behold the form of a man on the ground before him. The groan he had heard was not a fancy, he assured himself, as he at once kneeled beside the prostrate man and gazed into his face to discover if he was any one whom he had known. One glance satisfied him that the man was a stranger. He was dressed in the ordinary garb of the farmers of the region, but there was a bruise on the side of the head that plainly indicated what had befallen him. But the man was unconscious, and had it not been for the sound that he had heard Robert could have easily believed the man was dead.

A careful examination, however, revealed the fact that the heart was still beating; and, satisfied as to that point, Robert hastily rose and going to the well lowered the sweep and lifting the bucket from its place hastened with it to the prostrate man, and at once began to bathe the head of the sufferer with the cold water. For several minutes he continued in his oc-