"Dog-gone it, he's got more nerve than the hull bunch of yuh put together," he cried. "There's ain't a one of yuh that'd stand up under what he done. There ain't goin' to be any more of this naggin' at him, either; not while I'm around, there ain't!" He glared up at Chip. "You oughta be proud of 'im, dog-gone it! Ride here all the way from home, and—"
"Oh, forget it!" snapped Chip. "No need to rub it in, J. G. All I'm thinking of now is that leg."
They had time enough to think of the leg; plenty of time. Chip went back and stayed and stayed, while the Happy Family fidgeted in the waiting room. It seemed hours before they wheeled the Kid out again and down the corridor. They had just a glimpse of him as they passed the door; face white and still, eyes closed—just as he had looked when they took him from the ambulance. They trailed after, sheepishly, knowing they were neither wanted nor needed, the Old Man hobbling his fastest to keep up, mumbling pettishly to himself.
They were standing grouped at a corner, not knowing which way the Kid, the Little Doctor and Chip, the white-coated attendants had gone, when one of the surgeons came along and took pity on them by sending them home.
"You can't do anything at all," he said smoothly. "He won't regain consciousness for hours, probably. His leg is in a bad way—but he has lived a clean, healthful life—no bad habits apparently—may carry a stiff knee the rest of his life, but we're going to save that leg if possible."
"'If possible!'" snorted Pink, as they went disconsolately down the steps, helping the Old Man who had suddenly lost his briskness. "Hell! I thought they had doctors in this town!"
They were back the next morning, but there were others before him. Dulcie Harlan, for one, wearing a diamond-shaped fraternity pin conspicuously on her white wool sweater, and sitting very demurely on a straight-backed chair close beside the Kid's two pillows, against which his face looked wornly radiant, if you know what I mean. Gleaming whitely on the sheet pulled with hospital smoothness over his chest, stood a tall silver urn (though it was called a cup) with two graceful handles which the Kid's fingers caressed pridefully.
"Hello," he greeted the four members of the Happy Family cheerfully. "You know Dulcie, I guess—lookit what I got! Relay cup! Walt rode for me last night—Billy and Beck, here, helped. That's the advantage of having a team. Great boys, Walt and Beck and Billy. You met them—you must have. What do you think of my ponies? Pretty nearly as good as the horses back in them good old days, what?"
"Pretty near—not quite," grinned Andy.
"How's the leg?" Mig asked anxiously.
"He's going to stay put for awhile at least," the Little Doctor told them smilingly. "For a month or two I'll know where he is and what he's up to—and that won't be much, I promise you!"
"I might be up to quite a lot; you don't know," the Kid retorted, glancing sidelong at Dulcie Harlan.
"It'll get all right, will it?" Weary persisted.
"Oh, yes," she assured them. "It will take time. He'll be on crutches—maybe for three or four months." Curiously, the Little Doctor said that almost as if she relished the idea! "But we'll save the joint from going stiff, I'm sure. Modern surgery can do wonders. He'll miss school, though, I'm afraid."
"Yes, you're afraid—like fun!" the Kid twitted her. "You and Dad will be darn glad to get rid of me when I do get out of the repair shop!"
"Not when it gives us an excuse to winter in Chicago once more," she told him. "We haven't, for ages."
"I know where there's the darlingest apartments in an apartment hotel, right up near us," Miss Dulcie Harlan hinted demurely.
The Kid grinned at his new silver cup.
"I'll leave Dell and J. G. here with the Kid, I think, soon as he gets out of the hospital," Chip said. "I'll have to keep an eye on the ranch. But there's no reason why they shouldn't stay as long as they like."
The Kid kept on grinning and turning the cup so that Dulcie's face was fantastically reflected in its polished side. He was still grinning when the nurse came and shooed them out.
THE END
Dark Horse
Chapter One. The Lightning Strikes
Chapter Three. Fame is Fleeting
Chapter Four. The Unwelcome Guest
Chapter Six. All in the Same Boat
Chapter Seven. And Pulling Together
Chapter Eight. Peace is the Word
Chapter Nine. Victim Number One
Chapter Eleven. Nameless Loves Solitude
Chapter Twelve. Whistling Rufus
Chapter Thirteen. Big Medicine Declares War
Chapter Fourteen. Andy Tells a Secret
Chapter Fifteen. Trouble in Plenty
Chapter Sixteen. It Could Have Been a Rock
Chapter Seventeen. The Native Son
Chapter Eighteen. Rufus Recalls Something
Chapter Nineteen. Loping Larry Jones
Chapter Twenty. Len Learns Several Things
Chapter Twenty-One. Honesty is Slow to Suspect
Chapter Twenty-Two. No More Dark Horses
Chapter One. The Lightning Strikes
Loping along the trail that scalloped over foothill ridges between Meeker’s ranch and the Flying U, Big Medicine sweated and cursed the month of April for arrogating