“A woman!  Dying?” he thought, with a sudden stab of pity in his heart.

Then, forcing his way along, he reached her, and fell upon his knees at her side.

“Not dead!  Not dying!  Thank God!” he exclaimed.  One glance showed him she would live.  Though an ugly gash upon her forehead had bathed her face in blood, and though he knew not but bones were broken, he recognized the fact that she was now returning, fast, to consciousness.

Already she had opened her eyes—­wild eyes, understanding nothing—­and was staring up at him in dazed, blank terror.  Then one hand came up to her face; and, even as he lifted her in both his powerful arms, she began to sob hysterically.

He knew the value of that weeping, and made no attempt to stop it.  The overwrought nerves, he understood, must find some outlet.  Asking no question, speaking no word—­for Gabriel was a man of action, not speech—­he gathered her up as though she had been a child.  A tall woman, she; almost as tall as he himself, and proportioned like a Venus.  Yet to him her weight was nothing.

Sure-footed, now, and bursting through the brambles with fine energy, he carried her to the gap in the wall, up through it, and so to the roadway itself.

“Where—­where am I?” the woman cried incoherently.  “O—­what—­where—?”

“You’re all right!” he exclaimed.  “Just a little accident, that’s all.  Don’t worry!  I’ll take care of you.  Just keep quiet, now, and don’t think of anything.  You’ll be all right, in no time!”

But she still wept and cried out to know where she might be and what had happened.  Obviously, Gabriel saw, her reason had not yet fully returned.  His first aim must be to bathe her wound, find out what damage had been done, and keeping her quiet, try to get help.

Swiftly he thought.  Here he and the woman were, miles from any settlement or house, nearly in the middle of a long stretch of road that skirted the river through dense woods.  At any time a motor might come along; and then again, one might not arrive for hours.  No dependence could be put on this.  There was no telephone for a long distance back; and even had one been near he would not have ventured to leave the girl.

Could he carry her back to Fort Clinton, the last settlement he had passed through?  Impossible!  No man’s strength could stand such a tremendous task.  And even had it been within Gabriel’s means, he would have chosen otherwise.  For most of all the girl needed rest and quiet and immediate care.  To bear her all that distance in his arms might produce serious, even fatal results.

“No!” he decided.  “I must do what I can for her, here and now, and trust to luck to send help in an auto, down this road!”

His next thought was that bandages and wraps would be needed for her cut and to make her a bed.  Instantly he remembered the shawl and the big auto-robe that he had seen caught among the trees.