Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/364

348 For a brief time his excitement was so intense, and his fear of discovery was so great, that even the sense of his own exhaustion was not realized. As the minutes passed, however, and the silence about him was unbroken, he became conscious of his own weakness and of the pain in his shoulder. The loss of blood evidently had been great, he discovered, and he was powerless to aid himself now; but, aware that any exertion on his part might increase his danger as well as add to his suffering, he did his utmost to lie still.

The pain was becoming more intense, and soon a thirst was upon him that was well-nigh unbearable. Still he dared not move from his hiding-place, though all his strength of will was required to compel him to remain where he was.

Suddenly he heard a sound near him that caused him to forget his misery for a moment. A dog was sniffing about the brush heap, and as Robert peered out he could see that it was the same dog which he had felled a little while before in the woods. The blows he had given had not been fatal, he concluded with a sinking of his heart, and his present peril was greatly increased by the presence of the dog near his hiding-place. Even then he could see