I thought at first that you had killed him, but he's bleeding too free for that." The men moved some little distance away, and for some time Reuben could hear a murmured talk, but could make out nothing of what had been said.

It was, he judged, a quarter of an hour before the conversation ceased.

They did not return to him but remained at some distance off, and Reuben thought that he heard the footsteps of one of them going down the lane.

He could feel, by a warm sensation across his cheek, that the blood was flowing freely from the wound he had received on his temple.

A dull torpid feeling came over him, and after a time he again lost consciousness.
How long he remained in this state he did not know, but he was at last aroused by being lifted and thrown into the bottom of the cart.