The Book
Chapter 5The three men who had left the stage holdup rode hard for a while, but the man who had been shot had difficulty keeping up. The other two came back to join him. Seeing the amount of blood on the front of his shirt they knew that Zander Willis would not be traveling much further today. Rye looked at him carefully. Zander was his older brother – his only brother – he did not want to leave him here to die.
"We gotta do something, Jed, we can't leave him here like this.
They got down from their horses and went to help the third member of their party.
"We need a place to hide out for a few days, somewhere that the law won't find us too easy."
Between them they got Zander from his horse and laid him under a group of scrubby trees.
"I'll go scout around and see what I can find," Jed told the other two, you stay with your brother."
Rye wasn't sure if the man meant what he said or if he was just planning to ride off and save his own hide, after all it had been Zander who had killed the shotgun rider. He wasn't in much of a position to do anything but agree. He turned his attention to his brother, a quick look at the wound in his chest and he knew the bullet was still in there, but it was deep, it would take a Doctor to remove it. He got the canteen from his saddle and also a small bottle of whisky he carried and returned to his brother.
Holding the water to his lips he encouraged him to drink some, and then he gave him a few swallows of the whisky. He sat there for a while regretting the day they ever met up with John Billups. The man had told them he could make them rich, a share of fifty thousand dollars would help any man get a good start in life.
To his surprise it wasn't long before he heard Jed returning.
"About two miles from here there's a small cabin, just some old man living there alone from what I could tell. It would be a good place to hole up until Zander gets back on his feet.
Between them they managed to get Zander up on his horse and headed off to find shelter.
O0O0OAdams woke the next morning feeling rested and refreshed for the first time in weeks. The sun was coming up as he went out to get wood to light the stove and get the coffee pot going. Once the heat started to make itself felt, he positioned the coffee pot and the small skillet he had brought with him. He had an egg or two and a little side meat to cook and that would not take long. He sat at the old farmhouse table and propped his book up so he could read while eating. He realized he was now almost half way through his adventure with Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.
After breakfast he planned to look around and maybe shoot a rabbit or two for tonight's meal. A few days of this life was just what he had needed. He would have to go back tomorrow or the next day, it would be time to remove the sutures he had left in the Marshal. Again he felt bad about leaving town like he did, but he knew that if he had stayed much longer he would have been no use to anybody.
O0O0O0O0O0OKitty opened her eyes as the sunlight was crawling through the lacy curtains. The Marshal had slept well and insisted on getting up and heading out to the office early just to check on things and then promised to meet her for breakfast at Delmonico's.
Matt and Chester made it to the café a few minutes before she joined them. As always the men seemed to have ordered enough food for a whole regiment, but she had no doubt it would all get eaten.
The conversation turned to Doc, Kitty was sure he had gone to visit some of his out of town patients and probably spent the night with one of them, most likely sampling their corn liquor. They were all of the opinion that he would show up tonight at the Long Branch – or maybe here at Delmonico's for supper. Chester remarked that of course there were always one or two of his elderly female patients who were only too happy to fix a whole pot of stew and several pies for the good doctor so he may not be seen eating here for several days after all.
The meal over Matt sent Chester off to the stage depot to see if there was any mail, and then he escorted Kitty back to the Long Branch.
"Seeing as Doc's not in town to keep you in line, you better come by later and let me change that dressing for you," Kitty was serious – but at the same time there was something suggestive in her voice. Matt grinned at her –
"I'll have to see what I can do. Gotta go make rounds and see what mail Chester found for me, I'll catch up with you later." He gently placed one hand in the small of her back as he pushed the swing door of the saloon open for her with the other. She turned and smiled at him.
"Just see to it that you do."
With that she walked through the door and the Marshal set out to check that all was well with the businesses on Front Street.
O0O0O0O0O0ODoc was sitting in the rocker on the dilapidated front porch, the book he was reading resting easily in his hands until sound of horses approaching dragged him away from the pages he was so involved with. He lifted his head and removed his wire-framed glasses to look into the distance and see who it was that had encroached upon his solitude. He made out three riders but did not recognize any of them. For a minute he felt like captain Nemo of the book he was reading. The man had created a great submarine so he could roam the oceans of the planet and thus escape the rest of the world with its torment and instability. He had planned to live entirely without contact to any of the continents or their inhabitants. Then three invaders from the outside world were thrust upon him, potentially ruining his sovereign independence over his underwater world. Doc could understand his chagrin as Professor Aronnax and his two companions were forced to join him.
The three riders got closer and he saw that one of them was not sitting upright in the saddle, but leaning over his horse's neck, the horse in turn was led by one of the other riders. Doc had managed to escape his world for a while, but it looked like the world had caught up with him.
They men pulled up in front of the cabin and one of them got down from his horse and approached the physician.
