"Do you want me to tell you, sir?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"Then I might as well do it, sir, as tell you," Tim drawled out.
"Mr. Reade, you"re worn to pieces. You get into your bunk and I"ll take charge for an hour."
"I want to see you do the things you know how to do."
"Not a thing will I do, Mr. Reade, unless you get into your bunk for an hour," declared Walsh, st.u.r.dily.
"Will you call me in an hour, if I lie down?"
"I will."
"You"ll call me in an hour?"
"On my honor, Mr. Reade."
Tim Walsh thereupon bundled the young engineer into another bunk, covered him up, and then watched until Tom Reade, utterly exhausted, fell into a deep sleep that was more like a trance.
"But I didn"t say in which hour I"d call him," muttered Walsh under his breath, his eyes twinkling. Then he tip-toed over to look at Harry Hazelton, who, also, was asleep. Through the whole day Tom slept nor did the ex-Army nurse once quit the shack.
When dark came Tim Walsh had just finished lighting the lamp and shading it when he turned to find Tom Reade glaring angrily into his eyes.
"Tim, what does this treachery mean?" Reade questioned in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
"It means, sir, that you had tired yourself out so that you were no longer fit to nurse your partner. He was in bad hands, taking his medicines and his care from a man as dog-tired as you were, Mr. Reade. It also means, sir, that I"ve been looking after Mr.
Hazelton all day, and he"s a bit better this evening. Him and me had a short chat this afternoon, and you never heard us. Mr.
Hazelton went to sleep only twenty minutes ago. When he wakes up you can feel his skin and take his pulse, and you"ll find him doing better."
"Tim, I know you meant it for the best, and that I ought to be thankful to you," Tom murmured, "but, man, I"ve a good notion to skin you alive!"
"You"d better not try anything like that, sir," grinned Walsh.
"Remember that I"m in charge here, now, and that you"re only a visitor. If you interfere between me and my patient, Mr. Reade, I"ll put you out of here and bar the door against you."
Tom, though angry at having been allowed to sleep for so long, had the quick good sense to see that the big miner was quite right.
"All right, Tim Walsh," he sighed. "If you can take better care of my chum than I can then you"re the new boss here. I"ll be good."
"First of all," ordered Walsh, "go over to the cook shack and get some supper. Don"t dare to come back inside of an hour, so you"ll have time to eat a real supper."
Tom departed obediently. Once out in the keen air he began to understand how much good his day"s sleep had done him. He was alive and strong again. Taking in deep breaths, he tramped along the path over to the shaft ere he turned his steps toward the cook shack.
"Come right in, Mr. Reade, and eat something," urged Cook Leon.
"This is the first time I"ve seen you in days. You must be hungry."
"There"s a fellow ten times smarter than I who"s looking after Hazelton," spoke Tom cheerily, "so I believe I am hungry. Yes; you may set me out a good supper."
"Who"s the very smart man that"s looking after your friend?" Leon asked.
"Tim Walsh."
"Why, he"s nothing but a miner!"
"You"re wrong there, Leon. Walsh has been a soldier, and a hospital corps man at that. He knows more about nursing in a minute than I do in a month. Oh, why didn"t I hear about Walsh earlier?"
Leon soon had a steaming hot supper on the table. First of all, Reade swallowed a cupful of coffee. Then he began his supper.
"I wonder if Ferrers can get back tonight?" Tom mused, after the meal.
"He might, but a doctor couldn"t get here tonight, unless he, too, could move fast on skis," Leon replied.
"Anyway, I"m not as worried as I was," sighed Reade.
The door opened, and Alf Drew entered. That youngster rarely came to the cook shack alone, but the lad learned that Tom Reade was present.
"Sit down and keep quiet, if you"re going to stay here," ordered Cook Leon.
Alf went to the corner of the shack furthest from the other two.
Tom, watching covertly, saw Alf furtively draw out cigarette and match.
Very softly Drew scratched a match. He was standing, his back turned to the others, over a wood-box.
Click-ick-ick! sounded a warning note.
"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" howled Alf, jumping back, dropping both match and cigarette.
"What"s the matter, youngster?" demanded Tom placidly.
"There"s a rattlesnake in there under the wood," wailed the boy, his face ashen.
"How do you know?"
"I heard him rattle!"
Leon, too, had heard the sound, and would have started after a poker, intent on killing the reptile, had he not seen Tom shake his head, a twinkle in his eye.
"There are no rattlesnakes about in the dead of winter on this Range," Tom declared positively.
"That one has been keeping hisself warm in the bottom of the wood-box,"
insisted Alf.
Click-ick-ick!
"There, didn"t you hear it?" quivered the cigarette fiend.
"I heard no rattler," declared Tom, innocently. "Did you, Leon?"