anxiously.
"Not on your life," he protested weakly. "I don't want any
doctor--in mine, thank yuh. I--it's no use, anyhow."

"The hell it ain't!" Pink was drawing off his coat to make a pillow.
"You're hurt, somehow, ain't yuh?"

"I'm--dying," the other said, laconically. "So yuh needn't go to any
trouble, on my account. From the looks--yuh was headed for
some--blowout. Go on, and let me be."

The Happy Family looked at one another incredulously; they were so
likely to ride on!

"I guess you don't savvy this bunch, old-timer," said Weary calmly,
speaking for the six. "We're going to do what we can. If yuh don't
mind telling us where yuh got hurt--"

The lips of the other curled bitterly. "I was shot," he said
distinctly, "by the sheriff and his bunch. But I got away. Last
night I tried to cross the creek, and my horse went on down. It was
storming--fierce. I got out, somehow, and crawled into the weeds.
Laying out in the rain--didn't help me none. It's--all off."

"There ought to be _something_--" began Jack Bates helplessly.

"There is. If yuh'll just put me away--afterwards--and say
nothing,--I'll be--mighty grateful." He was looking at them sharply,
as if a great deal depended upon their answer.

The Happy Family was dazed. The very suddenness of this unlooked-for
glimpse into the somber eyes of Tragedy was unnerving. The world had
seemed such a jolly place; ten minutes ago--five minutes, even, their
greatest fear had been getting to the picnic too late for dinner.
And here was a man at their feet, calmly telling them that he was
about to die, and asking only a hurried burial and a silence after.
Happy Jack swallowed painfully and shifted his feet in the grass.

"Of course, if yuh'd feel better handing me over--"

"That'll be about enough on that subject," Pink interrupted with
decision. "Just because yuh happen to be down and out--for the time
being--is no reason why yuh should insult folks. You can take it for
granted we'll do what we can for yuh; the question is, _what_? Yuh
needn' go talking about cashing in--they's no sense in it. You'll be
all right.--"

"Huh. You wait and see." The fellow's mouth set grimly upon another
groan. "If you was shot through, and stuck to the saddle--and
rode--and then got pummeled--by a creek at flood, and if yuh laid out
in the rain--all night-- Hell, boys! Yuh know I'm about all in.
I'm hard to kill, or I'd have been--dead-- What I want to