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Show Nellie nurses Ben I Nellie hurried back to where she had tied the loose horses earlier, j She needed a horse to carry Ben back to camp. Feeling weak and sick, he stretched out on the cool ' sand and closed his eyes. Lobo stood guard beside him, ready should the bear return. By the time Nellie helped Ben onto the black gelding and began leading him back to camp, he was , so weak he could hardly stay in the saddle. His face was white except for a smear of blood on the left cheek. The injured leg was beginning to swell. He had no appetite. ap-petite. Upon reaching camp, he just let go and fell to the ground in an unconscious heap. Nellie and Madge made Ben as comfortable as possible on the dry white sand beneath the ledge. While Nellie went back to get the rest of the horses, Madge and the Indian boy picked handfuls of the soft green yarrow leaves growing along the edge of the cliffs. After crushing the leaves into a moist pulp by rubbing them back and forth between bet-ween her palms, Madge packed the wound. She had been taught that yarrow stopped infection and bleeding. Unconscious, Ben didn't feel any pain as she pushed the green pulp deep into his flesh. By the time Nellie returned, it was almost dark, and Ben had not awakened, though his slumber was becoming restless. The leg continued con-tinued to swell and his face had turned to a pink flush. His temperature tem-perature was going up. Ben did not regain consciousness that night. The women forced him to swallow a few sips of water, but he had not eaten since the accident. "Maybe one of us should try to find a doctor," Madge suggested as the sky began to turn gray with the approaching day. "There might be one in Green River." It was decided Madge would go for help, taking her baby with her on the black horse. Nellie and the I boy would stay to care for Ben. i They guessed it would take Madge at least a day to get to Green River, and an equal amount of time for the doctor to return - that is, if she could find a doctor. By the time the sun spread its golden rays over the eastern mountains, Madge had disappeared down the canyon. Nellie sat beside Ben, caressing his hot forehead with a cool, damp rag. Occasionally she would speak to him, asking how he felt or if he wanted anything. He - didn't answer, though he continued to toss restlessly about. Occasionally Nellie would look down towards the trickle of water in the bottom of the wash where the : Indian bov was playing. He had recovered quickly from his ordeal. Though still careful with his injured hands, he was no longer content to sit and do nothing. He was still shy and didn't like being talked to in English, but he no longer seemed afraid of his new benefactors. Nellie wondered what the boy's name was and if he would ever be able to tell her. She wondered if she should give him a new one. If Ben died, she would call him Ben. But Ben wouldn't die. He was too strong, too healthy. Even more important, there was a quality about Ben that Nellie couldn't put her finger on. He had held her against her will, in violation of the law. He had set two deputies adrift on the Green River and shot others in the feet and stolen their horses. Still, there was something good about Ben, a feeling that he had something important to do, that he had a mission to accomplish and couldn't be stopped by a fall from a cliff or a bite from a bear. Ben was chosen for something. Nellie wasn't sure what it was. It was just a feeling, but a strong one. The stretch of sand beneath the overhanging cliff became warm in the afternoon sun. Even though it was early spring, with patches of snow above the cliffs, the south-facing south-facing overhang, protected from the cool atternoon Dreezes that dances across the tops of the cliffs, became unusually warm as the sun shone brightly through a cloudless blue sky. Nellie removed Ben's shirt to help lower his temperature. As she ran the cool, wet rag across his chest, she couldn't help but admire his perfectly proportioned body -smooth, white skin stretched tightly across firm muscles. There was no fat. It seemed wrong for a body so healthy and strong to be unconscious un-conscious and helpless. Once, as she pushed the wet rag across his chest onto his abdomen, the rag bunched up under her palm, allowing her fingers to touch his wet skin. The first time, she quickly spread the rag back out to cover all the skin beneath her palm and fingers. But the second time, she let the rag remain in a clump, allowing her fingertips to stroke the smooth" skin. The result was a warm,'' tingling sensation passing up her arm and into her body. She looked over at the Indian boy, who was busy with a pile of stones, then downstream to see if Madge was returning. Of course she wasn't Nellie realized she was feeling guilty for touching Ben and she wasn't sure why. She only knew she would be embarrassed if anyone saw her, saw through her and knew she liked it. (To be continued) |