nce. The physician next made a thorough examination, for which
he was better fitted than many a fashionable city practitioner, by
reason of his familiarity with wounds of all kinds.

When he arose Santry, who had watched him as a cat watches a mouse,
forced himself to speak, for his throat and mouth were dry as a bone.

"Well, Doc, how about it?"

"Oh, he won't die this time; but he may lie there for some weeks. So far
as I can tell the bullet just grazed the spinal cord, and it's the shock
of that which makes him so quiet now. A fraction of an inch closer and
he would have died or been paralyzed, a cripple, probably for life. At
is it, however, barring the possibility of infection, he should pull
through. The bullet passed straight through the body without injury to
any vital organ, and there is no indication of severe internal
hemorrhage."

Santry moistened his lips with his tongue and shook his head heavily.

"What gets me," he burst out, "is that Gawd A'mighty could 'a' let a
skunk like Moran do a thing like that! And then"--his voice swelled as
though the words he was about to utter exceeded the first--"and then let
the varmint get away from me!"

Dr. Catlin nodded sympathy with the statement and turned to Dorothy. She
had been anxiously searching his face to discover if he were encouraging
them unduly, and when she felt that he was not stretching the facts a
tremendous weight was lifted from her mind.

"You are going to stay here?" he asked.

"Yes; oh, yes!" she answered.

"That's good." He opened his medicine case and mixed a simple
antipyretic. "I'll explain what you're to do then. After that you better
lay down and try to sleep. Wade won't need much for some days, except
good nursing."

"I'm not tired," she insisted, at which he smiled shrewdly.

"I'm not asking you if you're tired. I'm telling you that you are. Those
nerves of yours are jumping now. You've got our patient to consider
first, and you can't look after him unless you keep well yourself. I'm
going to mix something up for you in a few minutes and then you're going
to rest. A nurse must obey orders."

He explained to her what she was to do for the patient and then gave her
something to offset the effects of her own nervous shock. Then
counseling them not to worry too much, for there would be no fatal
result if his directions were followed, the physician mounted his horse
and rode back to town. Such journeys were all in the day's work to