Chapter 7

Dr. Merar had scarcely made it back to town before somebody else from the Barkley ranch was back to get him. This time, for the foreman McCall with a bullet wound to the leg, bleeding badly. With a low groan, the doctor got back into his buggy and hurried to the Barkley house again.

This time he found McCall in the bunkhouse, on his bunk on top of an old quilt that was draped there, another old quilt covering him up while his right leg was exposed. Victoria was with him and had a makeshift bandage around the leg wound. It was heavy with blood, and McCall was only slightly awake. Victoria, Audra and Heath were all with him.

"What happened?" Dr. Merar asked.

"He was shot by somebody trying to steal some of our cattle," Heath said. "He's lost a lot of blood. We can't keep him awake."

"Audra," Victoria said, "run up to the house and tell Nick the doctor is here so he doesn't worry."

"He'll worry anyway," Audra said as she headed for the house. "I'll try to keep him in bed."

"Audra, I'll need hot water and towels," Dr. Merar said

"I'll bring them," Audra said over her shoulder.

Dr. Merar removed the bandage carefully. A little bit of blood still oozed from the wound, but it wasn't too bad. He took a look at McCall's eyes and the pallor in his face. "Heath, can you give him a transfusion?"

Heath started to roll up his sleeve. "You sure it'll work? I'm not sure he's ever needed blood before."

"Nick gave it to him once," Victoria said. "It was fine."

Heath sat down on the next bunk over.

"Victoria, get me another blanket," Dr. Merar said. "The bullet in here has to come out as soon as I get some blood back into him."

They worked proficiently, having done something like this before and more than once. Everyone was virtually silent as the transfusion was done. McCall blinked awake toward the end, but soon the doctor knew he was going to have to put him out when he removed that bullet.

Audra brought hot water, towels and more blankets. A little weak from having given blood, Heath laid himself down on the bunk he'd been sitting on. Then it was just a question of watching while the doctor put McCall under, removed the bullet, then stitched things up. Victoria helped when it came time to bandage the wound up, Audra took the bloodied towels and water away, and then it was done.

The doctor gave a big sigh and finally said, incredulously, "Rustlers?"

"Rustlers," Heath said. "From the sounds of it, Jarrod saw them or heard them. McCall and a couple of our men caught up to him, there was some kind of shooting and Jarrod realized McCall was hit. He didn't even seem to know it."

"Something in the brain will do that to you," the doctor said. "It takes care of you in an emergency, helps you cope with what you need to cope with. I don't want him to move around for a few hours. He should be off his feet for three or four days, even more if this starts bleeding again."

McCall's eyes opened before anyone really noticed. He sighed very softly. Victoria saw it first. "Don't move around, Mac. You don't want to pull that leg wound open."

McCall moaned a little. "It didn't hurt until now," he said weakly. He looked around, taking in where he was. "What happened?"

"Jarrod spotted some rustlers," Heath said. "You and he got shot at."

"Is he all right?"

"Seems so."

"Rustlers?" McCall said.

"Yeah, trying to pick off some of our cattle," Heath said. "You and Jarrod chased them off."

"I wonder how he spotted those rustlers before anyone else did," McCall thought out loud.

"It seems everybody was busy trying to stop the stampede, but Jarrod had been toward the rear of the herd and held back," Heath said. "That's when he saw them."

"How did he know to hold back?" Victoria said.

"Maybe he heard something," Heath said. "Sometimes you hear things before you see them or even know you hear them." But he looked up at his mother. Was this Jarrod seeing or hearing more than anybody else again?

"What's the problem, Victoria?" Dr. Merar asked.

Victoria shook her head. "Yesterday, he heard a cougar no one else heard and saved Nick and another man and a yearling colt. This morning he found a lucky coin Nick had lost and no one noticed. Now, these rustlers – Doctor, he's still saying he doesn't feel like he belongs here. Are these things connected?"

Dr. Merar sighed. "Who knows? Perhaps he's being more attentive because he doesn't feel comfortable where he is."

"Or maybe he's just not as distracted with the regular stuff as the rest of us are," Heath offered.

"Or a bit of both," Dr. Merar said. "In any event, I don't think it's anything to worry about. Like I said, he'll heal, or he'll adjust. And in the meantime, you can thank your lucky stars he's noticing things the rest of you aren't. He saved a lot of cattle, got McCall here taken care of and perhaps even kept anyone else from getting hurt."

Victoria shook her head. "It's so strange, isn't it? He's not himself, and in some ways he's better – but I still want my son back the way he was."

Dr. Merar chuckled and put his hand on Victoria's shoulder. "He'll probably get there, Victoria. Give him time."

Victoria said, "I'd give up a whole herd of cattle to get him back."

"Time, Mother," Heath said. "Time."

XXXXXXX

Figuring Nick would be getting irritated at being left out of everything that was going on, Heath went up to see him as soon as he felt strong enough. Nick was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. He told whoever it was who knocked to come in, so Heath entered.

"McCall is gonna be okay," Heath said on his way over to the bed. He pulled up a chair and sat down.

"What happened?" Nick asked. "Audra didn't know everything."

"I only know what the men who brought McCall in told me," Heath said. "Everything was fine, things were nice and peaceful when all of a sudden something spooked the herd. They spotted a man near the head of the herd, not one of ours. He spooked the cattle and then rode off. Our men were too busy trying to get the herd back under control so he got away. Jarrod was hanging back toward the rear, and the next thing everybody knew, he was after a bunch of strangers who were trying to cut off some of the cattle back there. McCall and another man went back to help him. Shooting started. They got the cattle back and the rustlers took off, but McCall was hit pretty bad in the leg."

Nick let it settle in a bit before he said, "Jarrod again. He might not feel like he's in the right place, but somehow that's where he manages to be."

"It is kinda interesting," Heath agreed.

"Is he back yet?"

"No, he stayed out with the men."

"Took over for McCall?"

"No. Running things ain't his strong suit right now. They left MacLister in charge."

Nick heaved a big sigh. "I gotta get out of this bed."

"Not yet, you don't," Heath said. "We don't need you cramping up out there on the range. Treat yourself right, and you'll only be down for a few days. I'll head out after dinner and see how things are out there, but MacLister is all right."

Nick leveled a gaze at his brother. Heath had a side to him that let him see into people better than Nick could. "What do you think is going on with Jarrod anyway?"

"I don't know," Heath said. "He was pretty sick, and he did leave us there for a minute."

"You don't think he really died, do you?"

"I don't know. I've always heard dying is something you do and you're done. You don't come back from it."

"Something sure got to him. Something spooky."

"Yeah, you said that before. Tell you what, Nick. If it's spooking you that much, maybe you better have another talk with him, see if you can get at what's really bothering him. If he did die and come back – and I'm not saying that's even possible, but if it's something he thinks happened, it might explain why he seems out of sorts. But what the heck is giving him these insights, hearing things we can't hear, seeing rustlers before everybody else does – I don't have any idea. I can only think that for some reason, he's not distracted by the regular stuff in this world."

Nick sighed. "Well, I don't have much else to do lying here, other than trying to figure our big brother out. He's a big question mark sometimes even when he's normal. Now – he's an enigma."

Heath raised his eyebrows. "Enigma? You're the one getting spooky, Nick. You and these big words you're suddenly throwing around."