MARK'S SICKNESS
A few days later Mark was working hard at the bottom of a deep hole,
with the hot sun blazing down upon him when he suddenly felt queer in
his head. He staggered and leaned up against the dirt.
"What's the matter, Mark?" questioned Si, who was working with him at
the time.
"I--I don't feel right--my--my head is swimming around," gasped Mark.
He had been affected by the strong sunshine, and Si called for help
without delay. Bob came running up, and he and the former farm lad
carried their sick chum away from the hole and up to the tent on the
hillside. Then Maybe Dixon appeared.
"Soak his head in the coldest water you can find," said the old miner,
and Bob ran off with a pail to a spring coming from some rocks behind
the camp. When the water was brought they saturated towel after towel
and put it on Mark's head. They also fanned him and opened the tent
front and back, that the breeze might blow through.
"I am afraid he will be a sick boy for some time," said Maybe Dixon.
"Maybe it will take all summer for him to git over it."
"Oh, don't say that!" cried Bob, deeply distressed. The idea of any of
the party having a serious spell of sickness had never before occurred
to him. "Can't we get a doctor somewhere?"
"I heard there was a doctor over to the settlement," said Si. "Jerry
Bangs got some pills from him."
"Then let us go and get him," answered Bob. "We've got plenty of money
to pay him with."
Bob determined to go over to the settlement the very next day, leaving
Si to look after Mark and Maybe Dixon to work at the claims and watch
them, so that nobody might "jump" their belongings. The week before a
valuable claim had been "jumped" by two strangers, and the matter was
still in dispute and at times threatened to lead to bloodshed.
Bob went on muleback, taking the trail Mark had followed. He rode along
as fast as he could and arrived at the settlement about the middle of
the afternoon.
"Can you tell me where the doctor's office is?" he asked, of the first
man he met.
"Sure I can," was the answer. "See that shack yonder?"
"Yes."
"Well, the doctor lives in the row of houses back of it--the third
mansion--name on the doorplate--an' don't stop to ring the bell."
"Thank you."
Bob rode on and soon came to the row of houses mentioned, miserable
two-story affairs, built of the roughest kind of boards. In front of
one hung a shingle painted white on which was the following, in red:
DOCTOR SAMUEL BARROWS
Office Hours
8 to 11 A.M. 2 to 8 P.M.
The place did not look particularly inviting, but Bob did not hesitate.
He tied the mule to a post, walked to the dwelling, and knocked on the
door.
"What's wanted?" asked a negro who appeared.
"I want to see the doctor."
"Front room upstairs," and the negro disappeared in the direction of
the rear.
Bob entered the narrow and dirty hallway and ascended the rickety
stairs. There were two rooms in the front, on the door of one of which
was the sign: Doctor's Office--Walk In.
Bob entered, closing the door after him. A voice from another apartment
called out to him:
"Who is there?"
"I came to see the doctor."
"Oh, all right. Sit down, I'll be with you in a few minutes. I am just
mixing some medicine I can't leave."
Bob sat down, on the side of the room next to a thin partition which
divided that apartment from the other room at the front of the hallway.
He could hear a murmur of voices in the next room and presently caught
a few words.
"I know we can do it, Fitzsimmons," one man said. "And if we can, look
what it means to us."
"Well, I am willing to take chances, Ruff," was the answer. "But we
must be sure of that plan to get away."
"That's it," said another voice. "I don't want to run no risk of being
caught, and----"
"Don't get scared before you are hurt, Soapy," said one of the other
men. "I'll tell you how we can work this." And then the men got closer
together and what followed Bob was unable to catch.
The young miner was astonished beyond measure. He was certain that two
of the men in the next room were Sag Ruff and Soapy Gannon, his tool.
The other man had been called Fitzsimmons.
"He must be the gambler Mark told about," said Bob to himself. "A fine
trio they make! Every one of them ought to be in jail."
He tried his best to catch more of what was said, but a noise on the
street made it next to impossible. He heard one man speak of some gold
and another of horses, and then mention was made of pistols and the new
trail, and that was all, a jumble out of which he could make neither
head nor tail.
"They are surely up to no good and ought to be watched," Bob told
himself, and then left the vicinity of the partition as the doctor came
in.
Doctor Barrows was a man of middle age, tall, dark, and with a heavy
beard and black eyes. He listened closely to what Bob had to say.
"Affected by the sun without a doubt," he said. "But he may have
something else too. I ought to see him before I prescribe."
"Will you come over to the gulch?"
"It will take two days of my time, and just now my time is rather
valuable."
"I know it is, sir, but we are willing to pay what is right."
"I couldn't undertake such a trip for less than a hundred dollars."
"Will you furnish the medicine?"
"Certainly, I'll take my medicine case with me on horseback. You came
on horseback, didn't you?"
"I came on my mule. He is just as good as a horse, for mountain
climbing!"
"I believe you. Want me to come at once, I presume."
"We can't go till to-morrow very well. The trail isn't safe in the
dark."
"All right, we can start first thing in the morning, then. I'll go
around and see my present patients to-night. I suppose you know my
terms."
"The card on the wall says, Cash in Advance."
"That's it."
"I've got three ounces of dust with me. I'll give you that now and the
rest when we reach the gulch. Will that answer?"
"I presume so. You look like an honest young fellow. Who is the sick
young man?"
"My chum--one of the best fellows in the world," answered Bob.
Just then another man came in, suffering from a cut on the arm, and the
doctor had to attend to him. Bob went off, promising to be on hand at
eight o'clock in the morning.
The talk in the next room had ceased and the youth felt certain that
the three men had left the building. While he was in the hallway he
approached the door and peeped through the key-hole. The room was empty
of occupants.
"Who rents that room next to the doctor's office?" he asked of the
negro, whom he met again in the lower hallway.
"Mr. Morgan Fitzsimmons," was the answer.
"Is there a man named Ruff in the building?"
"No, sah."
"Or a man named Soapy Gannon?"
"No, sah."
"You don't know them at all?"
"No, sah," and again the negro went on his way and Bob left the
building.
The boy had nothing to do that evening, and after getting a room for
the night at the so-styled hotel, another flimsy two-story affair, and
stabling for Darling, he obtained supper and then strolled around.
"Bob!" came the cry, as he was sauntering down the main street, and the
next instant he felt his hand grasped by Josiah Socket, whose tanned
face beamed with pleasure.
"How do you do, Mr. Socket?" exclaimed the boy. "Glad to see you.
Where have you been and how are you making it?"
"We are located over to Dishpan Falls," said Josiah Socket, naming a
locality which afterwards became known as Felville. "Doing putty good
too."
"And how are all the folks?"
"Very well. How are you folks doin'?"
"Very well indeed, that is, so far as gold digging is concerned. But
Mark is sick." And Bob gave some particulars.
"I am sorry to hear that," said Josiah Socket. "Hope he pulls through
all right. I came here to buy supplies. They are awful high up our way."
"You'll find 'em high here too."
"Yes, so I've learned. But we've got to eat, so I'll make the best of
it," added Josiah Socket, with a sigh.
He then related some of the particulars of what he and his family were
doing, and he and Bob walked around the settlement, taking in the
sights. Bob wanted to see more of Ruff, Gannon, and Fitzsimmons, but
could not find them.
"I steer clear o' gambling," said Josiah Socket. "What I find in the
way of gold I'm going to keep--outside of what I have to pay for
provisions."
"A man is a fool to gamble," answered Bob. "But more than a quarter of
them do it--and they drink too."
He and Josiah Socket slept together that night and parted early in the
morning. Then Bob went around for the doctor, and he and the medical
man set off for the gulch.