Somehow he had to keep her strong enough to stay alive.But his options were limited.He had no broth.Nothing but some dry biscuits and water and coffee.
During the past days, he’d been soaking the hard biscuits in cold coffee to soften them.He gave her a bit at a time whenever she came around.Since she was awake, he wanted to give her something stronger to help stretch the effect of the laudanum.
He crossed the room again and picked up the bottle of brandy Lucas had been drinking from earlier.
“Tell these fellas exactly what you need out of your house.”
The young outlaw’s voice startled him.Doc whirled and found Lucas at the door, flanked by two others.They were the same gunslingers who’d been waiting for him and the miner outside of town.The younger man was the one who’d shot and killed Smith with no more feeling than if he’d knocked a bottle off a fence post.
Doc stole a glance at his patient.Her eyes were closed.
Smart woman, he thought.She knew she was safer pretending to be unconscious.
The older road agent spoke up.He was shorter and thinner than the other and had a face like a hawk.“What do you need?And where would we find it?”
Doc calculated how long it would take them to return to Elkhorn.They’d be mainly traveling in the dark and would more than likely arrive at his house before dawn.But even if they got there later, it was unlikely they’d find his housekeeper there.Without having to prepare meals for him, Mrs.Lewis didn’t come around when he was away.
He took a notepad and the stub of a pencil from his coat pocket and wrote down his list.
“Here are the things that I need,” he said, tearing off the page.
Lucas took it and handed it to the older man.“Can you read that, Wendell?”
The hawk-faced gunman looked at it and nodded.
“Take my bag.”Doc picked up his leather valise and put the empty bottles back in.With his back to them, he pushed his surgical instruments farther under the cot with his foot.“Don’t bring the large bottles in my office.I don’t want them broken in transit.Only fill these bottles.”
Wendell took the medical bag from him.
“Where’s your house?”
“You know already.”Doc had no doubt these two had been watching Smith from a distance when he came to Doc’s door.The man’s nervousness spoke of it.
“Tell us again.”
“First lane off Main Street as you go into town.The only house with a porch out front.”
As the two men turned and went out the door, Lucas went after them.
Doc peered out the front door and watched the young outlaw speaking fiercely to each man.When he was finished, they nodded and walked away.
Turning back to his patient, he saw the women’s eyes were once again open.
“Well, that kid Lucas is, no doubt, in charge of this outfit,” he told her.“Let’s get you better.I think, between the two of us, we can handle him.”
ChapterFourteen
Caleb movedtoward the sound of shooting until he reached a bend in the trail formed by an outcropping of solid rock.From here, he still couldn’t see the gun battle, but the sound of rifle fire was loud and close.Any farther and he’d be smack in the middle of things.
That wasn’t what he had in mind.
He looked around, considering his options.Since midday, the trail had been winding in and out along the rugged hillside.Its path had been dictated by the contours of the land as well as by shale and brush and rocks jutting up from grassy areas.These boulders varied in size, some of them as big as a barn.To his right, the land rose sharply into a forest of firs and brush, cutting off his ability to see more than a few paces.To his left, the slope beneath the trail dropped away quickly, so steep that he looked down on the tops of full-grown trees.
Unless he wanted to backtrack for miles and find another way through the pass, Caleb realized, he wasn’t going to get around this confrontation easily.
“Best find out what this is all about,” he muttered to himself.To do that, the only way would be to get to a place above the shooting where he could see what was going on.
Turning away from the gunfire, he moved back the way he came until he found a spot where he could leave the trail.Scaling a steep embankment, he began his climb through groves of evergreen and worked his way through patches of thick brush and rock.His boots often slipped on patches of gravel or fir needles.The going was made more difficult because he was carrying his Winchester and had only one hand free.
