"I'll get right up."
"Yuh will not. Yuh'll stay right where yuh are. I'm comin' in."
She entered, bearing a basin and towels.
"There," she said, setting the basin on the chair at the bedside. "There, yuh can wash yore own face. Hungry?"
"Some," he sputtered through streaming water.
"That's good. I got a nice steak an' 'taters an' gravy an' hot bread, an' there's a friend wants to see yuh."
"Who?"
"Swing Tunstall. He just rode in from the Flyin' M. I'm goin' out there this afternoon. Dunno how long I'll be gone. But yuh'll be all right. I done asked Lil Mace to come over here an' live while I'm away. Lil an' Kate an' Dorothy'll look after yuh. An' mind yuh, do what they tell yuh, or I'll make it hot for yuh when I come back."
"What's the matter? Anythin' happened at the ranch?"
"Oh, nothin' much—over a hundred head o' hosses run off, an' Scotty's got two bullets in him."