he been trying to beat the shot?"

"He ain't on our job," replied the foreman. "Come down from twenty
mile up the East Fork. Got kicked by a horse."

"Huh! What's his name? Look at him jump!" remarked the doctor, with
mixed emotions and references.

"Sim Gage. Come down with a feller name of Gardner that lives up in
there."

"Oh, above on the East Fork? Say, how's the fishing up there?--Did
they say there were any grayling in there?"

"I've saw Wid Gardner lots of times before, and he says a feller can
always get a sackful of grayling any time he wants to, in there, come
summer time."

"Look at him go! Ain't that fine?" inquired Dr. Allen Barnes. "Did he
say they were coming good now, up there? Ain't he a peach?"

"Yes, Wid said the grayling was risin' right good now," said Flaherty.
"But this feller, Sim Gage, his leg looks to me like you'd have to cut
it off. Can I help, Doc?--I never seen a man's leg cut off, not in my
whole life."

"How do I know whether it's got to come off or not, I'd like to know.
See that?--Ain't he a darling, now, I'm asking you?"

"He is. Like I was saying, this feller's leg is all swoll up. Leave
it to me, I'd say we ought to cut it off right now."

"Well, you go tell him not to cut it off till I get this fish landed,"
said Dr. Barnes. "Tell him I'll be up there in a few minutes. What's
the matter with it, anyhow?"

"Been gone a couple of days," said Flaherty, breaking off twigs and
casting them on the current. "Blood poison, I reckon."

"What's that?" The Doctor turned under the spur of his professional
conscience. "Oh, well, dang it! Here goes!"

He began to lift up and reel in with all his might, so that his fish,
very much obliged, broke the gear and ran off with joy, a yard of
leader attached to his mouth.

"That's the way it goes," said the Doctor. "Get fast to a six-pound
brown trout, and along comes a man with a leg that's got to be cut off.
Dang such a job anyhow--I will cut his leg off, too, just for this!"

Fuming as usual, he climbed the steep bank below the white face of the
dam and crossed the street to his own raw shack, which was office and
home alike. He gazed resentfully at his parted leader as he hung up
the rod on the nails at the rear of the small porch, and sighing,
entered the office for his surgical case.

"Where is that fellow?" he demanded of Flaherty, who had followed him
in.

"That's him settin' on the wagon seat up with W