Then his words tumbled out in a wild spurt of terror. “All at once there was this man. Out of nowhere! Right in the road! And we hit him! And knocked him clear off the road. And they weren’t even going to stop, but I gabbed the key and made them! I made them back up and I got out to look for the man. I found him. All bloody. Lying in the bushes. I tried to find out where he was bleeding-they-they went off and left me there with him!” His voice was outraged. “They didn’t give a darn about that poor guy! They went off and left him lying there and me with not even a flashlight!”
Mark had been dressing rapidly. “He may not be dead,” he said, reaching for his cap. “How far is he?”
“The other side of the creek bridge,” said Tad. “We came the Rim way. Do you think he might-“
“We’ll see,” said Mark. “Meris, give me one of those army blankets and get Lala off the cot. We’ll use that for a stretcher. Build the fire up and check the first aid kit.” He got the Coleman lantern from the storeroom, then he and Tad gathered up the canvas cot and went out into the chilly darkness.
Lala fretted a little, then, curled in the warmth Mark had left, she slept again through all the bustling about as Meris prepared for Mark’s return.
Meris ran to the door when she heard their feet in the yard. She flung the outer door wide and held the screen as they edged the laden cot through the door. “Is he-?”
“Don’t think so.” Mark grunted as they lowered the cot to the floor. “Still bleeding from the cut on his head and I don’t think dead men bleed. Not this long, anyway. Get a gauze pad, Meris, and put pressure on the cut. Tad, get his boots off while I get his shirt “
Meris glanced up from her bandage as Mark’s voice broke off abruptly. He was staring at the shirt. His eyes caught Meris’s and he ran a finger down the front of the shirt. No buttons. Meris’s mouth opened, but Mark shook his head warningly. Then, taking hold of the muddied shirt, he gently tuned both sides back away from the chest that was visibly laboring now.
Meris’s hands followed the roll of the man’s head, keeping the bandage in place, but her eyes were on the bed where Lala had turned away from the light and was burrowed nearly out of sight under the edge of Mark’s pillow.
Tad spoke from where he was struggling with the man’s boots. “I thought it was you, Mr. Edwards,” he said. “I nearly passed out when you answered the door. Who else could it have been? No one else lives way out here and I couldn’t see his face. I knew he was bleeding because my hands-” He broke off as one boot thumped to the floor.
“And we knocked him so far! So high! And I thought it was you!” He shuddered and huddled over the other boot. “I’m cured, honest, Mr. Edwards. I’m cured. Only don’t let him die. Don’t let him die!” He was crying now, unashamed.
“I’m no doctor,” said Mark, “but I don’t think he’s badly hurt. Lots of scratches, but that cut on his head seems to he the worst.”
“The bleeding’s nearly stopped,” said Meris. “And his eyes are fluttering.”
Even as she spoke, the eyes opened, dark and dazed, the head turning restlessly. Mark leaned over the man. “Hello,” he said, trying to get the eyes to focus on him. “You’re okay. You’re okay. Only a cut-“
The man’s head stilled. He blinked and spoke, his eyes closing before his words were finished.
“What did he say?” asked Tad. “What did he say?”
“I don’t know,” said Mark. “And he’s gone again. To sleep, this time, I hope. I’m quite sure he isn’t dying.”
Later when Mark was satisfied that the man was sleeping, in the warm pajamas he and Tad had managed to wrestle him into, he got dressed in clean clothes and had Tad wash up, and put on a clean flannel shirt in place of his bloodstained one.
“We’re going to the sheriff, after we find the doctor,” he told Tad. “We’re going to have to take care of those kids before they do kill someone or themselves. And you, Tad, are going to have to put the finger on them whether you like it or not. You’re the only witness-“
“But if I do, then I’ll get in trouble, too-” began Tad.
“Look, Tad,” said Mark patiently, “if you walk in mud, you get your feet muddy. You knew when you got involved with these fellows that you were wading in mud. Maybe you thought it didn’t matter much. Mud is easy to wash off. That might be true of mud, but what about blood?”
“But Rick’s not a juvenile any more-” Tad broke off before the grim tightening of Mark’s face.
“So that’s what they’ve been trading on. So he’s legally accountable now? Nasty break!”
After they were gone, Meris checked the sleeping man again. Then, crawling into bed, shoving Lala gently toward the back of the bunk, she cuddled, shivering under the bedclothes. She became conscious of the steady outflow of warmth from Lala and smiled as she fanned her cold hands out under the cover toward the small body. “Bless the little heater!” she said. Her eyes were sleepy and closed in spite of her, but her mind still raced with excitement and wonder. What if Mark was right? What if Lala had come from a spaceship! What if this man, sleeping under their own blankets on their own cot, patched by their own gauze and adhesive, was really a Man from Outer Space! Wouldn’t that be something? “But,” she sighed, “no bug-eyed monsters? No set, staring eyes and slavering teeth?” She smiled at herself. She had been pretty bug-eyed herself, when she had seen his un- unbuttonable shirt.
Dr. Hilf arrived, large, loud, and lively, before Meris got back to sleepin fact, while she was in the middle of her Bless Mark, bless Tad, bless Lala, bless the bandaged man, bless-He examined the silently cooperative man thoroughly, rebandaged his head and a few of the deeper scratches, grabbed a cup of coffee, and boomed, “Doesn’t look to me as if he’s been hit by a car! Aspirin if his head aches. No use wasting stitches where they aren’t needed!” His voice woke Lala and she sat up, blinking silently at him. “He’s not much worried himself! Asleep already! That’s an art!” The doctor gave Meris a practiced glance. “Looking half alive again yourself, young lady. Good idea having a child around. Your niece?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Good to help hold the place until you get another of your own!” Meris winced away from the idea. The doctor’s eyes softened, but not his voice.
“There’ll be others,” he boomed. “We need offspring from good stock like yours and Mark’s. Leaven for a lot of the makeweights popping up all over.” He gathered up his things and flung the door open. “Mark says the fellow’s a foreigner. No English. Understood though. Let me know his name when you get it. Just curious. Mark’ll be along pretty quick. Waiting for the sheriff to get the juvenile officers from county seat.” The house door slammed. A ear
