The Bear Trap Springs

The jaws came up through the leaves and met through your ankle, boot and all, shearing both leg bones where they narrow. Your friends pried the trap with a rifle stock while you screamed, and the foot came free hanging wrong, held on by tendon and stubbornness. The doctor lays the bone saw on the table beside the silk and says it plain: he can try to set what is sheared, but if the flesh goes black the foot comes off, and no ration of whiskey changes that arithmetic.

• Bedridden with the leg splinted board-straight and raised on a folded saddle blanket, no standing for 7 days minimum
• No boot on the right foot for 6 weeks, the ankle carried in splints and wrappings thereafter
• Laudanum haze: slow slurred speech and no fine work with either hand for 3 days
• /me lies with the splinted leg propped high, sweat standing on a gray face

Recovery Two months in splints if the foot lives, and a limp that may stay for good.·Doctor, urgently

The trap bit through boot leather and flesh alike, and when they levered it open the teeth came out of you red to the root. Punctures ring your ankle to the bone on both sides, and the joint beneath is cracked, though not through. The doctor probes each hole with carbolic on a swab, muttering about rust and lockjaw, then stitches the worst of them with silk and splints the ankle stiff.

• Right ankle splinted, no weight on it without a cane or a shoulder for 10 days
• Punctures cleaned with carbolic twice daily, bandages changed by a steady hand
• No riding at anything above a walk for 2 weeks
• /me eases the splinted ankle along, leaning hard on a cane at every step

Recovery Three to four weeks splinted, watching every puncture for the red streaks of infection.·Doctor required

You could not reach the springs and could not drag the stake, so you sat with the iron in your leg while the sun moved and the cold came up out of the ground. By the time help followed your shots, the leg below the knee was purple and twice its size. The doctor frees you, cleans the punctures with carbolic, and worries less about the holes than the hours: flesh squeezed bloodless that long can die from the inside, and he means to watch it like a creditor.

• The lower right leg swollen and near useless, elevated on a bedroll whenever seated, no walks past a hundred paces for a week
• A deep aching cold in the foot: wiggle the toes hourly on the doctor's orders
• No boot on the right foot for 5 days, the leg wrapped from knee to toes
• /me sits with the mottled leg propped up, flexing the toes slow and grim

Recovery The swelling falls over 2 weeks, the deep bruising a month behind it.·Doctor required

The jaws met on your ankle bones with a sound like a green branch going. The crack runs up the outer leg bone from ankle halfway to the knee, the doctor judges, walking his thumbs up the swelling until you shout. The skin held but for two punctures, which he calls a small mercy and cleans anyway. He splints the leg from knee to foot with barrel staves and wool, and forbids the stirrup outright.

• The right leg splinted knee to foot for 3 weeks, no weight without a cane and a cocked hip
• Mounting a horse is off for 3 weeks, wagons and walking only
• No running, no dancing, no kneeling on the right side for a month
• /me swings the stiff splinted leg wide and plants the cane first

Recovery Three weeks in splints, another three growing the bone back to trust.·Doctor required

Good leather turned half the teeth, but four found their way through, two either side of the ankle, deep enough to touch bone without breaking it. The doctor pulls your boot off full of blood, sluices the holes with whiskey first and carbolic after, and packs each track with a wick of gauze so it heals from the bottom up instead of sealing over rot.

• Four packed punctures around the ankle, wicks changed daily, no soaking the foot
• Walking allowed but slow and flat-footed, no ladders or climbing for a week
• The right boot retired to the cobbler, loose wrapping and an overboot in its place
• /me walks flat and careful on the wrapped foot, sparing the ankle any twist

Recovery Ten days of wick and bandage, sound again inside 3 weeks if no fever comes.·Doctor required

The trap held your foot to the earth and the rest of you kept traveling. Everything that ties the foot to the leg tore loose by some degree, and the ankle blew up like bread dough before they had the jaws half open. The doctor finds no break he can name but calls the tearing worse than a clean one, straps the joint hard, and promises it will remember this on cold mornings for years.

