The Night Of The Misdirection
"Do not upset yourself Susan, your not able to do anything about it, Artemus Gordon is dead, he was shot a few days ago from his enemy, I believe it was a character in the name of Dr. Miguelito Loveless."
"I don't believe you, Andrew, why are you telling me this in the first place?" She raged ay the idiot reporter trying to get a rise out of her.
She had gone back to visit Doc for a few days, when she ran into the reporter looking for a story. She demanded. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"I don't have to tell you anything." Andrew replied to her on the front porch of her house she keeps for trips like these, since Artemus is supposed to be away on assignment with James West.
"What do you mean you won't tell me a thing?" She was angry. "You won't get anything else out of me, look for your information else where Andrew, now I suggest you get out of my face."
What she had to do was to walk over to the telegraph office to send a message to the Wandered to find out just what the hell is going on.
"Very well, I will leave." Andrew replied.
"There's a first time for everything, even for you as a reporter." She says loudly.
/
Jim West was separated from his partner trying to look for a new lead for Dr. Loveless, when he felt a blow to his head.
Artie realized that he had been wrong, when he said Loveless would eventually show up. But this time it was a dark and dingy part of an basement, a room behind the stairs of the saloon, for which Dr. Loveless was hold up in to catch them both off guard.
He and West seated on the floor, back against the stone wall, their hands restrained behind them, as with their ankles tied together. Artemus was awake, but West was still unconscious, his head thrown back, revealing his face that looked drawn and paper white, while the crimson of blood had dried down one side of his head and neck.
They were hearing laughter in the back ground, it was surely Dr. Loveless and his ban of merry men.
Artie didn't have to be told to sit down next to his partner, since he was unable to move having to be tied up, and caught by surprised.
"Jim, are you okak?" He couldn't keep asking, even though he knew West couldn't hear him. "You're going to be all right." He added, more to reassure himself than anything else.
Loveless tied Artie's ankles even tighter and then left then alone, with a promise he would bring them something to eat and drink later.
Artie had no idea when that would be an didn't care, other then worrying about Jim, since he wasn't in no condition to eat anything, plus he was thinking mostly about Susan and her visit to see Doc and rest of her friends.
Taking into consideration in his constraints, Artie did his best he could to try and take a closer look at Jim. He noticed that the bleeding from his forehead had stopped, but Artie was more worried that was the lesser of his injuries, including from the past months.
In desperation, Artie began to struggle with the bindings on his wrists to see if it was possible to wriggle free of them.
He had been at it for about 15 minutes, without success, when he heard a groan an realized that Jim was regaining consciousness.
Chapter Two up next