"Oh, he does, does he?" sniffed Beverly. "I'll go to bed when I please. Tell him so. No, no—don't do it, Aunt Fanny! Tell him I'll go to bed when I'm sure he is quite comfortable, not before."
"But he's jes' a goat puncheh er a—"
"He's a man, if there ever was one. Don't let me hear you call him a goat puncher again. How are his legs?" Aunt Fanny was almost stunned by this amazing question from her ever-decorous mistress. "Why don't you answer? Will they have to be cut off? Didn't you see them?"
"Fo' de Lawd's sake, missy, co'se Ah did, but yo' all kindeh susprise me. Dey's p'etty bad skun up, missy; de hide's peeled up consid'ble. But hit ain' dang'ous,—no, ma'am. Jes' skun, 'at's all."
"And his arm—where I shot him?"
"Puffec'ly triflin', ma'am,—yo' highness. Cobwebs 'd stop de bleedin' an' Ah tole 'em so, but 'at felleh couldn' un'stan' me. Misteh what's-his-names he says something to de docteh, an' den dey goes afteh de cobwebs, suah 'nough. 'Tain' bleedin' no mo', missy. He's mostes' neah doin' we'y fine. Co'se, he cain' walk fo' sev'l days wiv dem laigs o' his'n, but—"
"Then, in heaven's name, how are we to get to Edelweiss?"
"He c'n ride, cain't he? Wha's to hindeh him?"
"Quite right. He shall ride inside the coach. Go and see if I can do anything for him."
Aunt Fanny returned in a few minutes.