on you."

"Might as well! They will know I was in it."

"And you know you ought to own up, too."

"Cut it out, good--Toady. If you won't tell, I'll not plague them--nor
you--any more."

Toady silently plodded on, and in exasperation Billiard caught him by
the shoulder and shook him roughly.

"Le' go!" muttered the boy. "I'm going home, I tell you! Ge' out my
way!"

The white misery of that round, freckled face as it turned toward him
struck terror to the older brother's heart, and he excitedly demanded,
"What's the matter, kid? Are you sick?"

"Feel funny," panted the castor-bean victim. "I--want--to--lie--down."

"Let's hurry then. We'll soon be home." Billiard was genuinely
alarmed now, and seizing the other's cold hand, he tried to hasten the
lagging steps up the rocky trail. But Toady was really too ill to care
what happened or where he went, and he stumbled blindly on, tripping
over a loose pebble here, or bruised by staggering into a boulder
there, protesting one minute that he could go no further, and the next
instant begging Billiard to hurry faster.

At length, however, the house was reached, and Toady drifted like a
crumpled leaf across the threshold and lay down in the middle of the
floor. Irene had seen them coming, and rushed pell-mell for Tabitha,
shrieking in horrified accents, "Kitty, oh, Kitty, they've been to a
s'loon and got drunk!"

So Tabitha was somewhat prepared for their dramatic entrance; but one
glance at the livid lips, pinched nose and heavy, lusterless eyes would
have convinced her that Irene was mistaken, even if Billiard had not
caught the words and indignantly denied it. However, recalling a
certain episode in Jerome Vane's life in Silver Bow, she demanded
severely, "How many cigarettes has he smoked, Billiard McKittrick?"

"He hain't been smoking at all!" declared that young gentleman, more
ruffled at Tabitha's tone than at her accusation. "He--he--I dared him
to eat some castor-beans, and I guess they made him sick."

"Castor-beans!" shrieked Tabitha in wild alarm. "Go for the doctor at
once. Dr. Hayes at the drug-store! Tell him it's castor-beans. He
worked all night to save the Horan children who ate them once."

Billiard had shot out of the door before the words were out of her
mouth and was half-way down the trail before the dazed girl awoke with
a start to the realization that something must be done at once for the
suffering boy on the floor, or it m