“It will be easy to search this,” said Godfrey, who led the party, “for the antlers of the horses would make a track, or show one. There it is!” as they came to a broad open way like an avenue where the grass was trampled down. As they entered this avenue Godfrey cautioned,—“Rutherford and I will go first; Dalton and Field, do you keep a few yards in the rear and look well behind you and at each side, to prevent any attack that way; we don’t know what dangers may be lurking for us.” In this order they progressed for about half a mile, when a figure dropped in front of them from one of the trees, and Ingle greeted them with,—“So you’ve come, have you?” which self-evident fact was met by the equally lucid,—“Oh, it’s you, is it?” and all five stood together while Ingle recounted what had passed,— “You saw us cross that water? Yes? The surprise of it nearly unseated us all. Kelman did fall; is he safe? Yes? Well, he had the best of it. Most of us were well seated with an arm on the shovel or web-shaped part of the antlers as they stuck up. When we entered the wood the horses held their noses up, which made the antlers lie close on their backs, so we were wedged as if in arm-chairs, and we pressed our elbows on the horns to keep them down and steady, so getting a good leverage. The horses didn’t like being held that way and began to wriggle, and the brute I was on tried several times to spin his head and slice me off, but I held him tight and then, like a streak of lightning, he darted under the trees here, with his nose high in the air, and antlers tight on his back. He’d have swept me off with some bough and killed me in another second had I not instantly guessed his little game, for we were going at least a mile a minute, so the instant he swerved, I jumped off and up, and caught that bough, and he passed under it. See, his tracks are there. What has become of the others? I’m sure I don’t know. The fact is, I believe I fainted for a minute or two, for I shot at the bough with an awful smack, and fell across two; they kept me up, or I should have been killed, for my brute was one of the first.” “Then you are hurt!” exclaimed Godfrey, in concern. “Yes, a little, old man!” he answered, and snatched at Godfrey’s arm, which he grasped below the greeting-band, but under the circumstances this was allowed to pass unnoticed, although it was an indictable offence; recovering himself, he continued,—“What have I done! You must excuse me, I was a little dizzy for the moment; I have broken two or three ribs, and I think one has scratched my lung, for I’m bleeding, see”; and he spat out a mouthful of blood. “And you jumped off the tree and stood talking to us with broken ribs! lie down this instant!” ordered Godfrey, in dismay.