Voices and shots sounded far away.

Then something black seemed to be wiped across her feeling.
It turned to gray, to moving blankness, to dim, hazy objects, spectral and tall, like blanketed trees, and when Ellen fully recovered consciousness she was being carried through the forest.
"Wal, little one, that was a close shave for y'u," said Colter's hard voice, growing clearer.

"Reckon your keelin' over was natural enough." He held her lightly in both arms, her head resting above his left elbow.

Ellen saw his face as a gray blur, then taking sharper outline, until it stood out distinctly, pale and clammy, with eyes cold and wonderful in their intense flare.

As she gazed upward Colter turned his head to look back through the woods, and his motion betrayed a keen, wild vigilance.