Chapter 10

"Me and Donnie had a row," Dave Milton said, looking embarrassed about it. "Stupid thing now that I look back on it, but since you got him out of trouble, Mr. Barkley, I've had him do certain chores around the place and over the last couple weeks, he's quit doing them. Been disappearing for parts of the day. I let into him and he let into me and he walked out, and I don't know where he's been or what he's been up to. That's one of the reasons I wanted to do the will. If anything was to happen to Mary and me, I don't want him running off with everything and leaving the other children high and dry."

Jarrod nodded. "Smart move, but there may be some smarter ones we can talk about later. For now, let's just try to figure Donnie out."

"What do you think he's into?" Dave asked.

"Have you seen the wanted posters around town, on the Woolsey brothers?" the sheriff asked.

"Just did, just now," Dave said.

"Bill Woolsey kidnapped the doctor yesterday and took him to help his brother Jeff, but Bill got away and by the time we got Jeff into town, he was already dead," the sheriff said. "So, Bill's out there on his own but doesn't know Jeff is dead."

"On his own?" Dave asked. "You don't think Donnie's gotten himself hooked up with him, do you?"

"We don't have any evidence of it yet," Jarrod said. "It's just that when the doc took charge of Jeff and Bill ran off, Bill said he'd come for Jeff. We're concerned Bill might hook up with someone to come do the looking for him, and Donnie would be the perfect one for him to hook up with. We all know him, we wouldn't be suspicious."

"Except you are," Dave said.

"Bill and his brother are wanted for armed robbery and murder," the sheriff said. "Bill is a dangerous man."

Dave looked stricken. "What do I do? I don't know what to do. I don't know where Donnie is."

"There might not be much you can do, other than try to patch things up with him and bring him to me if he comes home."

"He said he fell off his horse, but Bill Woolsey might have beaten up on him, to get him to come in or just to give him an excuse to go to the doctor," Jarrod said. "Either way, if he's with Bill, we need to get him away."

"Do you have any idea where he might have taken Bill Woolsey if he's hooked up with him?" the sheriff asked.

"Oh, he had places he went, people he saw," Dave said, "but I just don't even know them. He'd just disappear."

Jarrod and the sheriff looked at each other. They felt for Dave, especially since he didn't know anything about what his son was up to, and neither did they. It just looked like Donnie was in trouble and nobody knew how to help him.

"We can't just comb the countryside for him," the sheriff said.

Jarrod shook his head. "It looks like we just wait, keep the doctor covered, and see who turns up."

"And take care of it," the sheriff said.

Dave said, "Oh, please, don't hurt Donnie. He may be a troublemaker, but maybe this ain't all his fault, maybe he's got nothing to do with this Woolsey. And he's my oldest. Please, don't hurt him."

The sheriff smiled. "We're gonna do our best not to and to see this all comes out good for him, Dave. But if you see him or you hear anything about him, you have to help us. You have to let us know as fast as you can."

Dave Milton nodded and rubbed his forehead. The sheriff and Jarrod looked at each other again. They both fervently hoped that Donnie wasn't involved with Woolsey, but they worried he was.

XXXXXXXX

As promised, Jarrod went back over to the doctor's office after grabbing a sandwich for lunch. Henry was still there – the man that Nick was going to send out hadn't gotten there yet. Henry popped up out of his chair when Jarrod came in, then looked unhappy. "Oh, sorry, Mr. Barkley. I thought you were my relief."

"He'll be along anytime," Jarrod said. "You can go on if you need to, Henry. I can stay with the doc until help comes."

Henry grabbed his hat, saying, "Thanks. I do have to get back to my job. Doc?!"

The doctor came out from his office, saw Jarrod and smiled.

"I'll be leaving now, Doc," Henry said.

"I'll stay with you until somebody else comes," Jarrod said. "I don't have much on my plate today." As Henry went out the door, Jarrod said, "I haven't built my workload back up since that month-long vacation you had me take. I assume you haven't heard anything more from Donnie or from anybody who seemed threatening?"

"No, it's been a quiet morning," Dr. Merar said. And then he sighed. "Maybe this all has been a tempest in a teapot and we won't be seeing Bill Woolsey again."

"If Woolsey were smart, he'd be long gone from here," Jarrod said. "But I don't think he's particularly smart."

Suddenly, a man came in the door, out of breath. Both Jarrod and the doctor recognized him as a man named Farrell, someone who worked at the Belleview ranch. "Doc, we need you right now," he said. "The boss's horse stumbled and fell over on him. The boss looks real bad."

"I'll go with you, Doc," Jarrod said right away. "Farrell, go right over to Sheriff Madden and tell him where we're going, all right? Then meet us at the livery."

"All right," Farrell said and went back out the door.

Dr. Merar went for his bag and his coat, and in a moment he was back. "I have my horse out back in the barn," he said.

Jarrod said, "Mine's at the livery. Let's go get yours and then get mine together. I don't want to leave you alone even for a minute."

The doctor called upstairs to his wife that he was going to the Belleview ranch, and then he and Jarrod went to the barn out back. Dr. Merar saddled up and then followed Jarrod as he hustled to the livery stable for his own horse. Farrell met them there and In minutes, they were headed out of town.

