e was back in a surprisingly short time with
two blankets, a couple of light poles and a flask of brandy. He seemed
as fresh and unwinded as if he had gone no farther than the grove, and
he wore, more than ever, his air of cheerful assurance.

"The doctor will be there," he remarked, just as if it were the
simplest thing in the world. "We can carry him to Fred Thurman's.
There I can get horses and a wagon, and you will not have to carry so
far. And when we get to your ranch the doctor will be there, I think.
He is starting now. We will hurry. I will fix it so you need not
carry much. It is just to make it steady for me."

While he talked he was working on the stretcher. He had a rope, and he
was knotting it in a long loop to the poles. Lorraine wondered why,
until he had lifted her father and placed him on the stretcher and
placed the loop over his head and under one arm, as a ploughman holds
the reins, so that his hands may be free.

"If you will carry the front," said Swan politely, "it will not be
heavy for you like this. But you will help me keep it steady."

Lorraine was past discussing anything. She obeyed him silently,
lifting the end of the stretcher and leading the way down to the
canyon's bottom, where Swan assured her they could walk quite easily
and would save many detours which the road above must take. At the
bottom Swan stopped her so that he might shorten the rope and take more
of the weight on his shoulders. She protested half-heartedly, but Swan
only laughed.

"I am strong like a mule," he said. "You should see me wrestle with
somebody. Clear over my head--I can carry a man in my hands. This is
so you can walk fast. Three miles straight down we come to Thurman's
ranch, where I get the horses. It's funny how hills make a road far
around. Just three miles--that's all. I have walked many times."

Lorraine did not answer him. She felt that he was talking merely to
keep her from worrying, and she was fairly sick with anxiety and did
not hear half of what he was saying. She was nervously careful about
choosing her steps so that she would not stumble and jolt her father.
She did not believe that he was wholly unconscious, for she had seen
his eyelids tighten and his lips twitch several times, when she waiting
for Swan. He had seemed to be in pain and to be trying to hide the
fact from her. She felt that Swan knew it, else he would have talked
of her dad, would at least have tried