"Men have recovered from worse wounds," responded the doctor. "There's a chance for him, at least." He related, then, the circumstance of the meeting, the brief quarrel, and the fight, Ten-Gallon putting in a word here and there, although his testimony was neither asked nor welcomed. "I don't know what the cause of the quarrel was," concluded the doctor. "Two days ago I relinquished this claim to your son. He came here immediately and took possession." "You--you relinquished!" exclaimed Agnes, disappointment in her voice, reproach in her eyes. "I am sorry that you relinquished it," said the Governor. "This brave young woman rode all the way to my ranch--almost a hundred miles--to save it to you. I was absent when she arrived, but I set out with her at the earliest possible moment upon my return. We rode all night last night, sir, changing horses in Comanche this morning." "I am grateful to you, both of you, for the trouble and fatigue you have undergone in my behalf. But the case, as your son urged it, sir, was beyond temporizing. Perhaps Miss Gates has told you?" The Governor nodded curtly, a look of displeasure on his face. "I can't believe that Jerry meant it," he protested. "It must have been one of his jokes." "I am sorry, then, that my idea of humor is so widely divergent from his!" said Dr. Slavens with deep feeling. "Well, he's paid for it. The poor boy has paid for his indiscretion," said the old man sadly. He turned away and went a little space, where he stood as if in meditation. "You promised me that you'd do nothing until you returned and saw me," Agnes charged. "And I had saved it for you! I had saved it!" "You would have been too late," returned the doctor sharply. "The machinery for your humiliation was already in motion. I doubt whether even the Governor could have stopped it in another day without a great deal of unpleasant publicity for you. Boyle meant to have this piece of land, and he got it. That's all." Ten-Gallon was fooling around the fire. He drew over toward the group as the Governor came back. "Can my son be removed from here?" the old man asked. The doctor said that he could not, without practically throwing away his slender chance for life. "Do for him what you can; you seem to be a capable man, sir; you inspire confidence in me," said the Governor, laying his hand appealingly on the doctor's shoulder; "and if you can save him, I'll pay you twice what this infernal claim was worth to you!" "I've done all that can be done for him, without hope or expectation of reward," said the doctor; "and I'll stick by him to the end, one way or another. We can care for him here as long as this weather holds, just as well as they could in a hospital." "Well, as far as what this claim's worth goes," put in Ten-Gallon, edging into the conversation, "you don't need to lose any sleep over that." "What do you mean?" demanded Slavens, turning upon him sharply.