. He was conscious of this feeling. But, quite honestly, he
attributed it to the fact that he had just got his first grizzly, and
what was more, centered him, charging, with every shot; which, as he
looked at it, ought to be a source of satisfaction to any properly
constituted man, and adequately explained the sense of contentment
aforesaid.

CHAPTER XVI

A TALK WITH JUDGE RILEY

Dr. Wilkes investigated the naked torso of Angus Mackay with skilled
fingers.

"Two ribs cracked," he announced, "and you're lucky at that, young man.
The scalp wound is nothing. The ribs will be all right in a few weeks,
if you give them a chance. Mind, you, Angus, no hard riding, no lifting;
move gently and rest all you can."

"But the fall work--" Angus began. The doctor cut him short.

"Work!" he exploded irritably. "There's that word again. By heaven, you
all say it! It's 'I can't go away, doc, I can't take a holiday, I can't
rest. I've got to work.' Lord knows how many times I've heard it, and
from men who wouldn't work a sick or lame horse on a bet. You'd think
health was the least important thing on earth, something to be fixed up
in a day or two with a Blaud's pill. Work is a fine thing to keep folks
out of mischief, but it isn't the chief end of man, and it isn't a
damned fetich that demands human sacrifice. Who'll do your work when
you're dead?" He glared at Angus ferociously beneath shaggy,
red-and-gray brows.

"Well, I won't worry about that," Angus laughed. "I hope it's a long way
off."

"It missed your head by about an inch yesterday," Wilkes told him.
"There you stand, over six feet, and nearly two hundred pounds of as
fine bone and sinew and flesh and blood as I've ever seen, every organ
of you, as far as I can tell, as sound as clear pine. And you may be
good for seventy years more--or seventy hours. A long way off! Your
horse steps in a hole, or a team bolts and you happen to fall wrong, or
a little drop of blood clots somewhere. And puff! away you go like a
pinch of dust on the trail, which is exactly what you are. A long way
off! Of all the blasted but blessed cocksureness of youth!" And he
grumbled and growled as he strapped up the injured side.

But Angus paid little attention to the doctor's homily. From the
latter's office he went to see Judge Riley who, much to everybody's
surprise, had cut his drinking down if not out, and in consequence was
much busier than of old. Before him Angus laid the puzzle