Please let me bind it up;" and tearing a strip off the bottom of her dress, she proceeded to bandage Reuben's face.
The constable took off the black silk handkerchief which he wore round his neck.
"I think, miss, this will make a sling for his arm; and when that is done the captain will be pretty right.
"Do you think you can ride back, sir ?" he asked, when he had fastened the handkerchief, "or will you wait till I ride back to the farm, and fetch help." "I can ride back well enough," Reuben said, trying to rise to his feet; but he found himself unable to do so.
The ball, after breaking his collarbone, had glanced downwards, and the wound was a more serious one than he had imagined.
"No, I don't think I can ride back, Smithson." "There is a light cart at the farm," Kate Ellison said.

"Please fetch that.

I will stop here, with Captain Whitney, till you come back." "I think that will be the best way, miss," the constable agreed and, mounting, he rode off at once.
It was an hour and a half before he returned, bringing the cart; but before he arrived, Mr.and Mrs.Barker had ridden up on horseback, the former having returned from his visit to the farm, just as the constable rode in.

While they had been alone, Reuben had heard from Kate what had taken place.
"I did as you told me, Captain Whitney, and did not go once outside the door.

The constables kept a very sharp lookout, and one of them was always on guard by the door; so there really did not seem any possibility of danger.
"This morning, as I was washing up the breakfast things with Mrs.
Barker, a shot was suddenly fired outside the door and, before I had time to think what it meant, that man rushed in.