Counterfeit

Chapter 17

Jimmie – the character she had created – spent the next few days hanging around the telegraph office, waiting for a reply or better still for someone to show up. So as not to be too obvious she started carrying packages and bags for people as they arrived on the few stagecoaches that went through the little town daily. It was not a big crossroads and only a few local routes went through there so her self-imposed employment did not pay well. She worried about Mr. Mathews, his leg was all swollen and red and most of the time he was burning up with fever. She didn't forget about Colter's men either, remaining on the lookout for anyone of them who might recognize her.

Somehow Mr. Mathews was hanging on. Sometimes he would be conscious and quite lucid. He had her take his knife and make scratches across the face of the plates he had been carrying – just in case Colter should ever find them. He also told her to keep cleaning the wound in his leg– even if, in a confused state he begged her not to. Maybe he could get enough strength back that they could continue their journey. She never told him about the telegram – indeed she didn't know if anyone would answer it, but she could not give up on this man who had helped her escape from Colter.

It was evening and she was making her way back to the old warehouse that had become home. She glanced behind her as she left the telegraph office and saw a man riding in. He pulled up in front of the small depot and went inside. She knew him, he had been one of her Uncle's men and she had seen him on the train. For a moment she was frozen in her tracks. There was a small alleyway that went behind the office and she decided to hide there until he had gone. Hopefully the old man who was still there in the office, would not give her away.

Colter's man soon left, he did not look like he had found the information he was looking for. She just began to think she was safe when two things happened. From her left – from the west end of town, she saw a buggy approaching. In it were two people – a grey haired man and a lady wearing beautiful clothes and a fashionable hat. She remembered her mother dressing like that. She wanted to run out and meet them, but looking the other way she saw another young man walking towards the office – he was the man who had been there the first evening she had come into town, the one who sent the telegram for her. The buggy pulled up in front of the office, Colter's man was about to mount up on his horse, if she went out there now he would see her for sure, but she didn't want all these people to meet up.

Deciding to risk all, she played her self-created role to the very best of her ability. It was her only option.

-XX-

The train ride to St. Louis had not been unpleasant except that both of them were worried about what they might find when they got there. Barney had been very good about telling them the location – as near as he knew it – of the small stagecoach depot and telegraph office about fifteen miles east of town.

Immediately on arrival, Kitty and Doc had rented a small wagon and set off along the only road leading in the direction they needed to go. Having inquired from the few local inhabitants they met along the way, they finally arrived at the somewhat dilapidated building that was the stage depot and telegraph office. Of course they still had to find Jimmie Mathews and hopefully Matt Dillon. Doc was preparing to step down from the wagon when some young scruffy boy came running towards them.

"Can I unload your bags, ma'am?" Kitty noticed he came running up to her side of the wagon, to her other side she watched as a man stopped to look at them for a moment before mounting his horse. The boy had his head down in the buggy as if he was pulling out bags.

"I'll set everything out and watch it till your stage gets in," he went on.

Kitty started to protest, but the look he gave her told her to go along with it.

"Well I guess that will be all right."

The boy pulled out two small bags and went to set them in front of the office. The man on the horse watched for a minute and then rode off.

The boy turned to look at them both. Kitty looked harder at the young boy. Saw his delicate features and smooth hands. It didn't all add up.

"What's your name?" she asked, looking in her reticule as if to find some coins.

"Jimmie Matthews, Ma'am." Kitty noticed he did not remove the old felt hat. At last he seemed to make up his mind.

"Are you friends of Mr. Matthews?"

"Could be." It was Doc who answered.

"Doctor Adams and Kitty," the boy said in relief. "I'm sorry Miss Kitty, Mr. Matthews never did tell me your last name.

"Maybe you should take us to him."

"We have to be careful, that was one of my Uncle's men. He's looking for us."

Doc had not looked closely at the boy. "Well jump up here young Jimmie and take the lines, show us around the town till he gets tired of following us."

Fortunately the cowboy was riding away in the opposite direction, and did not show any interest in them at all. Jimmie climbed up in the buggy and managed to squeeze between Kitty and Doc. Doc was surprised how frail the boy seemed to be for a kid of his age, he was light on his feet too, more nimble than he would expect a young teenage boy to be. He put the thought out of his mind as he handed over the lines and released the brake. Ginny had only rarely driven a buggy, but figured that now was not the time for explanations. He did the best he could, guiding the horse between the maze of warehouses. When he finally got to the one that they were using he pulled over to let the two people off then he jumped down and pushed on the rusty metal door.

Ushering everyone inside he closed the door back and lit the single candle he had managed to find out back of the telegraph office.

