though the little creature trembled violently, it let him bend down and examine the wound.

A great spike of the long, tough crucifixion-thorn had somehow become imbedded in the flesh, and the whole surface of the shoulder was swollen and inflamed. Gard made a little sound of pity in his throat, and the burro, turning, tried to lick the sore.

“No use to do that yet, Jinny,” the man said. “That thorn’s got to come out first.”

The burro had probably never before been touched by hands; but not for nothing was Jinny wide between the ears. She scrutinized her would-be helper closely, for a moment, through her long lashes, and drooped her wise-looking little gray head still lower. Gard threw another armful of light stuff on the fire and when the blaze was brightest attacked the thorn, using one of his sharp arrows as a probe.

Once or twice the creature flinched. Once she snapped her strong teeth at the hurting side; but 56Gard worked steadily and quickly, and presently had the offender out.

56

“Look a’ that, Jinny,” he cried, triumphantly. It was a joy to hear himself speaking to something alive.

“Look a’ that!” he repeated, “Ain’t you glad you found the doctor in?”

He dipped warm water from an earthen pot in the ashes, and washed the wound carefully, talking all the while to the still trembling patient, silently regarding him. When the place was quite clean he made a poultice of prickly pear and bound it on with a strip of deer-skin.

“Lucky I shot another buck, Jinny,” he said, “or you wouldn’t have that nice bandage.”

The little burro expressed no thanks; only stared solemnly at the fire. Gard strode out into the darkness and pulled, recklessly, an armful of his precious, growing oats. He threw the green stuff down before her and she sniffed it curiously before she began, ravenously, to eat it.

“Hungry, weren’t you?” the man said, sympathetically. “Been too sick to eat. Well, well, make yourself at home.”

He threw a big stick upon the fire and went back to his bed, leaving the burro chewing, meditatively, before the blaze.

He was just falling asleep when he felt something 57warm fumbling about him, and he awoke with a start, and an exclamation that quickly turned to something very 

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