"I was mortal glad--when I heard you," volunteered Reube, gazing at her
with sunken eyes: "I was pretty near asleep."
"Not at all a nice place for a doze;" said Pam, "now what on earth made
you come here, young man?"
Reube said: "I dunno, Miss." He did not, of course. He had just started
climbing down in a spirit of adventure, and found himself forced to go
on in order to find a way up again. Here was the difficulty. Pamela
saw that it would not be possible to go straight up from here. A cold
thrill of dismay ran through her veins. They _must_ move--they must
start moving at once, there was no time to be lost. And she must find
out the way of least resistance, so to speak; that way only could she
get on with the exhausted child. And she could not see!
The mist dazzled her, wetting every grass blade with a glitter of tiny
shining powder. She would have to move upward, even though difficulties
forced her to go along the cliff face also. That was all that seemed
perfectly clear. Also, and first of all, there was the condition of
Reube.
He remained passive, his white face resting on his arm, his hands
gripping the grass tussock. There seemed no sort of spring in him, and
Pamela looked uneasily at his closed eyes. She realized that he was
injured as well as exhausted, and said:
"What’s the matter, Reube--where are you hurt?" in very gentle tones.
Reube opened his eyes and tried to pull his scattered wits together.
"It’s me leg, Miss--and I’m that _dry_----" he ceased.
Pamela felt acutely that water was impossible. Then an idea occurred to
her--very inadequate, but still something. She spread her handkerchief
on the grass--saw that it began to get damp at once--and so left it for
a minute, weighted with a little lump of soil, while she looked at the
leg.
The obvious injury was a swollen and bruised knee, very blue, and
growing bluer. But what she feared more was the appearance of the
ankle. The child was wearing rather clumsy laced boots, too large for
him, probably his brother’s boots. It was probable that the boot had
twisted, wrenching the ankle. Pamela hoped that it was only a bad
sprain--not a break or a dislocation, but she did not know. The foot
certainly looked queer. She wondered if she ought to take the boot off.
But the laces were knotted in more than one place, and a terror of
interfering seized her.
"If only I knew first aid," she thought miserably.
The moment she got a chance she would learn the whole thing. Therein
lay another immense advantage of being a real Guide. She would have
known exactly what to do. But ignorant handling might make things very
much worse. She moved the foot cautiously, Reube shrank and winced.
She was sure it looked all wrong. Suppose it was broken--what awful
pain!
Pamela returned to examination of her handkerchief. It was quite
wet--really wet. She pressed it between the child’s lips, feeling
hopeful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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