Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/374

358 "You have lost a good deal of blood, but I think you will soon be all right again," she said; "the bullet went straight through."

Robert did not reply, but as she bathed his aching shoulder, applied some of the humble lotions to the wound and then bound it up once more, he felt that her skill was almost as great as her kindness had been.

"There," she said, when her task at last had been completed, "I may not have visited my enemy, but my enemy has visited me, and I have done my best for him."

"Shall I go now?" inquired Robert feebly.

For a moment the good woman seemed to hesitate, and then she said in her determined manner, "No, you stay right where you are, for the night, anyway."

"But I don't want them to get me," said Robert simply.

"I don't want them to, either; and what's more, they shan't if I can prevent it. I don't know what Tom would think of me if he knew, but he does n't know; and if he does n't come back pretty soon, he won't know. You lie right where you are and go to sleep, and I 'll keep watch." "You are very good to me," murmured Robert. There was a nameless comfort in her