"Then let us go and get him," answered Bob. "We've got plenty of money to pay him with."
Bob determined to go over to the settlement the very next day, leaving Si to look after Mark and Maybe Dixon to work at the claims and watch them, so that nobody might "jump" their belongings. The week before a valuable claim had been "jumped" by two strangers, and the matter was still in dispute and at times threatened to lead to bloodshed.
Bob went on muleback, taking the trail Mark had followed. He rode along as fast as he could and arrived at the settlement about the middle of the afternoon.
"Can you tell me where the doctor's office is?" he asked, of the first man he met.
"Sure I can," was the answer. "See that shack yonder?"
"Yes."
"Well, the doctor lives in the row of houses back of it—the third mansion—name on the doorplate—an' don't stop to ring the bell."
"Thank you."
Bob rode on and soon came to the row of houses mentioned, miserable two-story affairs, built of the roughest kind of boards. In front of one hung a shingle painted white on which was the following, in red:
Doctor Samuel Barrows
Office Hours
8 to 11 A.M. 2 to 8 P.M.