then nodded. “It’s broken.”
“Can you do anything about it?” Falcon asked.
“I think so. I can put it back and splint it. You wouldn’t have any laudanum, would you, Mr. Deckert?”
“No, I wouldn’t have anything like that,” Deckert said.
“All right, we’ll just have to do it without it. I need a couple of flat boards about this long,” he said, holding his hands apart equal to the length of Gary’s forearm. “And enough strips of cloth to bind them.”
“I can get the boards easy,” Deckert said. “I repaired a door on a coach last week, I’ve got some of that wood left over.”
“How thick is it?”
“Oh, it isn’t thick at all, not more’n an eighth of an inch.”
“That will be perfect.”
“I have some cloth,” Ethel Deckert said. “I got it to make some new curtains, but this would be a better use for it.”
Within a few moments, Ingraham had everything he needed, and he lay it down beside Gary. No longer crying out loud, Gary was still sniffing as he tried to hold it back.
Ingraham took his arm. “Now, son, I’m going to set the bone back in place. But, when I set the bone it’s going to hurt you again.”
“How bad will it hurt?” Gary asked.
“I won’t lie to you. It’s going to hurt pretty bad, but it won’t hurt as bad as it did when you first broke it.”
“Do you have to set it?” Gary asked.
“Yes, I have to do that so that your arm will grow back just as good as it was. If I don’t set it, you could wind up not ever able to use that arm again.”
“All right,” Gary said.
“Cody, have the splints ready,” Ingraham said. “Mrs. Deckert, when I get the splints in place, you start wrapping the cloth around it.”
Cody nodded and picked up the splints, then held them apart so Ingraham could get to them easily.
“Are you ready, Gary?”
“Yes, sir,” Gary answered in a frightened voice.
Ingraham moved the arm and pressed the bone down until he knew it had reconnected. Gary winced, and cried out, but he did not cry again.
Quickly, Ingraham put on the splint, then held it in place as Mrs. Deckert began the wrap. Within a moment the splint and bandage were in place.
“Son, I saw soldiers in the war who weren’t as brave as you were when they were doing that,” Falcon said.
“Really?” Gary replied, forcing a smile now through his pain and tears.
“Really. You are one brave young man,” Falcon said.
Gary looked up at his mother. “Did you hear what he said, Mama?”
“I heard. And you are a brave little boy,” Mrs. Kirby said.
“No, Mama, I’m a brave young man,” Gary said. “He called me a young man.”
Mrs. Kirby kissed her son on the forehead. “And you are a young man,” she said. “A brave young man.”
“You are the bravest person I know,” Abby said. “I won’t ever be afraid anymore if I am with you.”
Mrs. Deckert had a hearty breakfast ready for them the next morning, biscuits, country ham, gravy, fried potatoes, and eggs. The pain had subsided in Gary’s arm, and he now showed it proudly to Bo and Hank.
“Mr. MacCallister said I was as brave as a soldier,” Gary said.
“I don’t doubt it,” Bo said. “And I reckon you’ll be showin’ that broke arm to all your little friends when you get back home too, won’t you?”
“I want him to show it to my friends as well,” Abby said.
Bo finished his coffee, then stood up. “Folks, we’ll have the coach around front in about fifteen minutes. So if you got ’ny last minute things to do, you’d best be gettin’ ’em done.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mean to His Horses and ten warriors had wandered far south from the Cheyenne reservation, and were waiting at a ford on the Big Horn river. They had no particular target in mind, though they knew that any wagon or coach that traveled the road between Sheridan and Yellowstone Park would have to cross the river here, and when they did so, they would be vulnerable to attack.
They heard the coach before they saw it, the sound of a popping whip, the whistles and calls of the driver, and the drumming hooves of six trotting horses.
“Make yourselves ready,” Mean to His Horses said.
