Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/167

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CHAPTER XIX


THE MAN AT TINTACKER


Ruth waited for her companion to suggest their course of action. The man she had come to see—the mysterious individual whom she believed had taken her uncle's money to buy up the property known as the Tintacker Claim—was in a raging fever in that old shack near the site of the mine. She had heard his delirious babblings while Jib was in the hut. It never entered her mind that Jib would contemplate leaving the unfortunate creature unattended.

"You can't talk to him, Miss. He don't know nothing," declared the Indian. "And he's pretty far gone."

"What shall we do for him? What needs doing first?" Ruth demanded.

"Why, we can't do much—as I can see," grumbled Jib Pottoway.

"Isn't there a doctor——"

"At Bullhide," broke in Jib. "That's the nearest."

"Then he must be got. We must save this man, Jib," said the girl, eagerly.

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