CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I stopped pacing when Doc came out of his back room. “How is
he?”
Doc sighed. Somehow it was worse than a head-shake. “He’s in
bad shape, Marshal,” he said.
He wasn’t calling me Matt. That was an even worse sign.
“The worst is,” he said, “something’s botherin’ his
breathing. I don’t know what it is. We’ll just have to wait and see if it goes
away. If he lives the next few days, he’ll pull through.”
I felt my throat close. “Aw, Doc…” I croaked.
Doc opened his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I know, I
know.” He patted my arm. “I’ll stay right here with him.”
I balled up my hands into fists and turned to the window.
“Why did I have to send him? Why didn’t I go?”
Doc laid a hand on my shoulder. “Now, don’t blame yourself,
Marshal…”
“I told him to go, didn’t I?”
“Well, yes, but…”
I turned back around. “Can I talk to him?”
Doc shook his head firmly. “No,” he said. “No, Marshal, no.
Not today.”
I nodded, my jaw clamped shut. I bit my lower lip for a
second, then said, “Alright, then, will you tell him this for me? I’m going
after those men, and I’m gonna bring ‘em back. Alive.” I squinted, and I
couldn’t see anything but those two men dragging Chester behind them. They were
outlined in a red haze. “Or at least half-alive.”
I left Doc’s and went into the street. Outside waves of heat
moved back and forth, making things seem unreal. Like Chester lying up there at
Doc’s. That seemed unreal somehow. I walked down to the jail and I went inside
and I sat there for awhile. Then all at once I got up and unbuckled my guns and
I hung them on a peg behind the desk. And I went over to the Texas Trail.
Kitty waved the moment I came in. “I’m over here, Matt.” I
crossed to her. “Sit down,” she said. I did. “Matt, I heard about Chester. How
is he?”
“Doc doesn’t know for sure.”
My voice must have told her more than my words. “Oh.”
“They were in here bothering you. Who were they, Kitty?”
“I never saw ‘em before. One was a kinda weasel-faced man
named Trevitt.”
Trevitt. “And the other?”
“Big man. Real brute. Named Stobo, I think.”
Stobo. Trevitt and Stobo. “I see. What outfit? They say?”
Kitty looked down at the table, thinking, then back up at me.
“Would it be the Crowtrack?”
“Yeah. The Crowtrack’s holding a herd up the river.” My chair
scraped as I stood up.
Kitty stood up too. “Matt – they said that one of their men
had been gunned down here the other night and that you hadn’t done anything
about it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “In a fight with one of Rance’s men. He’s the
one that Doc patched up. I guess, since Rance’s boys moved out, they decided to
take things out on the first lawman they saw.” My eyes regained their focus,
and I looked at her. “Thank you, Kitty.”
She grabbed my arm. “Wait a minute, Matt.”
“Yeah?”
She let go of me and cocked her head. “No business of mine to
ask, but – where’re your guns?”
I looked her in the eye. “It’ve been easier for Chester if
they’d’ve shot him and killed him.”
Kitty stared at me like I’d just come down from the moon.
“But I don’t see – ”
“So I’m not gonna shoot them. If Chester dies, I’ll see them
hanged. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what, Matt?”
“I don’t know. But I’m gonna bring them back. Then we’ll wait
and see.”
“You’re taking an awful chance.”
“Maybe.”
“Oh, Matt,” she said. “Please be careful.”
“Sure,” I said. “Ah, Kitty – look in on Chester once in
awhile, will you?”
“Of course I will. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you, Kitty.”
“But don’t forget, Matt, you owe me breakfast. If you don’t
come back, I’ll never forgive you.” She gave me a weak smile.
I nodded, but I didn’t feel like smiling. “I’ll do my best,”
I said. “So long.”
I left the Texas Trail and walked back to the jail. My horse
was still saddled and ready to go. I walked inside and grabbed a bag of water
and tossed it into my saddlebag.
Just as I was mounting, Shiloh walked up, the kid right
behind him. “Ah, Marshal?”
“What is it, Shiloh?”
“Marshal, I want to ride out after them coyboys with you.”
“I want to go, too,” said the kid.
“No,” I told them. “I’m going alone. But I could use you both
here, at the jail.”
“Here?” asked Shiloh.
“I’m gonna take two prisoners,” I said. “I don’t know when or
how, but they’ll need a jailer when they come in.”
Shiloh said, “So I’ll bring ‘em in with ya, then I’ll…”
“No. That’s something I have to do alone.”
“Marshal, you’re a stubborn man.”
“I also need you to look after the kid.”
“I don’t need lookin’ after,” said the kid.
“Doc can do that,” said Shiloh.
“Doc has enough to do,” I said.
Shiloh thought about it, then said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“Keys are in my desk. I’m going now. Kid, you look after the
jail. I’m leaving it up to you and Shiloh here.”
“Yessir, Mr. Dillon,” said the kid. It gave me a real pang of
guilt and pain to hear Chester imitated so perfectly.
I turned my horse about and got ready to kick my spurs. The
kid came running up to the side of my horse. “Wait a minute, Marshal – you’re
not even armed.”
“I know it, bub.”
“But – how’re you gonna take ‘em without shootin’ ‘em?”
“When I’m through with them, they’re going to wish I’d
brought a gun.” I kicked my spurs. “G’bye.”
