, it weren't me," said Lem.

"No? Who, then?"

"Wal, it was Wils, an' he made me swear to tell you nuthin'--leastways
about him."

"Wils! Did he save Pronto?... And didn't want you to tell me? Lem,
something has happened. You're not like yourself."

"Miss Collie, I reckon I'm nigh all in," replied Lem, wearily. "When I
git this bandagin' done I'll fall right off my hoss."

"But you're on the ground now, Lem," said Columbine, with a nervous
laugh. "What happened?"

"Did you hear about the argyment this mawnin'?"

"No. What--who--"

"You can ask Ole Bill aboot thet. The way Pronto was hurt come off like
this. Buster Jack rode out to where we was brandin' an' jumped his hoss
over a fence into the pasture. He hed a rope an' he got to chasin' some
hosses over thar. One was Pronto, an' the son-of-a-gun somehow did git
the noose over Pronto's head. But he couldn't hold it, or didn't want
to, fer Pronto broke loose an' jumped the fence. This wasn't so bad as
far as it went. But one of them bad steers got after Pronto. He run an'
sure stepped on the rope, an' fell. The big steer nearly piled on him.
Pronto broke some records then. He shore was scared. Howsoever he picked
out rough ground an' run plumb into some dead brush. Reckon thar he got
cut up. We was all a good ways off. The steer went bawlin' an' plungin'
after Pronto. Wils yelled fer a rifle, but nobody hed one. Nor a
six-shooter, either.... I'm goin' back to packin' a gun. Wal, Wils did
some ridin' to git over thar in time to save Pronto."

"Lem, that is not all," said Columbine, earnestly, as the cowboy
concluded. Her knowledge of the range told her that Lem had narrated
nothing so far which could have been cause for his cold, grim, evasive
manner; and her woman's intuition divined a catastrophe.

"Nope.... Wils's hoss fell on him."

Lem broke that final news with all a cowboy's bluntness.

"Was he hurt--_Lem_!" cried Columbine.

"Say, Miss Collie," remonstrated Lem, "we're doctorin' up your hoss. You
needn't drop everythin' an' grab me like thet. An' you're white as a
sheet, too. It ain't nuthin' much fer a cowboy to hev a hoss fall
on him."

"Lem Billings, I'll hate you if you don't tell me quick," flashed
Columbine, fiercely.

"Ahuh! So thet's how the land lays," replied Lem, shrewdly. "Wal, I'm
sorry to tell you thet Wils was bad hurt. Now, not _real_ bad!... The
hoss fell on his leg an' broke it. I cut off his boot. His foot was all
smashed. Bu