. His knotted hands lay on the coverlet, gray and bloodless
under the stains of hard work. Idy bent over him, tucking him in with
little pats and crooning moans of sympathy. When she had finished, she
dropped her wet cheek against his beard.

"I'm goin' fer the doctor, pappy," she whispered; "I won't be gone but a
little while,"--then rushed down the path to the stable, and flung the
harness on the pinto.

The buggy was standing in the shed, and she caught the shafts and
dragged it out with superabundant energy, as if her anxiety found relief
in the exertion. A few minutes later she drove out between the rows of
pallid young eucalyptus-trees that led to the road, leaning eagerly
forward, her young face white and set beneath the row of knobby
protuberances that represented the morning stage of her much cherished
bang. It was thus that she drove into Elsmore, the rattling of the old
buggy and the spots of lather on the pinto's sides exciting a ripple of
curiosity, which furnished its own solution in the fact that it was
"that there Starkweather girl," who was generally conceded to be "a
great one."

She stopped her panting horse before the doctor's office, and sprang
out.

"Are you the doctor?" she asked breathlessly, standing on the threshold,
with one hand on each side of the casing.

A man in his shirt-sleeves, who was writing at the desk, turned and
looked at her. It was the same man who had prevented the runaway. He
began to smile, but the girl's stricken face stopped him.

"Dr. Patterson has gone to the tin-mine," he said, getting up and coming
forward; "he will not be home till to-morrow."

Idy grasped the casing so tightly that her knuckles shone white and
polished.

"My fawther's got a hem'ridge," she said, swallowing after the words. "I
don't know what on earth to do."

"A hemorrhage!" said the young man with kindly sympathy. "Well, now,
don't be too much alarmed, Miss--"

"Starkweather," quavered Idy.

"Starkweather? Oh, it's Mr. Starkweather. Why, he's a friend of mine.
And so you're his daughter. Well, you mustn't be too much alarmed. I've
had a great many hemorrhages myself, and I'm good for twenty years
yet." He had taken his coat from a nail at the back of the room, and was
putting it on hurriedly. "Prop him up in bed, and don't let him talk,
and give him a spoonful of salt-and-water now and then. My horse is
standing outside, and I'll go right down to Maravilla and fetch a
doctor. I'll come