The argument had taken almost half an hour, but the old man won out. Matt hitched a team to a wagon and watched quietly as Doc threw blankets and his black bag into the back. Kitty took Doc's hands in hers.
"Bring him back, Doc...please."
The old doctor exchanged a look with the marshal, then pat Kitty's hands gently. "No matter what, Kitty, we'll bring him home."
Without another word, Adams stepped up onto the buckboard, and a moment later, the two men headed out, not knowing how or where to look, nor what they might find; only knowing that they must try.
Festus tried to move, and was rewarded with a blinding pain in his middle that almost rendered him unconscious. He lie still for a few minutes, allowing his screaming nerve endings a little time to recover. He had to think to remember what had happened, then he carefully looked around for Ruth, but there was no sign of the mule. Haggen glanced down at his leg, and felt nauseous at the sight of the bone protruding at an odd angle out from his upper thigh. He took a deep breath and once again tried to sit up, but the agony only made him scream. Festus lie still, panting heavily from the pain, and knowing in his heart that without help, he'd be dead in a few short hours.
Closing his eyes, Festus said a few words to the Almighty: not for himself, but for the three people he loved the most in the world.