Page 80 (1/2)

I wasn’t knocked out, but it didn’t le of brush, struggling for breath, unable towhatever beyond a few scattered stars in the sky overhead

There was an ungodly racket going on sooats figured largely, punctuated by what I took to be a woman’s screams To nized as h--but always safely far in the distance This one wasn’t far away at all The tearing-fabric noise I’d heard had been the cough of a big cat, very close at hand

I bu and pro myself as far into the s place I’d ever seen, butout of a tree onto h the tenor of his reoats had --surely the cat couldn’t have killed all of the of Mrs Beardsley, either, but the horses were

My heart was haled alongraw terror like the pri eaten, and my sy in the brush near at hand, and Ja to e until I knew for certain where the panther was--or at least knew for certain that it wasn’t anywhere near h they were still snorting and stah noise to indicate that neither of them had either fallen prey to our visitor or run away

"Here!" I called, a little louder

More crashing, close at hand Jah the darkness, crouched, and felt under the log until his hand encountered ht, Sassenach?"

"I hadn’t thought to notice, but I think so," I replied I slid cautiously out fro stock Bruises here and there, abraded elbows, and a stinging sensation where the branch had slapped ht, then

"Good Come quick, he’s hurt" He hauled h the dark with a hand in the soat, of course"

My eyes ell-adapted to the dark by now, and Iunder a leafless poplar, itation A smaller shape that I took to be Mrs Beardsley was crouched nearby, over soround

I could soat I squatted and reached out, touching rough, waroat jerked at my touch, with a loud "MEHeheh!" that reassured --at least not yet; the body under my hands was solid and vital, ed hardness of the horns and feelingthe spine, then down the ribs and flanks The goat had objections, and heaved wildly under my hands

"Gone," Jaoat’s head "There, now, a bhalaich It’s all right, then Seas, oat’s body, but I could certainly sht air of the wood The horses did, too; they whickered and one?" I asked, trying to ignore the sensation of eyes fastened on the back of my neck "I smell blood"

"Aye The cat took one of the nannies," Ja hand on the goat’s neck

"Mrs Beardsley loosed this brave laddie, and he went for the cat, bald-heided I couldna see it all, but I think the creature maybe slapped at hiave a skelloch just then, too I think his leg is uidance, I found the break easily, low on the hu The skin wasn’t broken, but the bone was cracked through; I could feel the slight displaceoat heaved and thrust his horns at , the odd square pupils visible but colorless in the faint ht

"Can ye oat was still struggling, but the flurries ofperceptibly weaker, as shock set in I bitand body The injury itself was likely repairable, but shock was a great danger; I had seen plenty of ani a traumatic incident, of injuries that were not fatal in theers had found a pulse at last; it was trip-ha to envision the possibilities for treatment, all of the Do you think perhaps we ought to slaughter him? He’d be a lot easier to carry, as ently

"It would be a great shahed at that, a nervous s out of the dark beyond Jaood boy"

"Hirae,asinadvertently encountered the testicles in question while h, I’lands orking overtime Even the harsh iron suratively," Ja, Sassenach?"