of the kerosene lamp on the table
within. Behind Frank, Lorraine saw Jim and Sorry standing in their
shirt sleeves looking out into the dark. Another, shorter figure she
glimpsed as Frank and the two men stepped out and came striding hastily
toward them. Lorraine jumped out and ran to meet them, hoping and
fearing that her hope was foolish. That car might easily be only Bob
Warfield on some errand of no importance. Still, she hoped.

"That you, Raine? Where's Brit? What's all this about Brit being
hurt? A doctor from Shoshone----"

"A _doctor_? Oh, did a doctor come, then? Oh, help Swan carry dad in!
I'm--oh, I'm afraid he's awfully injured!"

"Yes-s--but how'n hell did a doctor know about it?" Sorry, the silent,
blurted unexpectedly.

"Oh,--never mind--but get dad in. I'll----" She ran past them without
finishing her sentence and burst incoherently into the presence of an
extremely calm little man with gray whiskers and dust on the shoulder
of his coat. These details, I may add, formed the sum of Lorraine's
first impression of him.

"Well! Well!" he remonstrated with a professional briskness, when she
nearly bowled him over. "We seem to be in something of a hurry! Is
this the patient I was sent to examine?"

"No!" Lorraine flashed impatiently over her shoulder as she rushed
into her own room and began turning down the covers. "It's dad, of
course--and you'd better get your coat off and get ready to go to work,
because I expect he's just one mass of broken bones!"

The doctor smiled behind his whiskers and returned to the doorway to
direct the carrying in of his patient. His sharp eyes went immediately
to Brit's face, pallid under the leathery tan, his fingers went to
Brit's hairy, corded wrist. The doctor smiled no more that evening.

"No, he is not a mass of broken bones, I am happy to say," he reported
gravely to Lorraine afterwards. "He has a sufficient number, however.
The left scapula is fractured, likewise the clavicle, and there is a
compound fracture of the femur. There is some injury to the head, the
exact extent of which I cannot as yet determine. He should be removed
to a hospital, unless you are prepared to have a nurse here for some
time, or to assume the burden of a long and tedious illness." He
looked at her thoughtfully. "The journey to Shoshone would be a
considerable strain on the patient in his present condition. He has a
splendid amount of constitutional vitality,