It did not matter
much which I had to do. Then I grew dizzy, my legs trembled, my feet lost
all sense of touching the ground. I could not go much farther. Just then I
heard a shout. It was close by. I answered, and heard heavy steps. I peered
through the smoky haze. Something dark moved up in the gloom.
"Ho, kid! Thar you are!" I felt a strong arm go round my waist. "Wal, wal!"
That was Herky. His voice sounded glad. It roused a strange eagerness in
me; his rough greeting seemed to bring me back from a distance.
"All wet, but not burned none, I, see. We kinder was afeared. . . . Say,
kid, thet back-fire, now. It was a dandy. It did the biz. Our whiskers was
singed, but we're safe. An, kid, it was your game, played like a man
After that his voice grew faint, and I felt as if I were walking in a
dream.
XVIII. CONCLUSION
That dreadful feeling of motion went away, and I became unconscious of
everything. When I awoke the sun was gleaming dimly through thin films of
smoke. I was lying in a pleasant little ravine with stunted pines fringing
its slopes. The brook bowled merrily over stones.
Bud snored in the shade of a big boulder. Herky whistled as he broke dead
branches into fagots for a campfire. Bill was nowhere in sight. I saw
several of the horses browsing along the edge of the water.
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