“By heavens, it’s not the man!” they exclaimed in a breath, as they knelt by the side of Hadley.

“As I live, it is our acquaintance of yesterday!  Poor fellow, he deserved a better fate.”

“He did, indeed.  Let us return his kindness by seeing that he is decently buried; we owe him this much at least.”

“So we do.  If I had known it was him he should not have died in this way.”

“Shall we go back or forward with him?”

“Forward; it is nearest that way to a hamlet.”

“Does he breathe yet?”

“No; he is quite dead.”

Gathering up the body of Hadley, they bore it along in silence toward the nearest habitations of men, some five miles ahead.

The two had proceeded with their burden but a short distance, when they were suddenly startled by a groan from the wounded man, who they had supposed was dead.  They laid him down carefully, and one of them produced a flask, from which he poured a little brandy on his lips, and the stimulant penetrating his mouth, revived Hadley, and this, with the aid of other restoratives, soon brought him to consciousness.  Seeing he was not dead, his companions now dressed his wounds as well as they could, under the circumstances.  It was soon perceived that they were not of a very dangerous order.  One bullet had struck a button and glanced off, leaving only a bruise on the breast; the other had penetrated the chest, but not in a fatal direction.  The fall from his horse had stunned Hadley; there was also a mark on the side of his head, indicating that the horse had struck him with his foot, adding materially to the effect of the fall.  After his wounds were properly dressed, he was assisted into his saddle, and, supported by his benefactors, was enabled to ride to the next village, where he received every attention, and was so far recovered in a week as to proceed on his journey.  His escape was almost miraculous, and seemed a direct interposition of Providence.  On the previous day he had assisted the two men out of a difficulty before a magistrate, where they were accused of the crime of setting fire to a man’s house on the previous night.  It so happened that they were not guilty of the act as charged, but had passed the night in question at the same inn with Hadley, who, fortunately for them, heard of the affair, and went before the magistrate and testified to the facts in the case, and by so doing cleared them.  This kindness, volunteered on his part, was repaid by the men, as we have seen, though they were desperate characters, and ought to have been in the penitentiary, and, as we have noticed, went out to kill and rob some man at whom they had become offended.

Had not this train of circumstances led to the result we have chronicled, there would have been but one fate for Hadley, death; for even if the ruffians had left life in him, ere the lapse of three hours he would have been devoured by wild beasts, a pack of which, howling dismally, and thirsting for blood, crossed the road where he had lain, and licked up the few drops that had run from his bosom!