Because Chapter Five is so short, I'm giving you two chapters this evening. Next installment in two more days.

Chapter Five: The Death of a Legend

How do you deal with the death of a legend? Festus Haggen and Newly O'Brien did it by rolling off the train as it approached the next town, commandeering horses, and riding back to the site of the holdup while startled townsfolk tried to get up a posse. They found exhausted, frightened hostages trying to tend to each other, but all traces of Tonneman's gang were gone. Wagon tracks, marred by the passage of many horses, headed south. Leaving the women and children to wait for the posse, Newly and Festus rode on south.

Late in the afternoon they found the wagon abandoned at the side of the road. The woman was dead, shot through the back. The girl, wounded in the shoulder, was unconscious, but alive. Matt's bloody hat lay in the wagon bed. His body was gone. In the fading light, the two men looked in defeat at the tracks of more than a dozen horses headed off in almost as many different directions.

They built a fire and set up camp, Newly doing his best to care for the injured girl while they waited for the posse to catch up with them. A crescent moon rose bright and clear. Stars shone in the prairie sky. Two men sat dejected on the ground, backs against their saddles. They didn't speak and they didn't sleep. Finally as the moon began to set in the still dark sky, Newly asked, "What did Matt mean when he asked you to 'take care of them', Festus. Who did he mean? Doc and Miss Kitty?"

Festus struggled with his throat. The words didn't want to come, and he couldn't get them out without tears. "Naw, Newly. He meant Miss Kitty and the baby – he jus' didn' want Tonneman to hear that there fact. But I knowed. I gived him my word I'd take care of Miss Kitty and the baby."

It was too much. Newly pulled off his hat and smashed it against the ground, "God damn them to hell," he shouted, hitting his fist against his saddle over and over.

Festus moved to him and knelt beside the younger man, catching the fist in both his hands, but releasing it as Newly lifted his hands to cover his face. Festus heard the choked sobs wracking his fellow deputy and laid an arm around his shoulders. "A good man died today, Newly. A good man. Wasn't never better. And tomorrer, why tomorrer you and me we've got to go back and tell his woman that he's dead. It's mighty hard, Newly, but it's what we gotta do."

The posse, led by the sheriff out of Larnad, arrived an hour or two before dawn, twenty strong and with a dozen remounts in their remuda. Dodge City held the nearest medical care, and with fresh horses hitched to the wagon, Newly and Festus headed out for home with the injured girl. It was a slow, sad ride, and neither of them spoke much. The only things that kept them going were the need to get the girl to Doc, and their resolve to be there to support Kitty Russell.

OoOoO

They rolled into Dodge early in the afternoon, and pulled up outside Doc's office. "He'll be with Miss Kitty, Newly," Festus said. "You go'wan and get him and bring him on up t' th' office. I'll take care a' this child."

Festus had never realized how old Doc really was until he saw Newly leading the small man through the crowd beginning to gather in the street. Clothes rumpled, his face drawn in pain, he barely seemed able to take the steps. But there was no question of who was in charge as Doc leaned over to examine the girl and began assembling the instruments he needed for surgery. "One of you call down there and have someone go for Ma Smalley, if they can't find her, get Mollie Parks." He looked up from what he was doing to meet the eyes of the two men standing before him. There was a desperate question in his look that Festus could only answer with a sad shake of his head. "You'll have to go tell Kitty, then. Better to know than not. I've given her all the medicine and all the whiskey she can tolerate in her condition."

Wishing there were anything else on the whole earth that they could do instead, Newly and Festus descended the stairs and headed for the Long Branch. The barroom was full but quiet, and Clem was behind the bar. Kitty's girls were spread out across the room making little patches of color in the solemn, somber crowd. Eyes followed them as the two men trudged resolutely up the stairs and along the balcony. Cora and Lizzie began to cry. Clem turned his back on the room and bowed his head.

Looking through the curtain into the back hall they saw Kitty's door wide open. She had heard them and came stumbling through the doorway, her eyes on Festus standing, bravely, in front. There was no need for words, and although Festus moved quickly it was Sam, coming up behind her, who caught her as she fell.

OoOoO

Doc Adams handled the death of his closest friend by doing what he always did, caring for others. He took a bullet out of the girl that Festus brought up to his office, and set Ma and Mollie to watching the child in turns. He had packed his medical bag and was getting ready to go and spend another night sitting with Kitty when Newly came back into the office.

"Doc," he started, and then broke off.

"What is it, Newly?" Doc asked, "I'm heading over to see Kitty."

"Doc, I have," Newly cleared his throat, "Have a message for you." He stopped briefly and then went on, "From Matt."

Doc's attention was focused intently on the younger man now, "You go ahead and give it to me then, Newly."

"Right at the end. As he was leaving the train. He gave me a message for Kitty, and one for you." Newly said, "He wanted me to tell you he loved you, Doc."

Doc looked down at the floor, sweeping a hand across his moustache, then he looked up into Newly's face, tears pooling in his hooded eyes. "Thank you, son. That means a lot to me. You know that." He nodded once, laid a hand briefly on Newly's arm, and then walked out the door.

But before he headed for the Long Branch he stopped at the bank and took fifty dollars in gold out of an account that held quite a bit more than most folks in Dodge suspected. He took the money to the telegraph office and posted it as a reward for confirmed delivery of his telegram to Frank Reardon up in Montana. He figured fifty dollars would get someone moving up into the hills on horseback without delay. His telegram read only:

MATT DEAD STOP KITTY NEEDS YOU STOP COME AT ONCE STOP DOC