Chapter 3
Ben and Hoss waited in the outer office, the worry on their faces clear to even the dullest observer.
"Ben, Hoss, come back here please," Paul called from the back room where he had been examining Adam.
Ben and hoss looked at each other for a moment then hurried back to see what the doctor wanted. Their first look at the doctor's face told them that he didn't have good news.
"Ben, this is real bad. He must have hit his head when he fell off his horse originally. That combined with the fall down the stairs," he broke off shaking his head then continued. "He probably has a skull fracture. You have seen the damage to his legs already. There might be damage to his spine, but only time will tell there. He has three broken ribs and he is starting to develop a rattle in his breathing that worries me also. I am going to have to perform surgery, but it is a type of surgery that I have only performed once before, it is very tricky and I will need help. Ben, I need you to get Mrs. Harper. She has worked as my nurse before, and I think she would be willing to help even at this time of night. Hoss, can you do fine work on a forge?" At Hoss's affirmative nod, he continued. "I need a thin steel disk about an inch and a half in diameter. It has to be as thin as you can get it. No thicker that a couple of sheets of paper. And perfectly smooth. All right?"
"Yessir." Hoss took off for the black smith's shop to borrow his tools, while Ben headed for the Harper's place to get Mrs. Harper.
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Ben returned with Mrs. Harper a few minutes before Hoss got back from his errand. "Here ya go. Will this be good enough?" Hoss said as he handed the doctor a disk as thin as a piece of paper. The disk shone like a mirror from the polishing that Hoss had given it.
"Perfect. Now every one but Mrs. Harper, out. We need to get started right away. I'll come out and explain later." Paul commanded.
Ben and Hoss filed out to the waiting area and sat down to wait. After a few minutes Hoss spoke up.
"Pa? You think I could go sit with Joe?" Hoss asked. "Doc wouldn't want Joe left alone for long, right?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, except we both will go and sit with him." Ben was relieved when Hoss the suggestion. Right now he felt that he needed to be with both his boys, but since he could not be with Adam, Joe and Hoss would have to do. Ben had worried about his sons for years, but never had he seen Paul so worried.
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About four hours later, Paul found them sitting one on either side of Joe's bed asleep. Joe was awake now and held his finger to his lips. "What's going on? They should have gone to get some sleep long ago." Joe whispered.
Paul, suddenly very glad that he had thought to remove his bloodied smock, wondered how much he should tell this young man. True, his injuries were not a serious as Adam's, but he was still weak and should not get excited. He settled for as little as he could get by with. "Adam was hurt in all the ruckus with the cat, but he did not let on until a little while ago. Ben brought him in a couple hours ago."
"How is he?" Joe asked anxiously, but quietly as he was starting to drift off again.
"As well as can be expected," Paul figure it was about time, so he mixed Joe's medicine and gave it to him. He added a dose of laudanum to help Joe sleep for a while. "Now you need to rest, while I talk to your father." Paul waited until Joe was asleep before he spoke again.
"Ben?" Paul called softly hoping to get his attention, but not startle him.
Ben looked up quickly, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "How is he, Paul?" Ben asked quietly.
"We need to talk." Paul stated and nodded his head to the door behind him. Ben got up and followed him out leaving Hoss and Joe to sleep.
Once in the waiting area, Ben and Paul sat down.
"Ben, Adam's chances are still bad, but they are better since he survived the surgery. I almost lost him twice during the operations." Paul began.
"Operations?" Ben interrupted.
"Let me explain. I had to surgically set the bones in he legs. Those were straight forward, nothing strange, but the other was more tricky. The first time he hit his head, he must have had the worst headache in the world, for he had a massive concussion. But the second time, he fractured his skull and started to hemorrhage. I had to go in and relieve the pressure in the skull. Do you follow me so far?"
Ben was totally bewildered, but nodded for him to continue.
"I had to remove a small section of bone to relieve the pressure below. After I drained away the accumulated fluid, I replaced it with the steel disk that I had Hoss make me. The scar will be under his hair so the will be no visual effects from the surgery. One concern is that the pressure may have already caused brain damage, but that I don't consider that likely. I have bound his ribs. He is running quite a fever at the moment, but Mrs. Harper has volunteered to stay the night and help try to bring it down. Riding in carrying Joe with out his coat on may have caused him to catch a chill. You know how dangerous that is." Paul paused a moment, then shook his head as he continued.
"I still can't believe that I did not see how badly he felt. His hair may have hidden the knot on his head, but I should how badly he was hurt."
Ben quickly reassured Paul that none of them could have known. "Adam is very good as disguising discomfort and pain as well as his emotions. He hid them a little too well this time." That he had been scolding himself for exactly the same thing for the last four hours, he did not tell him.
"Yeah."
"When can Hoss and I go in to see him?" Ben asked tentatively.
