out him
waiting his lead. Craigin with his rifle held them all in check. A
moment's thought and his decision was taken. He stepped toward Craigin
and said in a clear voice, "Mr. Craigin, these stores are necessary to
save these men's lives. I want them and I'm going to take them. Murder
me, if you like."

"Hear me, men." Craigin's voice was cold and deliberate. "These stores
are in my charge. I am an officer of the law. If any man lays his hand
on that latch I'll shoot him, so help me God."

"Hear me, Mr. Craigin," replied Dr. Bailey. "I'm here in consultation
with Dr. Haines, who has turned over this matter to my charge. In a case
of this kind the doctor's orders are supreme. This whole camp is under
his authority. These stores are necessary, and I am going to get them."
He well knew the weak spot in his position, but he counted on Craigin's
nerve breaking down. In that, however, he was mistaken. Without haste,
but without hesitation, he walked toward the storehouse door. When three
paces from it Craigin's voice arrested him.

"Hold on there! Put your hand on that door and, as God lives, you're a
dead man!"

Without a word the doctor turned again toward the door. The men with
varying cries rushed toward the foreman. Craigin threw up his rifle.
Immediately a shot rang out and Craigin fell to the snow, the smoking
rifle dropping from his hand.

"Begob, I niver played baseball," cried Tommy, rushing in and seizing
the rifle, "but many's the time I've had the divarsion in the streets av
Dublin of bringin' down the polismen wid a brick."

A heavy horseshoe, heaved with sure aim, had saved the doctor's life.
They carried Craigin into the office and laid him on the bed, the blood
streaming from a ghastly wound in his scalp. Quickly Dr. Bailey got to
work and before Craigin had regained consciousness the wound was sewed
up and dressed. Then giving him over to the charge of Haines, Dr. Bailey
went about the work he had in hand.

Before the noon hour had arrived the eight men who were discovered to
be in various stages of diphtheria were comfortably housed in a roomy
building rudely constructed of logs, tar paper, and tarpaulin, with a
small cook-house attached and Tommy Tate in charge. And before night had
fallen the process of disinfecting the bedding, clothing, bunk-house,
and cookery was well under way, while all who had been in immediate
contact with the infected men had been treated by the doctor with
antitoxin as