of the young
man to the upper flat, Sam curtly instructed May-may-gwan to gather
balsam for the dressing of the various severer bruises. She obtained the
gum, a little at a time, from a number of trees. Here and there, where
the bark had cracked or been abraded, hard-skinned blisters had exuded.
These, when pricked, yielded a liquid gum, potent in healing. While she
was collecting this in a quickly fashioned birch-bark receptacle, Sam
made camp.

He realised fully that the affair was one of many weeks, if not of
months. On the flat tongue overlooking the river he cleared a wide
space, and with the back of his axe he knocked the hummocks flat. A
score or so of sapling poles he trimmed. Three he tied together
tripod-wise, using for the purpose a strip of the inner bark of cedar.
The rest he leaned against these three. He postponed, until later, the
stripping of birch-bark to cover this frame, and gave his attention to
laying a soft couch for Dick's convalescence. The foundation he made of
caribou-moss, gathered dry from the heights; the top of balsam boughs
cleverly thatched so that the ends curved down and in, away from the
recumbent body. Over all he laid what remained of his own half blanket.
Above the bed he made a framework from which a sling would be hung to
suspend the injured leg.

All this consumed not over twenty minutes. At the end of that time he
glanced up to meet Dick's eyes.

"Leg broke," he answered the inquiry in them. "That's all."

"That girl--," began Dick.

"Shut up!" said Sam.

He moved here and there, constructing, by means of flat stones, a trough
to be used as a cooking-range. At the edge of the clearing he met the
Indian girl returning with her little birch-bark saucer.

"Little Sister," said he.

She raised her eyes to him.

"I want the truth."

"What truth, Little Father?"

He looked searchingly into her eyes.

"It does not matter; I have it," he replied.

She did not ask him further. If she had any curiosity, she did not
betray it; if she had any suspicion of what he meant, she did not show
it.

Sam returned to where Dick lay.

"Look here, Sam," said he, "this comes of--"

"Shut up!" said Sam again. "Look here, you, you've made trouble enough.
Now you're laid up, and you're laid up for a good long while. This ain't
any ordinary leg break. It means three months, and it may mean that
you'll never walk straight again. It's got to be treated mighty
careful, and you've got to