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Show 82. bullet in his leg. He'd got blood poisoning in i t and the other txro men l e f t in the cabin had agreed that i t had to come off. Bill had thought about i t a l l that night, and, in the morning, he told them that he figured, at his age and considering he xras going to stay in this country, if he couldn't hunt he'd just as xrell die. They'd taken his decision mainly because xrithout his agreeing there res no xray just txro could have held him and cut i t off. Luckily for him a big blow had set in, and they'd hot packed him day and night. They couldn't screen and hadn't much stomach for the cards so soon a f t e r brothers shooting each other and Mike's t e r r i b l e suffering before he died. So, they'd taken turns for ten days and nights, and he xias over the worst xrhen the big xrind stopped. Bill had been laid up for three months, though, and that accident, plus the time he'd craxrled out of a cave-in a t the Jack in California unhurt, and the time a xrar party of Walla Walla's had surprised him in the Sacramento valley and then l e t him escape, had used up a l l the chances he thought a man should count on. Now i f i t weren't for the danger to L i t t l e Bill, he might be; tempted A to. take a vote. Weasel's need to gamble was hard to see. Any xray you looked a t i t , though, t h i s t a s t e for the cards xrhen men were holed up in the xrinter like this was "bad medicine." |