"Give me a couple of hours to try to bring his fever down. He will have to stay here for a few days. We will have to be very careful to avoid infection. Oh," Paul quickly went into the back room and returned with Adam's gun belt, hat, and boots. "He left his hat here earlier, but we had to cut the rest of his clothes off." Paul handed these few things to Ben. "Hoss got some sleep earlier, Ben, so I want you to go over to the hotel and get those couple hours of sleep. I will send Hoss if there is any change. I don't want to see you back here before six o'clock. All right?"
Ben wanted to argue, but he knew that that would get him no where, so he acquiesced. Ben looked at Paul. "Thank you, Paul." Ben gathered the things that he had just been given and headed for the hotel.
When Ben got there, he went up to one of the rooms that Adam had engaged for them earlier. Adam. Ben was so worried that he did not even start getting ready for bed for over half an hour. By the time Ben got his boots off, laid his holster and gun on the table beside the lamp, and dosed off it was nearly five o'clock.
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Ben tried to sleep, but all he managed to do was dose off for about thirty minutes, before sitting bolt upright in bed from a nightmare. Ben did not normally have nightmares but this one disturbed him greatly. Adam was being pulling away from him be something, and no matter how hard he tried, Ben had not been able to reach him.
Ben lay back down, but he could not fall back to sleep. Too agitated to lie down any longer, Ben rose, lit the lamp on the table, and picked up the things that he had brought back for the doctor's office.
Ben remembered when he had gotten that hat for Adam. It had been a birthday present when Adam had turned twenty-five. Joe had been envious of that hat with the silver decoration around it. As much as he hated for his sons to argue, he would have been overjoyed to hear them cross words one more time.
The boots Adam had gotten last year for Christmas. They had been special made in Texas for Adam. Ben could remember the conversation he had had with Adam prior to ordering the boots. Adam had made the comment that he needed to go into town to get Mr. Jenkins to work on the boots he normally wore as the heels were getting loose. Adam hadn't worn his old boots since he had received the new ones. Tears came to Ben's eyes at the thought that Adam might never again wear those boots.
The holster and revolver had been Ben's gift to Adam when he returned from college. He had picked them out at the time for Adam with the hope that he would not have to use them often. Ben thought of the times that that gift had saved lives. Adam's. Joe's. Hoss's. Ben's. And others. At different times Adam and that gun had spared their lives. Would he ever see his son standing, dressed, as was his habit, all in black, looking as if he could take on the world and come out on top?
Out of habit, he pulled out Adam's revolver, spun the cylinder, and checked it.
What he saw made him drop everything else he had in his hands. Ben bent closed to the lamp and checked the gun again.
Ben quickly slipped into his boots and grabbed his hat and holster. He did not care what time it was, he had to see Hoss and Roy.
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First, Ben went to the doctor's office to get Hoss. He slipped into Joe's room and gently shook Hoss's shoulder.
"Hoss?" He whispered. When Hoss looked up at him, he continued. "Come with me. We may have some more trouble."
Hoss looked up at his father and quickly got up to follow him. The last thing he wanted was more trouble, but if it was already here, he knew that he would face it with his father. Ben stopped to tell Paul that they were going to go down to the Sheriff's office to talk to Roy.
"What's wrong?" Paul asked. This day had been frantic enough without any more hurt people.
"I'll tell you later," was Ben's answer as he rushed toward the front door. Suddenly he stopped with a thought. "Paul, do you have the bullet that you took out of Joe's arm."
"Yeah. I reported the wound to Roy, but I still have the bullet. Here it is." Paul handed Ben a small envelope with the bullet in it.
Ben looked in the envelope and muttered, "That's what I thought."
"Ben?" Paul began. When he looked up Paul continued, "One piece of good news I can give you, Adam's temperature has already started to come down."
A small smile pulled at the corners of Ben's mouth. With a nod, Ben disappeared out the front door with Hoss trailing confused behind him.
"What's goin' on, Pa?"
"I'm not sure yet." Ben was trying to figure out what had happened to his sons. "But I am damn well going to find out!" Ben quietly promised.
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Ben did not bother to knock on the door to the jail and walk right on in.
"Ben! What brings you here? Is Joe going to be all right?" Roy was surprised to see Ben at this hour of the night. The expression on his face told Roy that this was not about anything pleasant.
"Joe's going to be fine, but Adam is still on the edge. Roy, look at this." Ben handed Roy the gun. "Adam thought that he had shot Joe as he fell from Sport. Adam told me that he saw his first bullet hit Joe's horse, and when he looked up after the fall, he shot the cat that was on top of Joe. That should have been three shots, right?"
"Ben, there are only two used chambers in this gun!"
"Yeah, that means that there was some one else in those woods. And this," Ben dumped the bullet from the envelope into his hand and held it out to Roy, "is a rifle bullet."
