Chapter 10

Jones and her gang were riding quickly up the road to get into town.

"Giddy up, hey, hoot!"

Nita was at the railway station. She felt so humiliated by her disastrous conversation with the Doctor the previous night, that she couldn't bare to face him again. She had decided that she would prefer to be stuck in this time, than to have to face him again. She approached the station master's window.

"Ma'am."

"How far does the eight o'clock train go?"

"Indooroopilly's the end of the line."

"I'll take a one way ticket."

In the pub, Ace was trying to get the Doctor to drink the coffee, but it wasn't working.

"You want to sober him up in a hurry, miss, you're gonna have to use something a lot stronger than coffee," said the bartender.

"Yeah, what do you suggest?"

The bartender smiled. "Joey! Let's make some wake up juice."

They pulled out several ingredients. The bartender poured a little of everything into a glass.

"In about ten minutes, he's gonna be as sober as a priest on Sunday."

"Ten minutes?" Ace looked at the clock and saw that it was now 7:50. "Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?"

The bartender walked over with the glass of liquid, a funnel, and a clothespin.

"Here, stick this clothespin on his nose, and when he opens up his mouth, go ahead and pour it on down his throat." Ace began to do so. "Oh, and stand back."

Ace poured the liquid through the funnel and for a moment nothing happened. She stood up just in time, because the Doctor's eyes suddenly opened wide, he jumped up, grabbed his throat, and started yelling. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! HOT! HOT!"

He ran out of the pub and dunked his head into the water-filled horse trough. He didn't move. Ace and the bartender ran out after him and looked around, and spotted him by the horse trough. They lifted him out of the water and looked at his face.

"He's still out!" said Ace.

As they dragged the Doctor back into the pub, the bartender said: "Oh, that, that was just a reflex action. It's gonna take a few more minutes for the stuff to really clear up his head."

"Perfect."

Meanwhile, Nita was boarding the train.

In the pub, Ace and the bartender were slapping the Doctor's face, trying to wake him up. Joseph wandered in.

"C'mon, Professor, c'mon…wake up, mate. C'mon, wake up, Professor, c'mon, c'mon."

The bartender noticed Joseph. "Joseph. Wouldn't expect to see you here this morning."

"Aye. But something inside me told me I should be 'ere. As if the future had something to do with it."

Ace turned for a moment and stared at Joseph. Then the bartender spoke, snapping her back to the task at hand.

"He'll come around in a minute."

"C'mon, Professor, c'mon…wake up, now, mate, c'mon."

"ARE YOU IN THERE, MCSHANE?!" Ace looked up out of the window which was on the other side of the room. Jones was outside, yelling into the pub. "IT'S EIGHT O'CLOCK, and I'm calling you out."

Ace yelled out to Jones, "It's not eight o'clock yet!"

"IT IS BY MY WATCH! LET'S SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL, MAID! OR AIN'T YOU GOT THE GUMPTION?!"

Ace pulled out the photo of the tombstone again. It clearly read 'Hear lies Dorothy McShane'. She gulped. "Listen. I'm not really feeling up to this today. So I'm gonna have to forfeit!"

"Forfeit? Forfeit?" Jones turned to one of her gang members. "What's that mean?"

"Uh…it means that you win without a fight."

"Without shootin'? Hey, she can't do that. YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

Ace gulped.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK!? I THINK YOU AIN'T NOTHING BUT A GUTLESS WUSS! AND I'M GIVING YOU TO A COUNT OF 10 TO COME OUT HERE TO PROVE I'M WRONG! 1…"

"Professor! C'mon, sober up, mate, let's go."

"2…"

"You better get out there miss – I got twenty pounds goin' betting on ya so you can't let me down," said an old man.

"3…"

"I got thirty pounds goin' betting against you so don't let ME down," said another old man.

"4…"

"You better face up to to it miss, because if you don't go out there…" said a third old man.

"5…"

"What? What if I don't go out there?"

"You're a coward!" cried the first old man.

"6…"

"And you'll be branded a coward for the rest of your days!"

"Everybody, ever were, will say Dorothy McShane is the biggest wuss in the colony."

Jones couldn't remember what number came next. She looked to her gang members for help. One of them held up seven fingers for her."

"7…"

"Here…" a man slid a gun across the table.

"8…"

"I already got a gun." Ace passed it back to the man.

"9…"

Ace looked at everyone around her and each and every one of them returned the wide-eyed, silend gaze.

"10! DO YOU HEAR ME, MAID?! I SAID THAT'S TEN, YOU GUTLESS, WUSSY PIE SLINGER!"

Ace shrugged. "She's a toe-rag! I don't care what Jones says! And I don't care what anybody else says either."

Just then the Doctor woke up. "Whoa!"

"Professor, Professor, you okay?!"

"I think so…whoa, what a headache!"

"Listen, you got a back door to this place?" Ace asked the bartender.

"Yeah, it's in the back."

"C'mon, Professor, let's go." They moved to leave.

"Are you comin' out here, maid, or do I have to go in there after ya?"

The Doctor and Ace escaped out the back door and went down the stairs into an alley.

"The thing I really miss here is Panadol," said the Doctor.

A gang member wandered over to check the alley and spotted them. "Hey!"

Ace ran back into the pub. The Doctor hid behind some barrels.

"Freeze blacksmith!"

The train wistle blew as the train finally left the station. The bearded man who had been in the pub the night before was sitting next to another man directly behind Nita, who was sitting alone.

"Yessir, that poor bloke last night had the biggest case of broken heart I have ever seen! And when he said that he didn't know how he could live the rest of his life knowing how much hurt he'd caused that little girl? Well, I really felt for him. I did. Right here."