Almost at the same instant a similar fastening secured
his ankles, and his body was rolled to the centre of the platform
as helplessly, and as cavalierly, as if it were a log of wood.
His rescued antagonist, however, did not rise, for while he began
again to breathe, his head still hung helplessly over the edge of
the logs, and it was thought at first that his neck was dislocated.
He recovered gradually only, and it was hours before he could walk.
Some fancied that neither his body, nor his mind, ever totally
recovered from this near approach to death.
Hurry owed his defeat and capture to the intensity with which
he had concentrated all his powers on his fallen foe. While thus
occupied, the two Indians he had hurled into the water mounted to
the heads of the piles, along which they passed, and joined their
companion on the platform. The latter had so far rallied his
faculties as to have gotten the ropes, which were in readiness for
use as the others appeared, and they were applied in the manner
related, as Hurry lay pressing his enemy down with his whole weight,
intent only on the horrible office of strangling him. Thus were
the tables turned, in a single moment; he who had been so near
achieving a victory that would have been renowned for ages, by means
of traditions, throughout all that region, lying helpless, bound
and a captive.
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