"My brother here had an accident and he's hurt, we need a place to stay for a few days. We saw your cabin and thought you might help."
Doc looked at the man, he was probably in his late teens, from his clothes he looked like a poor sodbuster, his hat was well worn and from beneath it he could see blond curls. The man he claimed as his brother looked a little older but was dressed in much the same fashion, he had a similar long oval face but sported a sparse light colored mustache on his top lip. From the amount of blood on his shirt, Doc figured he had taken a bullet.
"Bring him on in," he pointed to the door to the second room of the cabin. "There's a spare bed in there, I'm not sure how clean it is, but it'll be better than the floor."
Doc looked at the third man of the trio, he looked a little older than the others and maybe a little more ragged. He didn't say anything, just helped the injured man to the bed.
"Let me have a look at your friend here, I'm Doc Adams from Dodge City, I just came out here for a few days fishing." He started to undo the man's shirt, and found a bad looking wound in the man's upper chest.
"Now why don't you tell me your names and what happened to this man."
The other two men looked at each other not sure what to say.
"I'm Rye Willis and that's my brother Zander. This here is Jed Monroe. Now Doc we don't want any trouble, it was just a huntin' accident, you know how such things can happen."
"Jed I have a job for you," Doc started directing the two young men, "I need you to stoke the fire up in the stove out there and boil me some water, and you Rye, go out to that small barn behind the cabin and you'll find my buggy, under the seat is my medical bag, go get it."
They did as he bid, too scared for the life of the third man not to. Rye returned with the bag and Doc got out his stethoscope to listen to the injured man's chest. He was almost unconscious and had lost a lot of blood. The physician could see that the bullet was deep, it was going to be difficult to remove and he didn't really think the man had much of a hope of surviving. Still in his usual manner he would do his best. He did not believe the story of a hunting accident, but neither did he have the advantage of knowing about the stage hold up.
Jed returned with a kettle of boiling water from the stove and Doc poured some in a small bowl he took from his bag and then threw the instruments he would need in there to soak.
The two boys were not sure what to do. They needed this man's help but suppose he knew about the hold up or maybe someone else showed up who had heard about it. Rye decided to keep a gun handy, maybe they could use the man as a hostage if necessary, but he did need the Doc to fix his brother up. None of them were habitual criminals. Billups had come across them hunting for rabbits. He had been impressed by Zanders' skill with a rifle and decided he could use it to help him get the fifty thousand dollars off of the stage from Dodge. He had never intended to share the money equally with the boys, just give them a few hundred each and they would be happy he thought. Of course he had made them all kinds of promises and explained how it was really their right to have some money for a change after all they had worked hard on the old farm all their lives – they deserved a break and he was going to see that they got it. At least that is what he told them.
Now left to their own devices they did not know how to manage and if truth be told they would rather be back working the farm, something they understood all too well. Now Zander could be wanted for murder and each of the others for attempted stage robbery. Still right now it seemed to be all right, the doctor seemed willing to work on Zander without too much of an explanation.
Doc had started working on the young man, trying to thread the soft probe into his chest to locate the position of the bullet. The man groaned a few times but seemed too weak to do much else. Finally he found it and took the forceps from the bowl to try to grasp and remove it. The process was difficult and tiring, but after a good twenty minutes he managed and was rewarded by the sound made by the forceps and bullet as he tossed them into the bowl with his other instruments . He inspected the wound that was left and cleaned it out with some solution from a small bottle he carried in his bag. He packed the defect as best he could but decided not to suture it close tonight. There was a good chance of infection, and he would only have to remove the stitches tomorrow in order to drain it.
He collected the instruments he had used and after throwing the water from the small bowl out the front door, he filled it again from the kettle and started to clean and dry them.
Rye came up to him.
"What you think Doc, is he gonna be alright."
"Too early to say, son. That's a pretty bad wound."
The boy looked shaken. Doc felt sorry for him in a way. He figured they had been involved in something outside of the law, but also felt that the boy was not bad. He watched as he touched the leather bound book on the table. The boy's fingers lingered over the embossed leather.
"My Ma used to read books like that."
"Do you read?"
"Naw, well not much. Ma tried to teach me and Zander, but we was too busy doing chores around the farm to pay it much mind. Pa said he done fine without all that learnin'. I can write my name though." He added that with great pride.
Doc felt sorry for the young man. He had probably had a hard life and now things were likely to fall apart for him. Further more he had a feeling that if the law caught up with Rye Willis and Jed Monroe, they might be spending some time in prison.
"It might be good if you and your friend could go catch us some meat for supper. Your brother could do with a little broth later. It would help build up his strength."
Doc picked up his book and headed back to the bedroom to check on his patient. He thought he could sit by the bed and maybe read a little more of the adventures of Professor Aronnax and Captain Nemo.
TBC