The stranger lay helpless in the road and a figure was bending over him.

It was a man with a handkerchief hanging over his face with holes cut opposite his eyes.

He had not seen my fall and thought, as I learned later, that I had ridden away.
His gun lay beside him, its stock toward me.

I observed that a piece of wood had been split off the lower side of the stock.

I jumped to my feet and seized a stone to hurl at him.