a shot,
but it had been jammed, and he was unable to move it. "She reached out
and pushed me! I felt her do it!" he cried. He attempted to rise, but
fell back, groaning with a pain that kept him quiet for several moments.
"Sam!" he muttered, "she's there yet. Kill her. Damn it, didn't you see!
I had my balance again, and she pushed me! She had it in for me!" His
face whitened for an instant as he moved, then flooded with a red anger.
"My God!" he cried, in the anguish of a strong man laid low, "she's
busted me all over!" He wrenched loose his shoulders from Sam's support,
struggled to his knees, and fell back, a groan of pain seeming fairly to
burst from his heart. His head hit sharply against a stone. He lay
still.
"May-may-gwan!" called Sam Bolton, sharply.
She came at once, running eagerly, the paralysis of her distress broken
by his voice. Sam directed her by nods of the head. With some difficulty
they carried the unconscious man to the flat and laid him down, his head
on Sam's rolled coat. Then, while May-may-gwan, under his curtly
delivered directions, built a fire, heated water, carried down the two
remaining packs and opened them, Sam tenderly removed Dick's clothes,
and examined him from head to foot. The cuts on the head were nothing to
a strong man; the bruises less. Manipulation discovered nothing wrong
with the collar-bone and ribs. But at last Sam uttered a quick
exclamation of discovery.
Dick's right ankle was twisted strongly outward and back.
An inexperienced man would have pronounced it a dislocation, but Sam
knew better. He knew better because just once, nearly fifteen years
before, he had assisted Dr. Cockburn at Conjuror's House in the caring
for exactly such an accident. Now he stood for some moments in silence
recalling painfully each little detail of what he had observed and of
what the physician had told him.
Rapidly by means of twigs and a tracing on the wet sand he explained to
May-may-gwan what was the matter and what was to be done. The fibula, or
outer bone of the leg, had been snapped at its lower end just above the
ankle, the foot had been dislocated to one side, and either the inner
ligament of the ankle had given way, or--what would be more serious--one
of the ankle-bones itself had been torn. Sam Bolton realised fully that
it was advisable to work with the utmost rapidity, before the young man
should regain consciousness, in order that the reduction of the fracture
might b
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