t first fallen
stars caught in the mesquite branches, swam into view. Plainly Tony's
accident had stimulated much local interest; among the few straggling
houses men came and went, while a knot of women, children, and
countless mongrel dogs had congregated just outside of the hut where
the injured man lay. A brush fire in the street crackled right
merrily, its sparks dancing skyward.

"You promise me," said Norton as they drew their horses down to a trot,
"not to say anything until we can have had time to talk?"

"I promise," she said wearily.

She entered the sufferer's room first, Norton delaying to tie the
horses and lift down the instrument cases from the saddle-strings. She
stopped abruptly just beyond the threshold; the smell of chloroform was
heavy upon the air, Tony lay whitefaced upon a table, Caleb Patten with
coat off and sleeves rolled up was bending over him.

"Oh, senorita!" cried a woman, hurrying forward, her hands twisting
nervously in her apron. And a torrential outpouring in Spanish greeted
the mystified Virginia.

"I thought that I was wanted here," she said, looking about her at the
four or five grave faces. "Tony's brother came for me."

One of the men shambled forward to explain. "Tony want you," he said
quickly. "Tony ver' bad hurt. Dr. Patten come in Las Estrellas by
accident, he say got to cut off the arm, can't wait too long or Tony
die. He just beginnin' now."

The woman, who, it appeared was Tony's wife and the mother of two of
the ragged children out by the fire, joined her voice eagerly to the
man's. He translated.

"Eloisa say she thank God you come; Tony want you, she want you.
Patten charge one hundred dollar an'. . . ." He shrugged eloquently.
"She say you do for Tony; you do better than Patten."

Virginia's eyes flashed upon Patten. He came a step toward her, his
attitude half belligerent.

"The man has to be operated upon immediately," he said sharply. "He
was hurt in the afternoon out on the end of the ranch; has been all day
getting in; fainted half a dozen times, I guess. The arm has to come
off at the elbow."

"Thank you," returned Virginia quietly, going to the table. "I'll take
the case now, Dr. Patten."

"You?" Patten laughed, his eyes jeering. "You operate? Do you think
that they want you to cut a skein of silk with a pair of scissors? Cut
off a man's arm . . . how far would you go before you fainted?"

"That'll be about all, Patten," came N