ker, as Bud mounted the colt to return. "Ef
I'm wanted jest send me word, and I'll make a forrard movement any time.
I don't like this 'ere thing of running off in the night-time. But I
reckon General Winfield Scott would a ordered a retreat ef he'd a been
in my shoes. I'm lots obleeged to you. Akordin' to my tell, we're all
of us selfish in everything; but I'll be dog-on'd ef I don't believe you
and one or two more is exceptions."

Whether it was that the fact that Pete Jones had got consid'able shuck
up demoralized his followers, or whether it was that the old man's
flight was suspected, the mob did not turn out in very great force, and
the tarring was postponed indefinitely, for by the time they came
together it became known somehow that the man with a wooden leg had
outrun them all. But the escape of one devoted victim did not mollify
the feelings of the people toward the next one.

By the time Bud returned his arm was very painful, and the next day he
went under Dr. Small's treatment to reduce the fracture. Whatever
suspicions Bud might have of Pete Jones, he was not afflicted with
Ralph's dread of the silent young doctor. And if there was anything
Small admired it was physical strength and courage. Small wanted Bud on
his side, and least of all did he want him to be Ralph's champion. So
that the silent, cool, and skillful doctor went to work to make an
impression on Bud Means.

Other influences were at work upon him also. Mrs. Means volleyed and
thundered in her usual style about his "takin' up with a one-legged
thief, and runnin' arter that master that was a mighty suspicious kind
of a customer, akordin' to her tell. She'd allers said so. Ef she'd a
been consulted he wouldn't a been hired. He warn't fit company fer
nobody."

And old Jack Means 'lowed Bud must want to have _their_ barns burnt like
some other folkses had been. Fer his part, he had sense enough to know
they was some people as it wouldn't do to set a body's self agin. And as
fer him, he didn't butt his brains out agin a buckeye-tree. Not when he
was sober. And so they managed, during Bud's confinement to the house,
to keep him well supplied with all the ordinary discomforts of life.

But one visit from Martha Hawkins, ten words of kindly inquiry from her,
and the remark that his broken arm reminded her of something she had
seen at the East and something somebody said the time she was to
Bosting, were enough to repay the champion a thousand fold