Billiard opened his eyes slowly. "She says gold don't look like gold in a mine, but I got a pocketful of—" His sentence ended in a groan of pain, and the hand he was trying to thrust into his trousers fell limply at his side.
"Aha!" cried the doctor. "Let's see what we have here."
"A break?" questioned the assayer.
"Bad sprain, I think, but it will keep the young man out of mischief for one while. Are your legs all right? Then I reckon we better move on to town."
So it happened that no serious results came from their latest prank, but Tabitha, in her thankfulness that all her brood was safe and sound, fell into a fit of bitter weeping as soon as the children were back in the Eagles' Nest once more and the rescuers had departed.
"Don't," begged Janie tearfully. "I loves 'oo! I was dood!"
"Please don't," pleaded the other sisters in great distress. "We'll never do it again."
"It was all my fault," cried Toady contritely. "I'm ever so sorry."
"It was not," muttered Billiard, wincing with the pain in his arm, but truly repentant. "I dared 'em to go. Honest, Tabby, I was to blame! Will you—will you—er—forgive me? I'm horribly—sorry. Won't you try me again?"
So sincere was his tone, so straightforward his confession, so manly his bearing, that Tabitha could not fail to be convinced of his earnestness of purpose, and drying her eyes, she took Billiard's proffered hand in a hearty grasp, saying with quivering, smiling lips, "Let's all try each other again."