Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter II FIRST AID " Oh, woman ! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy and hard to please ; But seen too oft, familiar with thy face We first endure, then pity, then embrace ! " A Moment later the girl was beside him, pity in her eyes. " Let me see that cut on your head," she said. She dropped on her knee and parted the hair with a gentle touch. " Why, you're real! " breathed the injured near-centaur, beaming with wonder and gratification. She sat down limply and gave way to wild laughter. "So are you;" she retorted. "Why, that is exactly what I was thinking ! I thought maybe I was asleep and having an extraordinary dream. That wound on your head is not serious, if that's all." She brushed back a wisp of hair that blew across her eyes. " I hurt this head just the other day," observed the bedraggled victim, as one .who has an assortment of heads from which to choose. He pulled off his soaked gloves andregarded them ruefully. " ' Them that go down to deep waters!' That was a regular triumph of matter over mind, wasn't it?" " It's a wonder you're alive ! My ! How frightened I was ! Aren't you hurt—truly ? Ribs or anything? " The patient's elbows made a convulsive movement to guard the threatened ribs. " Oh, no, ma'am. I ain't hurt a bit— indeed I ain't," he said truthfully; but his eyes had the languid droop of one who says the thing that is not. " Don't you worry none about me—not one bit. Sorry I frightened you. That black horse now " He stopped to consider fully the case of the black horse. " Well, you see, ma'am, that black horse, he ain't exactly right plumb gentle." His eyelids drooped again. The girl considered. She believed him— both that he was not badly hurt and that the black horse was not exactly gentle. And her suspicions were a...