Cherry and Gabe were thinking of the same thing—they had been thinking of it for hours. Not long after King had stumbled and fallen unconscious in the darkness near Keith McBain's cabin, Gabe had started out to learn, if possible, what was delaying his return. When he came to the cabin and found that King had not been there, a hurried search was made, in which both Anne and Cherry assisted, and in a very short time they came across King's form lying a few feet from the beaten pathway, all but hidden among the grass and low brush into which he had fallen.
At first they had feared the very worst. He seemed to show no signs of life whatever. They got him into the cabin as quickly as possible, however, and Cherry's cot was made ready to receive him. When they had laid him down and bathed his head and face with cool water, old Gabe placed his hand close upon King's breast, while the two girls waited, fear and hope struggling for mastery in their hearts. At last Gabe drew a deep breath and nodded in the affirmative.
At once both girls hurried to perform a dozen small tasks, while Gabe removed King's outer clothing and got him into bed. Then for an hour or more Cherry and Anne, with a gentleness that was native to them and went a long way towards supplying what they wanted in the way of experience, carefully washed the clots of blood from his hair and cleaned the wound that gaped viciously within a few inches of his left temple. When they had bathed the wound thoroughly and dressed it to the best of their ability, they were relieved to find him breathing quite audibly. His pulse was easily perceptible, and once or twice he had sighed deeply, like one coming out of a long sleep.
King's condition did not cease to cause them anxiety, however, and all three admitted their own helplessness in the face of serious developments.
It was Anne who spoke the first words that gave shape to their wondering. "We've got to get the company doctor," she said. "I'm goin' to the end-of-the-line. You can stay here and look after things."
She asked no help in preparing for the trip. A little after midnight she was off alone on Cherry's horse on a trail more than half hidden in darkness, a trail, moreover, that she had never travelled before. After all, she told herself, there was only one trail and it ended at the supply camp.
The hours of waiting that followed passed very slowly. Cherry had given her father all the attention he required and had left him sleeping soundly, with the hope that the morning would find him ready, as usual, to get up and go about the regular duties of the camp. During the hours that were left between Anne's departure and daybreak Cherry watched by King's side, placing cold cloths upon his fevered brow and bathing his wrists and arms in cold water from the spring. Gabe had stayed with her, dozing for a couple of hours on the couch, where he was ready to answer her call in case she wanted his assistance.
When the sun was well up Keith McBain had got up from his bed much as he had done every morning for years. After eating his breakfast and looking in for a brief moment upon King, he had left the cabin without a word to anyone, except Gabe Smith, whom he told to stay by Cherry during the day and see that she got some rest. During the early hours of the morning he had not once come back to the cabin, nor sent anyone to make inquiries. As many men as could be used on the grade in work that could be done in spite of the wet ground, were sent out under a foreman to go about their tasks in the usual manner. He himself had remained behind, with a score of men and a couple of teams, to repair the damage that had been done the night before. Though there would be at most only a few weeks during which there could be any use for a cook camp, Keith McBain went about the work of putting up a new camp with the same cool determination and matter-of-fact oversight that he would have given to the building of a camp that was to last for the whole summer. Before he had been on the ground an hour the men were swinging along at their work as evenly and as regularly as the parts of a machine.
McCartney failed to put in an appearance at all during the day—but Old Silent never made the slightest reference to the fact.
As it turned out, it was already quite dark by the time Anne returned, seated in a buckboard, with the company doctor. The horse that she had ridden away on trotted along behind them, where they had tethered it to the rear axle.