“I was a-goin' over thar anyways,” said Jerry, “an' I'll come back when I please. You one-legged limb o' Satan—you go plum'”—Pleasant's eyes began to glitter—“back to him.”
Pleasant laughed, and as they walked their separate ways the same question was in the minds of both:
“Now, whut the hell did he mean by 'silly'?”
IV
Only the next morning a happy day dawned. Old King Camp came home with his sons—two stalwart boys and a giant father. Doctor Jim looked long at old King's hair, which was bushy and jet-black. He stood it as long as he could and then he asked:
“Why do people on the other side of the mountain call you Red King Camp?” he asked.
“They don't—not more'n once,” was the grim answer. “I'm Black King Camp. Red's my cousin, but I don't claim him.”
One load was off Doctor Jim's heart. His father-in-law was like his name in many ways, and Doctor Jim liked him straightway and Black King liked Doctor Jim. Old King shook his head.
“I don't see why Juno didn't bring you down here long ago,” he said, and Doctor Jim did not try to explain—he couldn't. It must have been fear of Jerry—and he believed that Jerry, too, was now out of the way.
About noon Juno came back for the first time from another world. She did not open her eyes, but she heard voices and knew what they were saying. Her mother was talking in the next room to somebody whom she called Jim. Who could Jim be? And then she heard the man's voice. Her eyes opened slowly on the nurse, her lips moved, but before she could frame the question her heart throbbed so that she went back into unconsciousness again. But the nurse saw and told, and when Juno came back again she saw her husband and smiled without surprise or fright.