Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/207

Rh nounced him to be in a very critical condition. But he surely had improved since the hour that Ruth and Jib Pottoway had found him. Old Bill Hicks had helped care for the patient during the night; but Ruth had actually gone ahead with everything and—without much doubt, the doctor added—the stranger could thank her for his life if he did recover.

"That girl is all right!" declared the physician, preparing to return the long miles he had come by relays of horses to the ranchhouse, and from thence to Bullhide in the automobile. "She has done just the right thing."

"She's a mighty cute young lady," admitted Bill Hicks. "And this chap—John Cox, or whatever his name is—ought to feel that she's squared things up with him over that bear business"

"Then you have learned his name?' queried Tom Cameron, who was present.

"I got the coat away from him when he was asleep in the night," said Mr. Hicks. "He had letters and papers and a wad of banknotes in it. Ruth's got 'em all. She says he is the man with whom her Uncle Jabez went into partnership over the old Tintacker claims. Mebbe the feller's struck a good thing after all. He seems to have an assayer's report among his papers that promises big returns on some specimens he had assayed. If he dug 'em out of the Tintacker Claim mebbe