would have crushed you to pulp if the walls of the cave hadn't saved you."
"A miss would have been as good as a mile!" replied Scptty, as he fainted again.
"Who's going to set these bones?" asked Sawed-of5f. " It's a bad fracture, compound and nasty. There's no severed artery, though, which is lucky, or he'd 'a' bled to death. Captain Ranger, did you ever set a broken bone?"
"Never."
"I'll do it," exclaimed Mrs. McAlpin. "Cut away his bpot. Bring a cot from the camp. Bring some adhesive plaster. Captain, can you make some splints? Stay! I'll cut away the boot. There! Steady! Slow! If we can set the bones before he recovers consciousness, so much the better."
The cot with its unconscious burden was carried to the side of the widow's wagon.
"Bring water and more bandages, girls."
"Where did you get your skill?" asked the Captain, as Mrs. McAlpin felt cautiously for the broken bones and deftly snapped them into place.
"It isn't a very bad fracture," she said, unheeding the question, as she held the bones together while the orders for splints and bandages were being obeyed.
"Some water, quick, and some brandy!" she said in a firm voice, though her cheeks were blanching. She held stoutly to her work till the limb was securely encased in the proper supports. But when her patient recovered consciousness and looked inquiringly into her eyes, she fell, fainting, into the Captain's arms, and was carried to his family wagon, her eyelids twitching and her muscles limp. When she recovered, she found herself reclining in the wagon beside Mrs. Ranger, who was gently chafing her face and hands.
- ' All this has been too much for you, dearie/' said the good woman.
