George Allan England

“ Even in the deep woods they could see that the light was growing very strong. The sun would be up, now, any time. At a little brook running beneath the road, they paused for a drink and a wash, which served the double purpose of refreshing them and removing Pod's anilin rash.
"Quick convalescence, eh?" smiled Ben, as they once more set forward and turned into a cross-road leading over the hills to Rawlins.
"Surest thing you know!" assented Pod. "Nobody could stay sick long, with your patent get-there line o' remedies." ”

“ Pod spluttered protests, but Ben stood firm. "Get in, you stiff! What right's a cadaver to talk back, eh? Here, I'll help you up. So! Now remember, whatever happens, not a word out o' you, or it's all off!"
A minute later, Ben was on the seat, looking very lugubrious, and the hearse, weighted to the limit of its springs, was swaying and jolting out of the church-yard behind the somnolescent equine.
VI.
Ben turned back from the settlement, back over the hill, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the last of the church-spire with the morning sun gilding its tip. ”

“ And the erstwhile valiant one backed up with an exceeding meekness to a towering conifer. A minute later, the slight man had lashed him firmly to it with a hank of braided rope, thin rope but very strong. ”

“ Hurry!" repeated Tibbetts, executing a well-covered retreat toward the office. Two minutes later he was rousing Big Jim Butts, the prison hostler, and ordering out the express-wagon.
"Oh, my, what you goin' t' do with me?" blubbered Pod. "You ain't goin' to—take me to th'—pest-house, are you?"
"Sure I be!" answered Jackson cheerfully.
"No! No!" protested the sick man with pitiable terror. "Not there! Any place but there! Oh, why can't you lemme die in peace, right here?" ”

“ He forgot, now and then, to groan.
"Sinkin', is he?" queried Big Jim Butts.
"Seems like," the watchman answered. "No matter. What th' devil do we care? We're doin' our jooty anyhow, ain't we?"
He clucked to the mare, and urged her to a lumbering trot.
Another mile passed. The road took a curve, and plunged into Babbett's Woods, on the other side of which lay Hampton.
"Dark in here, ain't it?" commented Jim, flicking his whip at an overbending spruce bough. ”

“ Ben answered. "Remember, it's nine miles to the station at Rawline, and fast getting daylight. And this whole county a spider-web of rural telephones. Don't forget that!"
"You mean—"
"I mean that when the patient don't arrive at Hampton pest-house, as he ought to, now, inside of half an hour or so, there'll be doings. Tibbetts has notified 'em you're coming, of course. You see what's due to arrive, all right! If we romp home in the lead, it'll be no fault of theirs!"
"True for you. Shall we duck th' buggy and beat it on foot?" ”