ghtened up and gave a short, embarrassed laugh.

"Reckon I've got a funny-bone in my head," he said impatiently. Then
steadying himself with his right hand he climbed slowly into the back
seat of the buckboard.

"We'd better go to Jonah at once, don't you think--for the doctor?"
Blue Bonnet asked him.

"Is it far?" he asked. Blue Bonnet looked her surprise and he added:
"I don't know these parts. I'm camping up at the Big Spring and was
just riding down this way looking for a place they call Kooch's."

"Why, we've just come from there," exclaimed Blue Bonnet.

"Then it is near?" he asked. "I'd begun to think I must have taken the
wrong road."

"Just a mile or two back," explained Blue Bonnet.

"Then if you will kindly take me there, I'll not trouble you any
further," the youth said eagerly.

"But you must have your arm set right away," protested Sarah.

"Well, if the man I was looking for is at Kooch's, maybe he can set
it," he replied, adding, "He's a 'medic' from Chicago--a friend of a
cousin of mine. Left college on account of lung trouble, and I heard
he was camping on Kooch's ground somewhere."

"Maybe it was his tent we saw back there a ways," said Sarah. "That's
quite near."

Blue Bonnet turned the horses and driving very slowly, so as not to
hurt the boy's injured arm, went back over the road they had just
traversed. It was not long before they came in sight of the tent she
and Sarah had noticed; a rather high fence prevented her approaching
it very closely, and she stopped just opposite the camp.

"I reckon you'll have to go and see if the man's there, Sarah," said
Blue Bonnet.

Sarah looked fearfully at the high fence. "I just know I can't get
over."

Blue Bonnet gave her a withering glance. "You--Woodfordite!" was the
worst epithet she dared trust herself to before a stranger. "Then
you'll have to hold the horses. There's no river to spill into
here--and you don't have to pull them over backwards."

"There's no need, really," the young fellow interrupted. "I can bring
Abbott if he's here." He raised his right hand, put the tips of two
fingers to his lips and blew. The shrillest, most penetrating whistle
the girls had ever heard pierced the air, causing the colts to lunge
forward in a way that might have precipitated another catastrophe, had
not Blue Bonnet's little steel wrist brought them up sharply.

At the summons a tall lanky figure appeared from within the tent and
stood peering unde