• The right ankle strapped rigid, no weight beyond a hobble for 5 days
• No riding for 10 days, and no jumping down from anything, wagons included
• The strapping stays dry: no wading, no river crossings on foot
• /me hobbles on the strapped ankle, toes barely kissing the ground

Recovery Strapped for 2 weeks, tender for six, and honest about the weather ever after.·Doctor required

The jaws took mostly boot, but the chain fetched up short at full stride and slung you down a stony bank. You came to rest with the trap still on your foot, a gash along the shin, and a knee that had turned further than knees agree to. The doctor stitches the shin with six silk points and wraps the knee, and allows that the trap was the kindest part of the whole affair.

• Six stitches along the right shin, kept clean and dry for 8 days
• The right knee wrapped: no squatting, kneeling, or spurring hard for 10 days
• A stiff-legged gait on stairs and slopes for a week
• /me favors the whole right leg, shin stitched and knee bound over the trouser

Recovery Stitches out in 8 to 10 days, the knee trustworthy again in two weeks.·Doctor required

One tooth found the soft hollow behind the ankle bone and nicked something that meant business. You did not grasp how much until the boot came off and poured. The doctor ties off the bleeder by candlelight with you gone white as the sheet, closes the hole with silk, and keeps you flat until your color climbs back up out of your boots.

• Flat on your back till morning, then no more than an hour upright at a stretch for 2 days
• The wound behind the ankle stitched and firmly bound, no boot on that foot for 5 days
• Lightheaded when rising: stand slow and sit at the first gray sparkle in your vision, for 3 days
• /me stands up by careful stages, one hand out for the wall

Recovery The blood rebuilds over a week, stitches out in 9 days.·Doctor required

The jaws slammed on the boot heel and the stacked leather took the teeth like a martyr. The wrench of it turned your ankle hard inside the boot, and the heel ripped half away when you finally twisted free, but the flesh under it never saw iron. You limp, and your boot will need a cobbler before you need a doctor.

• A turned ankle: no running for 5 days and stairs taken one at a time
• The right boot heel torn loose, walk on it and you will roll the ankle again, get it mended
• /me walks with a hitching limp, one boot heel flapping half off

Recovery The ankle quiets in a week, the boot depends on the cobbler.·No doctor needed

The trap caught the boot's waist rather than your bones, but you fell yanking against the chain and the twist ran up through ankle and calf like wrung laundry. The trap gave your boot back to a lever and some swearing. The doctor finds sprain and deep bruising, wraps the ankle in wet linen that dries drum-tight, and prescribes a cane and humility.

• The right ankle wrapped, weight on it only with a cane for 4 days
• Calf cramps by night for a week: stretch it before sleep or wake up shouting
• No riding at a lope and no jumping ditches for 10 days
• /me plants the cane and swings the wrapped ankle through, jaw set

Recovery A week on the cane, sound in two.·Doctor advised

The jaws closed on the thick of your calf through boot top and trouser, and the springs were strong enough to promise far worse than they delivered. When the leather peeled back, the leg wore the trap's whole dental record in bruise from ankle to knee without one tooth breaking skin. It looks like spoiled fruit and feels worse, but the doctor calls it paint, not damage.

• The right calf bruised dark from knee to ankle, no kneeling on it and no tall boots for 5 days
• Mounting a horse is a slow grim business for 5 days, use a stump or take a leg up
• /me rolls the trouser to show a calf gone plum-dark from knee to ankle

Recovery The bruise runs its ugly rainbow over 2 weeks.·Doctor advised

You stepped short, and the jaws got the toe of the boot and the toes inside it. The doctor strips the sock, presses each toe until you quit swearing, and finds nothing broken, though the smallest two have gone thundercloud dark and both nails will likely lift and go. He straps them to their neighbors and recommends a wider boot and a shorter stride.

• The two smallest toes of the right foot strapped together for 10 days, no tight boots
• Walking is sound but no running starts and no standing in the stirrups for a week
• /me steps toe-light on the right foot, the boot slit at the seam to give room

Recovery The toes quiet in 2 weeks, the nails keep their own calendar.·Doctor advised

The pan was weak or your luck strong: the jaws barely gripped the boot's shank, and one wild haul tore you loose. The same haul threw you backward through the bracken onto root and stone. The trap sits empty and your ankle is only wrenched, but your back met a root square across the short ribs, and it has opinions now about deep breaths.

