"Sploven! Is that a locality or a beverage?"
Glass glowered at the cause of the interruption. "It's a nerve- centre, of course!" Then to the others, he ran on, glibly: "The treatment was simple, but it took time. You see, I had to first trace his bedildo to its source, like this." He thrust a finger into Wally's back and ploughed a furrow upward. "You see?" He paused, triumphantly. "A fore-shortened bedildo! It ain't well yet."
"Can a man run fast with one of them?" inquired Willie.
"Certainly, cer-tain-ly—provided, of course, that the percentage of spelldiffer in the blood offsets it."
Both cowboys came closer now, and hung eagerly upon every word.
"And does it do—that?" they questioned, while Fresno suggested that it was not easy to tell without bleeding the patient.
"No, no! You can hear the spelldiffers." Glass motioned to
Willie.
"Put your ear to his chest. Hear anything?"
"Hearts poundin' like a calf's at a brandin'."
"Which proves it!" proudly asserted the trainer. "Barrin' accidents, Mr. Speed will be in the pink of condition by Saturday."