Here Leo laid me down on the soft rushes, and, returning to the
mainland, brought over the black horse and the remaining weapons, and
having unsaddled the beast, knee-haltered and turned it loose, whereon
it immediately lay down, for it was too spent to feed.
Then he set to work to doctor my wounds. Well it proved for me that the
sleeve of my garment was so thick, for even through it the flesh of my
forearm was torn to ribbons, moreover a bone seemed to be broken. Leo
collected a double handful of some soft wet moss and, having washed the
arm, wrapped it round with a handkerchief, over which he laid the moss.
Then with a second handkerchief and some strips of linen torn from our
undergarments he fastened a couple of split reeds to serve as rough
splints to the wounded limb. While he was doing this I suppose that I
slept or swooned. At any rate, I remember no more.
Sometime during that night Leo had a strange dream, of which he told me
the next morning. I suppose that it must have been a dream as certainly
I saw or was aware of nothing. Well, he dreamed--I use his own words as
nearly as possible--that again he heard those accursed death-hounds in
full cry. Nearer and nearer they came, following our spoor to the edge
of the river--all the pack that had run down the horses. At the water's
brink they halted and were mute. Then suddenly a puff of wind brought
the scent of us upon the island to one of them which lifted up its head
and uttered a single bay.
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