Page 13 of Return to Telegraph Creek

I gazed into his frantic face and smiled.“I’m all right.”

“No, you ain’t!You’re bleedin’!”

I shifted my gaze to where he was pointing.Sure enough, my shirt was torn, and a red stain was spreading.

“Well, will you look at that?”I said, only then feeling the sharp, burning pain of an injury.I was sore in other places, but that one spot was on fire.I’d taken off my jacket as the sun had heated everything up so much, and so I’d had no protection as I’d slid through the gravel and larger rocks.

Oscar knelt beside me and moved the torn fabric aside.

“Aw, fuck,” he said.

“That bad?”I commented, grimacing at the pain now.

“Well, it ain’t pretty, and it’s bleedin’ bad.You got a decent gash there.”

“Yeah, I can feel it.”

He gazed at me with barely restrained panic that I had to put an end to or he wouldn’t be able to help with anything.

“How deep is it?It hurts, but it don’t feel like it got anything important.”

Oscar pulled back the cloth of my shirt and prodded the spot a bit.When he spoke, his voice was calmer.

“There’s a lot of blood, but it don’t look like it’s all that deep.It’s long and jagged, and I reckon you’ll need stitches.”

“Hmm.All right.”

Problem was, I couldn’t stitch myself up at that angle, and I wouldn’t want to do it out here anyhow, because the risk of an infection was the big worry.

“What do I do?”Oscar asked.

“Take off your shirt and press the inside of it—the cleaner part—against the gash for a good ten minutes.Hold it and press it, hard.That should slow the bleeding.”

“Okay.”He did as I’d instructed.

Even injured like I was, the sight of Oscar’s lean muscles and bare chest and shoulders gave me a thrill, and he must have noticed.

“Well, I guess you can’t be too badly hurt, if you’re still ogling my nakedness,” he said.

I started to laugh but that made the pain worse, then Oscar pressed his inside-out, wadded-up shirt to the gash.

“Shit,” I cursed, gritting my teeth.

“Sorry.You said to press hard.”

“Yeah, I know.You got to…to stop the bleeding.”I took a deep breath.“It’s fine.”I nudged my hand under his to take over, keeping the cloth of Oscar’s shirt tight against the wound.

“Get the first-aid kit.It’s in the satchel near Poke’s left shoulder.”

He scrambled up, looking to the horse and the mule on the ridge.I followed his gaze.The slope was steep where we’d tried, and failed, to descend safely.But ten meters on from that was a safer spot for him to try.

“Look there.You should be able to climb up, and you can lead Onyx and Poke to that spot and bring them down.”I cursed.“If I’d only waited another minute to get to that spot, none of this would have happened.”

Oscar frowned.“You couldn’t have known.’Twas a misjudgement, that’s all.”

I gave a bitter laugh at his naiveté.“Oscar, a misjudgement out here can get you killed.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked like he wanted to slap me.“Well, youain’tkilled.You only gotta slice outta your side.I’ll go, but don’t you move.”