Bressant, who had been busy freeing the guard of his watch, handed it to Cornelia, at the same time pressing her back to one side.

He then stepped forward in silence, half facing up the road.
Cornelia remained motionless, her hands drawn up beneath her chin: and while she drew a single trembling breath, and the busy watch ticked away five seconds, the whole act passed before her eyes.

She saw Bressant standing, lightly erect, near the centre of the road, could discern his darkly-clad, well-knit figure, seemingly gigantic in the gloom: his head turned toward the on-rushing mare, one foot a little advanced, his arms partly raised, and bent: remarked what a marvelous mingling of grace and power was in his form and bearing: as the watch ticked again, she saw him spring forward and upward, grasping and dragging down both reins in his hands: another tick--he was dashed against Dolly's shoulder, and his body swung around along the shaft, but without loosening his hold upon the reins: tick, tick, tick, the mare's headway was slackened; the dragging at the bit of that great weight was more than she could carry; tick, tick, tick, she staggered on a few paces, trailing Bressant along the road; tick, tick, she came to a panting, trembling stand-still; Bressant let go the reins, but, instead of rising to his feet, he dropped loosely to the earth and lay there; tick--the five seconds were up, and Cornelia drew her second breath.
By the time the professor had scrambled out of the wagon and got around to the scene of action, he found the mysterious white figure--his own daughter--kneeling in the road beside a prostrate something he knew must be Bressant.
"Father, is he dead ?" she asked, in a broken, horror-stricken voice.
The old gentleman was too much concerned to reply.

Had this been a narrower nature he might have been aggrieved at Cornelia's ignoring his own late deadly peril in her anxiety for the young man.

But he would have done her wrong; her heart had stood still for him till she had seen his safety assured; then it had gone out in gratitude, admiration, and tender solicitude, for the man who had shown unfaltering and desperate determination in saving him.
Having backed Dolly--who was standing, quite subdued, with hanging head and heaving sides--away from the body, Professor Valeyon stooped down to make an examination.