"_Karosha_," he said--"all right, all right," and so proceeded to bind these on Rob's wounded fingers. Having wrapped them in a number of the leaves, he led Rob to the edge of the creek, and here made up a big ball of mud, which he plastered over the entire hand. "Now I am a pretty sight," said Rob. "I was going to wash my hands, but maybe this will do. I have heard that natives sometimes know a thing or two about taking care of such things." The native lad's knowledge of simples proved more efficient than any of them had dreamed. In the course of half an hour Rob's face brightened. "Why," said he, "I don't believe it hurts so badly now. Skookie, you are a great little doctor." And, indeed, that night he slept as soundly as any, although they all spent less time than usual that evening in talk about the doings of the day. XXV CRIPPLES' CASTLE "Well," said Jesse, just before noon of the following day, as he stooped to enter the door of the barabbara, "accidents never come singly." His face was drawn with pain, as Rob, to whom he spoke, noticed. "What's up, Jess?" asked Rob. "Has anything happened?" "I struck my foot against an old nail or something of the sort," answered Jesse. "A piece of an old _klipsie_ was lying out in the grass, and it has cut through my shoe and gone into my foot." Rob sat up on the blanket where he had been nursing his own crippled hand. "An old nail!" he said. "Lucky if it wasn't worse! No telling what the point of it might do toward poisoning the wound. I'll tell you right now that I don't want even any rusty nails around my feet, let alone the irons of an old fox trap." "I've heard of such things as lockjaw," said Jesse. "There was a boy in our town had it, and he was just walking along and struck his foot against an old nail in a shingle." His face seemed grave. "Now, don't go to talking about that," said Rob. "When a fellow gets scared of anything is when he catches it. They say that if a man goes to Africa and expects to come down with a fever he always does, and if he doesn't think anything about it he probably gets along all right. Now, let's have a look at your foot. Take off your shoe; and put the kettle on the fire, so that we can get some warm water. The first thing always is to keep a cut clean; and I have read, too, that where there is any rusty nail or toy pistol around the best thing is to keep a wound open." "That doesn't seem to be the way you are treating your fingers," said Jesse, looking at the cloth in which Rob still kept a big poultice of black mud.