• A bruised back at the short ribs: no heavy lifting and no throwing a saddle up one-armed for 5 days
• The right ankle tender, walked easy for the first 3 days
• Deep breaths and big laughs cost extra for a few days
• /me straightens up in stages, one hand pressed to the lower ribs

Recovery Everything grumbles for a week and forgives you in two.·Doctor advised

The jaws closed on good double-stitched boot leather and spent their malice there. Two teeth dented your ankle bone through it, sharp enough to water the eyes, and the boot now bears a ring of punctures a cobbler will whistle at. You walked away, which is more than whoever set the thing hoped for you.

• Two tender dents at the ankle bone, no tight lacing over them for 3 days
• The right boot leaks until mended, mind the puddles and the creek
• /me thumbs the punched ring of tooth marks in the boot leather, shaking their head

Recovery Sore to the touch for 3 or 4 days, no more.·No doctor needed

You were half a stride past when it fired, and the jaws caught trouser cuff and a mouthful of calf skin, a pinch rather than a bite. It tore a strip of hide the size of two fingers and bled dramatically for a wound that a splash of whiskey and a clean kerchief settled. The trouser is the true casualty here.

• A palm-length graze on the right calf under a kerchief wrap, kept clean for 4 days
• Whiskey on it once a day stings like judgment, apply it anyway
• /me reties the kerchief bound about one calf, hissing through the teeth

Recovery Scabbed by day 3, forgotten inside a week.·No doctor needed

Your toe touched the pan and you were already stumbling back when it fired, so the jaws bit air and the near jaw cracked your shin on its way shut. There is a knot rising there like a doorknob with a scrape across its crown, and there is also, more to the point, a sprung trap with none of you left in it.

• A knotted bruise on the right shin: kneeling and boot tops will find it for 3 days
• The scrape kept clean under a light wrap for 3 days
• /me rubs the doorknob of a knot on one shin through the trouser

Recovery The knot flattens out inside a week.·No doctor needed

The trap got mostly boot shank and lost its grip when you levered the springs down, but the jaw slipped under your palm at the last and pinched two fingers to the second knuckle before you snatched free. The foot is fine. The fingers are barked, nail-bruised, and unwilling, and you will hear about this at every campfire from here to the county line.

• Two barked fingers on the left hand, no gripping rope or rein hard with them for 4 days
• The right boot scarred at the shank but sound, wear it proudly
• /me flexes two bruised fingers gingerly, counting them twice

Recovery The fingers answer properly again inside a week.·No doctor needed

The springs were rusted down to a memory and the jaws came up like a yawn, closing on your boot with all the fury of an old dog mouthing a slipper. You stood there a moment, insulted, then bent down and opened the thing with your bare hands. The tooth marks in the leather barely go through the polish.

• A ring of shallow tooth marks in the right boot, a story at the cost of some polish
• A wary eye on leaf litter and soft ground, you test each step for days after
• /me pries the rusted jaws apart bare-handed and lets them clap shut on nothing

Recovery Nothing to recover but your dignity, give it an evening.·No doctor needed

Your boot came down on a dead branch lying across the pan, and when the trap fired the wood took the bite meant for you. The jaws splintered the branch and jarred your foot, stinging the sole like a struck bell, and you hopped clear swearing while the iron chewed its stick. An inch either way and this is a very different story.

• A stung, tingling sole on the right foot for a day, you feel every pebble through it
• You now prod suspicious ground with a long stick, and recommend the habit loudly to others
• /me hops a step on one boot, shaking the stung foot out

Recovery The sting fades by morning.·No doctor needed

The jaws fired at the exact heartbeat your weight rolled forward off the heel, and instead of bone they got empty boot, wrenching it clean off your foot as you pitched into a run you had not planned. You fetched up three strides later in one sock, whole, staring back at a trap holding your boot aloft like a prize catch. Men will buy you drinks for telling this straight-faced, and more of them if you bring the boot with the tooth marks still in it.

• Not a scratch on you, though one sock is a martyr to the mud
• The famous boot, tooth marks and all, is worth a free drink in any barroom that hears the tale told right
• A flinch at any metal snap for a day or two, entirely earned
• /me holds up the trap-bitten boot by its pull straps, grinning like a fool

Recovery Nothing to heal, and the tale improves with age.·No doctor needed