"I agree with you, buddy," answered Johnny. "Now you tell me all of it, over again." He listened in grave silence until the pitiful tale was told and then pointed to Pepper's back, behind him. "Climb up, sonny. Squint an' me are passin' close to yore house an' we'll take you as far as we can. You don't mind walkin' a few miles, do you?"
"But I can't go!" protested Charley. "I got to go to Highbank for th' doctor. I only hope he ain't drunk when I get there."
"How you goin'?" quizzically demanded Johnny.
"Don't know; but that don't make no difference—I just got to go, somehow! Mebby I could take Squint's horse," he suggested, emboldened by desperation.
Johnny shook his head. "You don't never want to ride a Bar H cayuse; 'tain't healthy. But, say, bud, we don't have to go to Highback at all—we can get th' Doc at Gunsight. You been eatin' loco weed?"
"He won't come," said the boy, whispering, and looking at Squint.
"Did you ask him?" asked Johnny in a low voice, taking the cue.
"No; but he wouldn't come when Peggy was sick—an' dad says to get Dr. Treadwell from Highbank."
"He wouldn't come when—when Peggy was sick?" demanded Johnny.
"No, sir; he said he'd treat cows an' horses, but he wouldn't sling a leg across a saddle if the whole SV was dying."