"Say," he hobbled after her, "that doctor's all right—only wanted fifty." He laid four hundred-dollar bills in her hand. She seemed about to speak, when he interrupted hoarsely, "And look here: pull the Colonel through, Maudie—pull him through!"
"I'll do my darnedest."
He held out his hand. He had never given it to her before, and he forgot that few people would care now to take it. But she gave him hers with no grudging. Then, on a sudden, impulse, "You ain't takin' him to Dawson to-night?" she said to the constable.
He nodded.
"Why, he's done the trip twice already."
"I can do it again well enough."
"Then you got to wait a minute." She spoke to the constable as if she had been Captain Constantine himself. "Better just go in and see the Colonel," she said to the Boy. "He's been askin' for you."
"N-no, Maudie; I can go to Dawson all right, but I don't feel up to goin' in there again."
"You'll be sorry if you don't." And then he knew what a temperature at a hundred and four foreboded.
He went back into the tent, dreading to face the Colonel more than he had ever dreaded anything in his life.