Ben and Hoss waited in the outer office, the worry on their faces clear to even the dullest observer.
"Ben, Hoss, come back here please," Paul called from the back room where he had been examining Adam.
Ben and hoss looked at each other for a moment then hurried back to see what the doctor wanted. Their first look at the doctor's face told them that he didn't have good news.
"Ben, this is real bad. He must have hit his head when he fell off his horse originally. That combined with the fall down the stairs," he broke off shaking his head then continued. "He probably has a skull fracture. You have seen the damage to his legs already. There might be damage to his spine, but only time will tell there. He has three broken ribs and he is starting to develop a rattle in his breathing that worries me also. I am going to have to perform surgery, but it is a type of surgery that I have only performed once before, it is very tricky and I will need help. Ben, I need you to get Mrs. Harper. She has worked as my nurse before, and I think she would be willing to help even at this time of night. Hoss, can you do fine work on a forge?" At Hoss's affirmative nod, he continued. "I need a thin steel disk about an inch and a half in diameter. It has to be as thin as you can get it. No thicker that a couple of sheets of paper. And perfectly smooth. All right?"
"Yessir." Hoss took off for the black smith's shop to borrow his tools, while Ben headed for the Harper's place to get Mrs. Harper.
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Ben returned with Mrs. Harper a few minutes before Hoss got back from his errand. "Here ya go. Will this be good enough?" Hoss said as he handed the doctor a disk as thin as a piece of paper. The disk shone like a mirror from the polishing that Hoss had given it.
"Perfect. Now every one but Mrs. Harper, out. We need to get started right away. I'll come out and explain later." Paul commanded.
Ben and Hoss filed out to the waiting area and sat down to wait. After a few minutes Hoss spoke up.
"Pa? You think I could go sit with Joe?" Hoss asked. "Doc wouldn't want Joe left alone for long, right?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, except we both will go and sit with him." Ben was relieved when Hoss the suggestion. Right now he felt that he needed to be with both his boys, but since he could not be with Adam, Joe and Hoss would have to do. Ben had worried about his sons for years, but never had he seen Paul so worried.
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About four hours later, Paul found them sitting one on either side of Joe's bed asleep. Joe was awake now and held his finger to his lips. "What's going on? They should have gone to get some sleep long ago." Joe whispered.
Paul, suddenly very glad that he had thought to remove his bloodied smock, wondered how much he should tell this young man. True, his injuries were not a serious as Adam's, but he was still weak and should not get excited. He settled for as little as he could get by with. "Adam was hurt in all the ruckus with the cat, but he did not let on until a little while ago. Ben brought him in a couple hours ago."
"How is he?" Joe asked anxiously, but quietly as he was starting to drift off again.
"As well as can be expected," Paul figure it was about time, so he mixed Joe's medicine and gave it to him. He added a dose of laudanum to help Joe sleep for a while. "Now you need to rest, while I talk to your father." Paul waited until Joe was asleep before he spoke again.
"Ben?" Paul called softly hoping to get his attention, but not startle him.
Ben looked up quickly, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "How is he, Paul?" Ben asked quietly.
"We need to talk." Paul stated and nodded his head to the door behind him. Ben got up and followed him out leaving Hoss and Joe to sleep.
Once in the waiting area, Ben and Paul sat down.
"Ben, Adam's chances are still bad, but they are better since he survived the surgery. I almost lost him twice during the operations." Paul began.
"Operations?" Ben interrupted.
"Let me explain. I had to surgically set the bones in he legs. Those were straight forward, nothing strange, but the other was more tricky. The first time he hit his head, he must have had the worst headache in the world, for he had a massive concussion. But the second time, he fractured his skull and started to hemorrhage. I had to go in and relieve the pressure in the skull. Do you follow me so far?"
Ben was totally bewildered, but nodded for him to continue.
"I had to remove a small section of bone to relieve the pressure below. After I drained away the accumulated fluid, I replaced it with the steel disk that I had Hoss make me. The scar will be under his hair so the will be no visual effects from the surgery. One concern is that the pressure may have already caused brain damage, but that I don't consider that likely. I have bound his ribs. He is running quite a fever at the moment, but Mrs. Harper has volunteered to stay the night and help try to bring it down. Riding in carrying Joe with out his coat on may have caused him to catch a chill. You know how dangerous that is." Paul paused a moment, then shook his head as he continued.
"I still can't believe that I did not see how badly he felt. His hair may have hidden the knot on his head, but I should how badly he was hurt."
Ben quickly reassured Paul that none of them could have known. "Adam is very good as disguising discomfort and pain as well as his emotions. He hid them a little too well this time." That he had been scolding himself for exactly the same thing for the last four hours, he did not tell him.
"Yeah."
"When can Hoss and I go in to see him?" Ben asked tentatively.
