For the next hour there were few words spoken. Keith McBain sat by himself apart and smoked incessantly. Occasionally the doctor opened the door of the room in which he was working and asked for something to be brought him. But the request was made without any exchange of words beyond what was absolutely essential. Even when Gabe Smith entered after seeing that the horses had received the attention they required, there was little more than a questioning look or two and an exchange of glances.
When after a long time the doctor finally came out of the room the expression on his face was so reassuring as to change the mood of every one of them instantly. Keith McBain was the first to speak. He got up quickly, taking his pipe from his mouth as he stepped briskly towards the doctor.
"Well," he said, "what's the verdict?"
The doctor smiled.
"If the same thing had happened to me, Mr. McBain," the doctor replied, "my light would have gone out for good. But this boy, Howden—he'll be out again for the mail in a week, if he gets anything like careful handling in the meantime. There are some men in the world that you can't kill—and he seems to be one of them. But give me something to eat. I can talk better on a full stomach."
The conversation turned into another channel and finally followed a course that was of interest only to the men.
The doctor did not stay long after he had eaten his supper, but he gave his directions very specifically to Cherry. The patient had to be kept where he was for a few days, and Cherry herself would have to give him all the attention possible. He was not to talk nor become excited. The dressings were explained thoroughly, and all the details of the treatment he was to receive were gone into briefly but pointedly. And then—the doctor was gone, and they were alone again.
The next morning Anne left for town. For reasons which Cherry could not explain she had been strangely drawn to the girl during the two nights they had spent together in the cabin. Fears and hopes that are shared in common are powerful factors in shaping human lives and moulding human sympathies. And Cherry had actually come to look upon Anne with something like pity.
It was this feeling that prompted her to ride a little distance with her—this and her father's suggestion that she should go along to keep the girl company as well as to get into the air a little herself.
Their conversation had never turned to King Howden, except when they had referred to his condition. It was all the more surprising to Cherry, then, when, after a long silence during which they had been riding slowly and lost in their own thoughts, Anne spoke very quietly and with some feeling concerning King.