"So Doc and me got Festus up to the office, and while Doc was workin' on him I started readin' this letter." Chester handed Matt the letter from the warden of the state penitentiary. The marshal glanced over it and looked up at Chester, startled. The young man nodded. "Trent Abbot was a model prisoner, all right. He'd have to be to work in the infirmary, helpin' the doctor, mixin' up medicines...maybe he wanted to kill you when you sent him to prison but once he learned about foxglove and what it could do, it suited him better to try and ruin your life instead."
Matt looked admiringly at Chester. "He would have too, if it wasn't for you. Doc told me that was quite a performance you gave in the Longbranch."
The young man smiled shyly. "Well, Mr Dillon, to tell you the truth I wouldn't have thought I had it in me." A shadow passed over his face. "But when I saw Festus like that, and I got to thinkin' how you were headed to Hays, dependin' on him..." Chester swallowed hard. "I figured a man who'd do a thing like that, sneakin' around with poison...stands to reason he'd have to be an awful coward. Then Doc said Festus was goin' to live and I saw how maybe I could run a bluff if Abbot thought he was dead. I knew from Miss Kitty he'd been comin' into the Longbranch, so I told Doc to wait a while and come on over. If Abbot was there he was to come in and tell us Festus died from foxglove poisonin'." Chester sighed. "It was a terrible thing to do to Miss Kitty and Sam, but there wasn't no proof against Abbot. I had to try and get a confession out of him."
"He'll be in prison for the rest of his life." The marshal shook his head. "And to think the only reason I contacted the penitentiary in the first place was because Kitty didn't trust Abbot. He took me in completely." Matt smiled warmly and thumped Chester on the back. "Chester, I'm proud of you! I really am."
"Oh, Mr Dillon..." Chester shifted in his chair, smiling brightly, then his face turned serious. "There's still somethin' I got to talk to you about."
Matt leaned back in his chair. "Well?"
The young man was silent for a moment, arranging his thoughts, then he said quietly, "I'm leavin' Dodge."
"Taking a trip?"
Chester shook his head. "No, I'm leavin' for good." Matt rocked forward and Chester held up a hand. "Lemme have my say first, Mr Dillon." The marshal remained silent as his friend went on slowly. "You've been a good friend to me...the best I've ever had. And Doc and Miss Kitty and Festus and Quint...all of you like my own family...but I've been thinkin' about this for a long time now. I don't want to stay on workin' the jail like I been...it's not right for me like it is for you..."
Matt cut in. "Chester, you're the best assistant I've ever had. And aside from Doc..." His throat worked. "All these years you've been the only man I could really trust."
"Mr Dillon..." Chester rubbed his bad leg. "Did I ever tell you how this happened?" Matt shook his head. "Well, growin' up I was a champion roper. I could catch a calf and tie him up before you saw me get off my horse. Then I got shot, right through the knee...just some feller out huntin', shootin' at what he heard instead of what he saw. He was real sorry about it. Got me to a doctor, paid all my bills, just did everythin' he could to make it up to me..." Chester paused and there was pain in his eyes. "The one thing he couldn't do was give me two good legs. It was...it was kinda...rough...when I was first up and around again. You know, people can be awful mean and when you're crippled up..." The young man took a deep breath. "They bully you, or what's worse, they try so hard to be nice to you you don't even feel like a man...right from the start you treated me like I was just as good as anyone else..."
The marshal smiled. "Considering the way we met it would have been hard for me not to see you were just as good as anyone else." They fell silent, remembering...