“It was Teddy Bear,” he said faintly. “As soon as we got amongst the cottonwoods, he bolted. I, like a fool, wrapped the end of the rope around my waist three or four times and tried to check him, but the first jerk threw me down, and away he went dragging me over logs and roots and bumping me up against the trees. I saw that big cottonwood tree coming and tried to throw myself one side, but couldn’t do it. I felt a smash on the head and that’s the last I remember.”
“Teddy must have pulled loose after you hit the tree,” Clay mused. “Feel any pain inside of you. Case?”
“No, but I feel mighty weak, loss of blood, I guess. If you’ll fix me up a bowl of broth, I’ll drink it and see if I can’t sleep off this weak feeling.”
Hot water was already on the stove and the addition of a full jar of beef extract quickly made a bowl of strong broth. Soon after he swallowed it, Case was sound asleep. His first deep breathing was the signal for the two boys to partake of their own supper, which had suffered greatly through neglect. Little was said as they ate, only Ike remarked.
“I don’t think Case is bad off. See how soundly he is sleeping. Those wounds don’t seem to hurt him a bit.”
“They will by tomorrow,” Clay prophesied, grimly. “Every inch of his body will be filled with aches and pains. Flesh wounds do not hurt much at first. If we keep on at this rate we’ll soon all be disabled,” he added gloomily. “Only one day out from Nome and two laid up beside Captain Joe. We will not go far at this rate.”
But Ike’s spirits had risen with the assurance of Case’s being in no immediate danger. “Oh, Alex, he will be all right,” he declared, as Alex’s loud snores filled the cabin. “Case, take longer maybe, but his blood is strong and clean an’ he’ll be all right in no time. Captain Joe, I am not so sure about, you understand, but I think maybe he die.”
“He certainly will if you do not quit stuffing food into him every half hour. When an animal or man is in Joe’s condition, the less you give them to eat the better until their wounds are mending. Captain Joe would stand more chance of getting well if he only had a bowl of broth with a few crackers broken up in it, three or four times a day, but we had better be getting into our bunks for we have to get an early start in the morning. If you’ll wash up the dishes, I’ll overhaul Captain Joe’s wounds again, and then turn in.”
Much to his surprise, Clay found Captain Joe’s cuts in much better condition than he had expected. “It must be that long soaking in the cold salt water has drawn a good deal of the fever out of them,” he said. “It looks to me as though the old fellow was going to get well.”
It was with the cheering thought that both their companions were in no danger of death that they fell into a sound sleep, exhausted by the eventful day they had been through.