He found a box of liver pills, a bottle of Jamaica ginger, and some iodine--not an encouraging array for a man fifteen miles of untrodden snow from the nearest human habitation.

He took three of the liver pills--judging them by size rather than what might be their composition--and a cup of water to Cash and commanded him to sit up and swallow them.

When this was accomplished, Bud felt easier as to his conscience, though he was still anxious over the possibilities in that cough.
Twice in the night he got up to put more wood on the fire and to stand beside Cash's bed and listen to his breathing.

Pneumonia, the strong man's deadly foe, was what he feared.

In his cow-punching days he had seen men die of it before a doctor could be brought from the far-away town.