If, before losing consciousness, Hamersley had a thought that he had
fallen into the hands of enemies, never in all his life could he have
been more mistaken, for those now around him, by their words and
gestures, prove the very reverse. Six personages compose the group--
four men and a girl; the sixth, she, the huntress, who has conducted him
to the house. The girl is a brown-skinned Indian, evidently a domestic;
and so also two of the four men. The other two are white, and of
pronouncedly Spanish features. One is an oldish man, greyheaded,
thin-faced, and wearing spectacles. In a great city he would be taken
for a _savant_, though difficult to tell what he may be, seen in the
Llano Estacado surrounded by a desert. In the same place, the other and
younger man is equally an enigma, for his bearing proclaims him both
gentleman and soldier, while the coat on his back shows the undress
uniform of an officer of more than medium rank.
It is he who answers to the apostrophe, "Hermano!" springing forward at
the word, and obeying the command of his sister--for such is she whom
Hamersley has accompanied to the spot.
Throwing out his arms, and receiving the wounded man as he falls
insensible from the saddle, the obedient brother for a moment stands
aghast, for in the face of him unconscious he recognises an old friend--
one he might no more expect to see there than to behold him falling from
the sky.
He can have no explanation from the man held in his arms. The latter
has fainted--is dying--perhaps already dead. He does not seek it, only
turns to him who wears the spectacles, saying,--
"Doctor, is he, indeed, dead? See if it be so. Let everything be done
to save him."
He thus addressed takes hold of Hamersley's pulse, and, after a moment
or two, pronounces upon it. It beats; it indicates extreme weakness,
but not absolute danger of death.
Then the wounded man is carried inside--tenderly borne, as if he, too,
were a brother--laid upon a couch, and looked after with all the skill
the grey-haired _medico_ can command, with all the assiduity of her who
has brought him to the house, and him she calls "Hermano."
As soon as the stranger has been disposed of, between these two there is
a dialogue--the brother seeking explanations from the sister, though
first imparting information to her. He knows the man she has saved;
telling her how and where their acquaintance was made. Few words
suffice, for already is the story known to her. In return, she too
gives relation of what has happened--how, after her chase upon the
plain, coming back successful, she saw the zopilotes, and was by them
attracted out of her way; narrating all the rest already told.
And now nothing more can be known. The man still lives--thank Heaven
for that!--but lies on the couch unconscious of all around him. Not
quiet, for he is turning about, with quick-beating pulse, and brain in a
condition of delirium.
For a night and a part of a day they keep by his bedside--all three,
sister, brother, and doctor, grouped there, or going and coming. They
know who the wounded man is, though ignorant of how he came by his
wounds, or what strange chance left him stranded on the Staked Plain.
They have no hope of knowing until he may regain consciousness and
recover. And of this the doctor has some doubt; when asked, shaking his
head ominously, till the spectacles get loosened upon his nose.
But, though the prognosis remain uncertain, the diagnosis is learnt in a
manner unexpected. Before noon of the next day the hounds are heard
baying outside; and the watchers by the sick-bed, summoned forth, see
one approaching--a personage whose appearance causes them surprise. Any
one seen there would do the same, since for months no stranger had come
near them. Strange, indeed, if one had, for they are more than a
hundred miles from any civilised settlement, in the very heart and
centre of a desert.
What they see now is a man of colossal form and gigantic stature, with
bearded face and formidable aspect, rendered somewhat grotesque by a
deer's carcase carried over his shoulders, the shanks of the animal
rising crossways over his crown.
They are not dismayed by the uncouth apparition. She who has brought
Hamersley to the house guesses it to be the comrade of whom he spoke--
describing him as "true and faithful."
And, without reflecting further, she glides out, grasps the great hunter
by the hand, and conducts him to the bedside of his unconscious
companion.