the greyness showed in patches,
and with fingers that were strangely clumsy he held a flask to Alton's
lips.

The latter choked, and then his eyes opened wide again. "Pass it
round. I'm figuring you're all wanting some," he said.

Seaforth to humour him touched the flask with his lips, and handed it
to Tom, who did the same, and then screwing the top on it passed it
back to Seaforth no emptier than when it reached him. Alton, however,
raised his head a trifle further, and looked at both of them.

"You'll have to do it better. Let me see the thing," he said.

Okanagan glanced at him severely. "I guess you'll lie right where you
are and keep very still, or I'll make a hole through the other leg," he
said.

Alton appeared to chuckle, but his arm slipped from under him, and he
dropped back heavily amidst the blankets with eyes closed while
Seaforth bent over him.

"That's all right," said Okanagan. "You needn't worry. I was kind of
hoping he would do it because I was anxious about the bleeding. Now
we'll get everything fixed up before he comes round again."

Seaforth did what he was bidden, and nothing more, for he had been
reared in England, and not amidst the firs and snows of Northern Canada
where misadventures are many and doctors very few, but he envied the
big bushman his skill that day, and Okanagan may have guessed it, for
he once smiled a little as he said:

"There are lots of things I can't do, and it's not your fault that you
were raised back in the old country, where you have other folks to put
the patches on to you."

"No," said Seaforth, smiling. "Still, he is my partner, you see. Now
I want to know what we are going to do with him."

Okanagan's smile was just perceptible as he held up a ragged piece of
lead, but Seaforth saw that he understood all the speech implied,
though he made no reference to it,

"There's half the trouble gone," he said. "The rest of it went
straight through the bone, and I kind of fancy smashed it up
considerable."

"Will the pieces knit as they were before?" said Seaforth very
anxiously, and for a moment or two Okanagan did not answer him.

"That," he said very slowly, "is what I don't quite know. One of them
bones is a rocker, and she swings on the other. That one's cut, but I
don't think it's smashed right through. Now if it goes as well as the
other, it's quite possible Harry will limp ever after."

Seaforth stood up with a little shiver. "Good Lor