When he came down, he settled himself in the saddle, drew up on the reins, and dug his spurs into the horse's flank. The animal, his nostrils distended and the foam flying from his mouth, without any warning rose on his hind legs, and threw himself backward. The rider freed one foot from the stirrup; but the other caught, and horse and rider went down in a heap. There was a deep groan from both, and then silence. If the men had seemed indifferent before, they made up in activity now. With a flying leap Andy was down from his high seat. The stage-camp man rushed forward, and threw himself on the horse's head, while the others pulled the unconscious rider from beneath the animal's body. "Leg's done for," Ross heard Steele say as they carried the wounded man into the dugout. Ross clambered awkwardly down from his seat, and followed. He nearly fell over an empty chicken-coop and into the one little room of the dugout. "Put 'im here," directed the stage-camp man, whom the others called Hank. He pointed to the blankets in the corner from which he had crawled ten minutes before. "Here, boy," Steele said with pale-faced absorption, "smooth the blankets up." Ross, half dazed by his strange and unexpected surroundings, slowly and clumsily did as he was directed, and they laid the unconscious stranger down carefully, his left leg hanging limply from a point half-way between knee and hip. Then the men straightened up, and looked at one another. "A bad job," muttered Hank. "Take 'im back to Cody?" asked Steele. Hillis shook his head. "Doctor there went to Thermopolis this morning." Suddenly the daze which had beclouded Ross's brain cleared away. He woke up, and his whole attention focused itself on the prostrate man. In a moment he became alert, resourceful, and active. His boyish hesitation fell from him. He threw off his top-coat, tossed his cap with it to the uncovered board table, and, kneeling by the man's side, laid his ear on the heart. "Go out," he said authoritatively to the astonished men, "and bring in my smallest trunk. Hurry, for this chap will be conscious in just a moment." No one stirred. Whipping out his jack-knife, Ross cut a strap which secured the chaps, and caught one leg at the ankle. "Help me pull 'em off," he cried urgently. Some one stooped to the other foot, and the chaps were off. Kneeling beside the wounded leg, with his knife, Ross ripped the trousers from ankle to thigh, and exposed a bloody wound. "Compound fracture," he exclaimed after a brief examination. Then he looked up. "Where's that chest?" he demanded. "I must cleanse this and bandage it at once." The cock-sureness of the boy's tone and the sight of the skilful touch of his fingers on the wound galvanized the two miners into action, and in a moment the emergency chest was beside Ross.