"Can you make him better?" asked Teddy anxiously.

"I don't know whether we can or not. It all depends on what sort of
medicine the doctor has for curing poison."

"Has the pony been poisoned?" asked Uncle Frank.

"Looks that way," replied the foreman. "I guess he must have drunk
some water that had a bit of poisoned meat in it. You see," he went
on to the doctor, Mr. Martin and the children, "we have a lot of
wolves and other pesky animals around here. They're too tricky to
catch in traps or shoot, so we poison 'em by putting a white powder
in some meat. Sometimes the wolves will drag a piece of the poisoned
meat to a spring of water, and they must have done it this time. Then
the pony drank the water and it made him sick."

"Will he die?" asked Janet.

"Well, I'll do my best to save him," said Doctor Bond, opening the
black case of medicines he carried. "But how can you give medicine to
a horse, Jim? You can't put it on his tongue, can you?"

"No, but I've got a long-necked bottle on purpose for that, and it's
easy to pour it out of that bottle down a pony's throat. You mix up
the dose, Doc, and I'll give it to the little animal."

This was done, but the Curlytops were not allowed in the cave when
the men were working over the pony. But, in a little while, the
foreman and Doctor Bond came out.