"No. I broke it myself, pulling Rattler off a bank into some rocks. I believe I could walk on it, doctor, if you could rustle me something to use for crutches. That's what held me in bed so long. Beckon you could manufacture a pair for me?" His eyes made love. "You've done everything else." He caught her hand and kissed the palm of it. "Can't the Billy part turn carpenter?" "I'll see. Say, Ward, do you think you could shave off those whiskers if I got everything ready for you? I don't like you to look like old Sourdough. Or maybe I could do it. I--I used to shave daddy's neck, sometimes." Ward ran his fingers thoughtfully over his hairy cheeks. "I expect I do look like a prehistoric ancestor. I'll see what I can do about it. I set my own leg; I guess I can shave myself. You're a great doctor, Wilhemina. You knocked that cold up to a peak, all right. But--I don't believe you'd better tackle barbering, my dear girl." Billy Louise pouted her lips at him. She could afford to pout now: Ward was so like himself that she did not worry over him at all. She also felt that she could afford to badger him into telling her some of the things she wanted to know. "Where did you hang Buck?" she asked naively. "Huh?" Ward's eyes bored into hers with his intent look, trying to read her thoughts. "Where was it you hanged Buck Olney?" "Nowhere. I put the fear of the Lord into him, that's all. How did you hear about it?" "From you." Billy Louise was maddeningly calm. "You told me all about it yesterday. And about those cattle in the corral up here. I found them yesterday myself, Ward--only it seems a month ago!--down in the Cove." "Did you?" "Yes, and I drove them up to the corral and read the riot act to Marthy and Charlie Fox--" "Huh! What did they say?" "Oh, they denied it, of course! What are we going to do about it, Ward?" "Nothing, I guess. What did you want to do?" "I don't know. I don't want to hurt them, and I don't want them to hurt anyone else. Do you know Seabeck? He's an awfully square old fellow. I believe--" An idea formed vaguely in the back of Billy Louise's mind. "I believe I could persuade him--" "I believe you could persuade the devil himself, if you took a notion to try," Ward affirmed sincerely, when she hesitated. "What do you want to persuade him into?" "Oh, nothing, I guess! How do you feel, Ward? We've got to stick to the job of getting you fit to leave here and go on down to the ranch with me. When do you think you could manage to ride?" Ward looked longingly out of the window, just as he had been looking for six weeks. "I think I could manage it now," he said doggedly, because of his great longing. "I set my own leg--"