He would have been killed had he
plunged immediately to the frozen ground beneath.
As it was, when the three girls reached him, he was unconscious and it was
plain by the attitude in which he lay that his leg was broken.
CHAPTER XIX
THE EMERGENCY
"Poor Hunchie!" murmured Ida Bellethorne, "I hope it wasn't because he was
surprised to see me that he fell."
"His surprise did not make that timber slippery with ice," said Betty,
looking up. "Oh! Here's a lady!"
A comfortable looking woman with a shawl over her head was hurrying from
the kitchen door of the Candace farmhouse.
"What has happened to that poor man? He's been battered and kicked about
so much, it would seem, there ain't much can happen to him that he hasn't
already suffered.
"Ah! Poor fellow!" she added, stooping over the senseless Hunchie. "What a
deal of trouble some folks seem bound to have. And not another man on the
place!"
She stood up again and stared at the three girls. Her broad, florid face
was all creased with trouble now, but Betty thought she must ordinarily be
a very cheerful woman indeed.
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