When Jarvis returned to Joe Hempstead, getting ready the flat drag
known in country parlance as a "stone boat," his first words were
eager.

"Joe, I don't know that there's the slightest hope of saving the mare,
but I'd like to bring her home and try. It was out of the question to
look her over much there. She went down on her knees--smash--and one
leg was certainly broken below the knee. But I've a hope the leg I
couldn't get at may only be bruised."

Joe nodded. "We'll do the best we can by her--for the little girl's
sake," he declared. "She's a high-spirited young critter--the human
one, I mean--but I guess she's a-takin' this pretty hard, and I'd like
to help her out."

So presently brown Betty, lifting dumb eyes full of pain at the sound
of a caressing voice, found herself in the hands of her friends.

"Well--it's a question, Joe," said Jarvis, slowly, ten minutes later.
He was sitting with a hand on the mare's flank, after a thorough and
skillful examination. Betty's head lay in Joe's lap, held firmly by
hands which were both strong and tender. "It's a question whether it
wouldn't be the kindest thing to end her troubles for her. I expect
she'd tell us to, if she could talk. She'll have to be put in a sling,
of course, and kept there for weeks."

"That there sprained leg----" Joe began, doubtfully.

"Yes--it'll be about as tough a proposition as the broken one.
But----"

The two men looked at each other.

"If you say so----" agreed Joe.

"Let's try it," urged Jarvis. "It's a question of human suffering, or
brute--and there's a possibility of success. I shall be here a day or
two longer--over the Fourth. I'll play nurse as long as I stay--I'd
like nothing better. I was born and brought up with horses--in
Kentucky."

"What I ain't picked up about 'em I knew when I was born," said Joe,
with a laugh and a pat of the mare's head. "All right--we'll turn
ourselves into a couple of amachure vet'rinaries--seein' they ain't
none hereabouts."

Between them they had soon bestowed the mare upon the stone boat in
the best possible position for enduring the ride.

"Seems as if she understands the whole thing," Joe said, at length,
looking down into the animal's face as her head lay quietly upon the
blanket. "You're a lady," he said, softly, to Betty. The mare's
beautiful liquid eyes looked dumbly back at him, and he stooped and
rubbed her nose. "Yes, you're a lady," he repeated, "and we'll do our
level best t