"Give me a couple of hours to try to bring his fever down. He will have to stay here for a few days. We will have to be very careful to avoid infection. Oh," Paul quickly went into the back room and returned with Adam's gun belt, hat, and boots. "He left his hat here earlier, but we had to cut the rest of his clothes off." Paul handed these few things to Ben. "Hoss got some sleep earlier, Ben, so I want you to go over to the hotel and get those couple hours of sleep. I will send Hoss if there is any change. I don't want to see you back here before six o'clock. All right?"
Ben wanted to argue, but he knew that that would get him no where, so he acquiesced. Ben looked at Paul. "Thank you, Paul." Ben gathered the things that he had just been given and headed for the hotel.
When Ben got there, he went up to one of the rooms that Adam had engaged for them earlier. Adam. Ben was so worried that he did not even start getting ready for bed for over half an hour. By the time Ben got his boots off, laid his holster and gun on the table beside the lamp, and dosed off it was nearly five o'clock.
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Ben tried to sleep, but all he managed to do was dose off for about thirty minutes, before sitting bolt upright in bed from a nightmare. Ben did not normally have nightmares but this one disturbed him greatly. Adam was being pulling away from him be something, and no matter how hard he tried, Ben had not been able to reach him.
Ben lay back down, but he could not fall back to sleep. Too agitated to lie down any longer, Ben rose, lit the lamp on the table, and picked up the things that he had brought back for the doctor's office.
Ben remembered when he had gotten that hat for Adam. It had been a birthday present when Adam had turned twenty-five. Joe had been envious of that hat with the silver decoration around it. As much as he hated for his sons to argue, he would have been overjoyed to hear them cross words one more time.
The boots Adam had gotten last year for Christmas. They had been special made in Texas for Adam. Ben could remember the conversation he had had with Adam prior to ordering the boots. Adam had made the comment that he needed to go into town to get Mr. Jenkins to work on the boots he normally wore as the heels were getting loose. Adam hadn't worn his old boots since he had received the new ones. Tears came to Ben's eyes at the thought that Adam might never again wear those boots.
The holster and revolver had been Ben's gift to Adam when he returned from college. He had picked them out at the time for Adam with the hope that he would not have to use them often. Ben thought of the times that that gift had saved lives. Adam's. Joe's. Hoss's. Ben's. And others. At different times Adam and that gun had spared their lives. Would he ever see his son standing, dressed, as was his habit, all in black, looking as if he could take on the world and come out on top?
Out of habit, he pulled out Adam's revolver, spun the cylinder, and checked it.
What he saw made him drop everything else he had in his hands. Ben bent closed to the lamp and checked the gun again.
Ben quickly slipped into his boots and grabbed his hat and holster. He did not care what time it was, he had to see Hoss and Roy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, Ben went to the doctor's office to get Hoss. He slipped into Joe's room and gently shook Hoss's shoulder.
"Hoss?" He whispered. When Hoss looked up at him, he continued. "Come with me. We may have some more trouble."
Hoss looked up at his father and quickly got up to follow him. The last thing he wanted was more trouble, but if it was already here, he knew that he would face it with his father. Ben stopped to tell Paul that they were going to go down to the Sheriff's office to talk to Roy.
"What's wrong?" Paul asked. This day had been frantic enough without any more hurt people.
"I'll tell you later," was Ben's answer as he rushed toward the front door. Suddenly he stopped with a thought. "Paul, do you have the bullet that you took out of Joe's arm."
"Yeah. I reported the wound to Roy, but I still have the bullet. Here it is." Paul handed Ben a small envelope with the bullet in it.
Ben looked in the envelope and muttered, "That's what I thought."
"Ben?" Paul began. When he looked up Paul continued, "One piece of good news I can give you, Adam's temperature has already started to come down."
A small smile pulled at the corners of Ben's mouth. With a nod, Ben disappeared out the front door with Hoss trailing confused behind him.
"What's goin' on, Pa?"
"I'm not sure yet." Ben was trying to figure out what had happened to his sons. "But I am damn well going to find out!" Ben quietly promised.
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Ben did not bother to knock on the door to the jail and walk right on in.
"Ben! What brings you here? Is Joe going to be all right?" Roy was surprised to see Ben at this hour of the night. The expression on his face told Roy that this was not about anything pleasant.
"Joe's going to be fine, but Adam is still on the edge. Roy, look at this." Ben handed Roy the gun. "Adam thought that he had shot Joe as he fell from Sport. Adam told me that he saw his first bullet hit Joe's horse, and when he looked up after the fall, he shot the cat that was on top of Joe. That should have been three shots, right?"
"Ben, there are only two used chambers in this gun!"
"Yeah, that means that there was some one else in those woods. And this," Ben dumped the bullet from the envelope into his hand and held it out to Roy, "is a rifle bullet."