A bullet had grazed my thigh, and killed my horse, who.
throwing me on my head, rendered me HORS DE COMBAT.

So that during the fight which followed, I was sitting on a rock, very sick and very stupid, a mile from the scene of action.
My catastrophe caused only a temporary stoppage; and, during the confusion, Charles Hawker was unnoticed.

The man who had fired at me (why at me I cannot divine), was evidently a solitary guard perched among the rocks.

The others held on for about a quarter of an hour, till the valley narrowed up again, just leaving room for the walk between the brawling creek and the tall limestone cliff.

But after this it opened out into a broader amphitheatre, walled on all sides by inaccessible rock, save in two places.