"Mr. Mathews," he called softly, "your friends are here." He got no answering response. He led them over to the staircase beneath which the man lay.

"Oh my God." Kitty's hands flew to her mouth, "Doc?"

"Now hang on Kitty." The physician was already on his knees beside the big man. He opened his medical bag and took out the stethoscope and Ginny watched as he pulled back the old coat and ripped open the shirt to listen to the man's heart and lungs. "It's his leg," she told him urgently, "there's a bullet in it." She really didn't want to watch as he undid the bandage she had applied that morning – the wound had looked so bad. "I need to go find a place for the horse and buggy – we can't leave it out there in case they come looking for us."

Doc was too intent on his work to pay much attention. He was getting frustrated because the flickering light from the candle was not enough for him to work by.

Even before he had the bandage removed Doc could feel the heat coming from the leg. He looked over at Kitty, she was kneeling by the Marshal's head, pushing the damp dark curls back from his forehead.

"It's bad, isn't it?" she looked the physician squarely in the face. He swiped his mustache and bent his head, just nodding in reply. There was silence for a few moments.

"We've go to get him out of this filthy place, I daren't cut into that wound here, and I need to operate soon. That bullet's been in there too long already."

Both of them stared towards the big rusty door when they heard a noise – but it was only the boy returning.

He came and joined the little group in the small circle of flickering light from the single candle. Sitting on the floor between them, he removed the old felt hat from his head and long dark tangled hair fell down past his shoulders. The face looked from Doc to Kitty, then tears began to roll down the grubby cheeks.

"I did everything I could. I didn't know…" at this point she threw her arms around Kitty's neck and sobbed. Kitty realized that this was no young boy.
"Doc..?"
He just nodded.

"Suppose you start at the beginning young lady," he said in a softer version of his usually gruff voice.

Kitty passed her a small handkerchief and the girl wiped her eyes and recovered her composure. "I'm sorry, I just was so scared he'd die and Mr. Colbert would find me. I couldn't go back." She took a big breath and then told them the story from the time Mr. Matthews had arrived at her Uncle's mansion.

Doc got up from the floor and paced for a few minutes, then he seemed to make up his mind.

"Ginny, we have to get out of here, I have to find somewhere cleaner to take the Marshal so that I can get that bullet out of his leg. If I don't do it soon he.. well at best he could lose his leg.

"I never knew he was a Marshal, he never said so."

"Can you think of somewhere we can take him?"
"He wouldn't go to a doctor's office or a hospital– although I don't think I have seen one around here – he said that was the first place Colter would look."

"Kitty, there must be a Marshal's office in St. Louis maybe we can get some help from there."

Their conversation was interrupted by a low moan from the man lying on the dirty mattress. Doc was there immediately.

"Matt it's Doc, can you hear me?"
"Doc? How..?" The effort of the two words seemed to exhaust him.

"Don't worry about that now, I need to get you out of here." But the marshal didn't seem to hear him. He'd fallen back into that confused fevered state he'd been in when they found him.

They fell into a tense silence, Doc reaching for Matt's wrist from time to time, checking his pulse and also his forehead for fever.

"We really don't have a lot of time, if we could just get him up off of this dirty floor. I have to get that bullet out."
It was about then that there was a scratching noise coming from an even darker corner of the warehouse. Something scurried between them. Kitty had worked around waterfront towns on the Mississippi before – she recognized rats when she heard them. Ginny jumped up in fear and began jumping around.

"They did that the other night, one of them ran right over here. I could see it in the light from the candle, I ran up onto the steps there."

Doc looked up at the stairs. "What's up there?"

"It looks like it was once an office or something. The stairs aren't too steady though."

Doc got up and carefully started up the stairway, taking their only source of light with him. A couple of the treads had rotted out, but by being careful he made it to the top. With some trepidation he turned the handle and opened the door. Indeed the room did look like it had once been an office. There was a long trestle table in the middle that took up most of the room. On one end of it sat an oil lamp so dirty that even if you lit it, no light would penetrate the layers of grime on the chimney. There were two old filing cabinets, some discarded papers on the floor and in one corner a very old stove. The table would be good if they could get it down the stairs – at least he could get Matt up off of the floor and maybe when daylight finally came he could remove that bullet. He went across to the table and tested it seeing how heavy it was, his heart fell – there was no way they could move it, the stairs would give way if they tried to take it down to the warehouse floor.

They had to leave now.

"Anything useful up there Doc?" called Kitty as he started back down again.

"No, nothing we can use." His voice echoed around the empty building. "We need to leave before daylight. I'll bind Matt's leg as best I can and we'll get him in the back of the wagon. If we make camp somewhere outside of town, it will be better than this."

TBC