"An' are y'u Bill Isbel ?" "All thet's left of me.

But I'm thankin' God somebody come--even a Jorth." Ellen knelt beside him and examined the wound in his abdomen.

A heavy bullet had indeed, as Colter had avowed, torn clear through his middle.
Even if he had not sustained other serious injury from the fall over the cliff, that terrible bullet wound meant death very shortly.

Ellen shuddered.

How inexplicable were men! How cruel, bloody, mindless! "Isbel, I'm sorry--there's no hope," she said, low voiced.