They both figured the call was legitimate, not a ruse put out there by Woolsey, but they were barely two miles out of town before they found out differently. Farrell suddenly kicked into a faster pace and moved far out ahead of them – and Bill Woolsey came out on horseback from the trees off the side of the road. His gun was drawn and pointed right at them.

Right idea, wrong accomplice, Jarrod realized. If Donnie was involved, he wasn't anywhere around now. It was Farrell who had led them into this.

"You let my brother die," Woolsey said.

"He died because he didn't get to me soon e – "

Woolsey shot the doctor without another thought. Dr. Merar crashed down from his horse as Woolsey moved to shoot Jarrod. Jarrod dove fast off his horse, out of the way, drawing his gun, but Woolsey's horse shifted and Jarrod landed on the ground right next to him. Risking getting kicked, Jarrod swung his gun at the front legs of Woolsey's horse. The horse reared, screamed, and Woolsey went down. Avoiding the hooves, Jarrod scrambled toward Woolsey, but Woolsey hadn't lost hold of his gun. They fired at each other, both of them on the ground.

Woolsey was hit and his gun went flying. His horse was still upright. Desperate, Woolsey grabbed the lead, got up into the saddle and took off. Jarrod was fine, and as he scrambled to his feet he took another shot but missed. Woolsey was gone.

And Dr. Merar needed help. He was down in the road. Jarrod ran to him and supported him as he tried to get up. There was a large patch of red on the upper right side of his chest, but he kept saying, "I'm all right, I'm all right."

"No, you're not," Jarrod said. He quickly fetched the doctor's bag from where it hung from the horn of his saddle, and in moments he had a wad of bandage on the wound and the entire shoulder wrapped around and around on top of the doctor's coat and shirt. "I'm getting you back to your office," Jarrod said.

He thanked the doctor for his extra muscles as he lifted the man up into the saddle. The doctor was slumping, but he nodded to Jarrod. "I can make it."

Jarrod got back up onto his horse, and together they took a slow walk back into town. It took nearly half an hour, but the doctor told Jarrod to take it slow so the jostling didn't open the wound further. As soon as they got to town, people came running, frantic at the sight of the only town doctor injured. Jarrod got Dr. Merar to his office and eased him out of the saddle there. By now the doctor couldn't walk. Jarrod didn't wait for help. The extra muscles came in handy again, and he just lifted the doctor and carried him into his office as the sheriff came to open the door.

"Iva!" Sheriff Madden called as Jarrod got the doctor into the treatment room and laid him on the table there.

Jarrod removed the bandage and was getting the doctor's coat and shirt off as the doctor's wife came in.

Iva Merar was not a doctor or a nurse, but she had assisted her husband enough to know how to do some basic things, and she had removed bullets before. She was also very calm in emergencies, even this one that involved her husband. She looked at the wound and then caressed her husband's face. "Darling, this has to come out."

Dr. Merar smiled. "I don't doubt you can do it just fine," he said. "Jarrod – "

Jarrod came closer.

"Can you assist?" Dr. Merar asked.

Jarrod nodded. He'd seen plenty of bullets removed before, even removed one or two himself.

Then Iva and Jarrod got to work. The sheriff went out into the waiting area just in time to see Nick Barkley come in, looking perplexed. "What's going on?"

"The doc's been shot," Sheriff Madden said. "His wife and Jarrod are working on him in there. What are you doing here?"

"I was coming in for supplies and was planning to be the doc's guard for the next few hours," Nick said, worried seriously. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure. I saw them ride out of town with somebody, but nobody came to tell me that he was being called out, like they were supposed to," the sheriff said. "Until I can talk to Jarrod, I won't know who it was came for them. My best guess is that whoever came for the doc was taking him to Bill Woolsey."

"Jarrod's all right?"

"Yeah, he's just helping Iva."

Then they both alternately stood there and paced. The newspaper editor came running in at one point, anxious for the story. The sheriff only told him that the doctor had been shot and they didn't know any more than that yet. After twenty minutes or so, Jarrod came out of the treatment room, drying his hands on a towel.

"How is he?" the sheriff asked quickly.

"Iva's finishing up," Jarrod said. "He looks like he's gonna live, but his right arm is out of commission for a while."

"Was it Bill Woolsey?"

Jarrod nodded. "That fellow named Farrell from the Belleview ranch came in to fetch the doc, saying his boss was hurt. I told Farrell to tell you we were going out, but I'll bet he didn't tell you, did he?"

"He didn't," the sheriff confirmed. "And now I'll bet anything he's not going back to the Belleview ranch."

"We have to go after Woolsey," Nick said.

"It was about two miles out on the south road. I shot him, but it didn't look bad – just an arm wound," Jarrod said. "He took off toward the south. We best get a posse together, Fred."

"Not 'we,'" the sheriff said. "Somebody needs to stay with the doc. Woolsey might circle back."

Jarrod nodded. "Nick, I'll stay here if you can go with the posse."

Nick nodded. "I got an order at the mercantile you can pick up for me after Ross gets here about five. But are you sure you want to stay here? I can stay if you want to go with the posse."

Jarrod shook his head. "I'd rather stay with the doc. We can't be sure Woolsey won't come back here. And if he does come back, I want to be the one with the doctor."

Nick nodded. "All right I take Jingo? He's right outside."

Jarrod said, "Go ahead. He hasn't been ridden hard."

Nick said, "Let's go, Fred," and they left.