Lucas groaned, and Doc immediately knelt beside him, inspecting the extent of the young man’s injuries.A bullet was still embedded in the arm, but the bone didn’t appear to have shattered.His nose was bent at a bad angle, and his eyes were already swollen shut from the blows delivered to his face.And this was only what he could see.At least he was alive.
“Lie still,” Doc murmured, more gently than he intended.But outlaw or not, the boy was someone’s son.
“Well, Doc,” Horner said over his head.“Glad to find you here.”
He pushed to his feet and looked into the man’s foul face.“I wish I could say the same.”
The sheriff hitched up his trousers.“We come all the way out here to save your hide, and that’s the thanks we get?”
“I heard you out there, and the way I see it, you came out here to line your pockets.”
“You ain’t got no call saying that, Doc.We’re here to rescue you and recover stolen property.”He spat on the floor again.“But it sounds like you don’t trust me.”
“I wouldn’t trust you to recover a pig’s ear from a privy hole.”
A dangerous look came into Horner’s eye, but Doc was beyond caring about that.He hadn’t trusted this man from the first moment he met him.
He scoffed at the tin star on the man’s chest.“Don’t you think you should throw that thing away if you’re done serving the law?”
“What makes you think the judge ain’t sent me?”
He motioned to Dodger.“You’re standing next to this deranged pup, for one thing.”
The young killer took a threatening step toward Doc, but Horner put his arm out, stopping him.
“So you’re here.You have your outlaw.”Doc gestured to Lucas, lying nearly unconscious at his feet.“What else do you want?”
Horner took a step to the side to look at Mrs.Fields.Doc so hoped the woman was doing a good job pretending to be asleep.
The sheriff turned to Dodger.“He don’t know?”
The young outlaw shook his head.“Don’t think so.”
“I don’t know what?”Doc asked.
Horner nodded toward the woman.“You know who she is?”
“They told me she was a passenger on the stagecoach.She was wounded when these cowards robbed it.”
Horner exchanged a look with Dodger, who was glaring at Doc.He clearly didn’t like being called deranged or a coward.
“Did you fetch my surgical instruments from the house?”
“They’re outside.How about you and me go out and fetch them together?”
“Never mind that,” Horner snapped, asserting his authority.He moved toward the cot.“I need to talk to her.”
“This woman is doing very poorly.In fact, she’s dying.That’s why I sent this one and his friend to Elkhorn for my supplies.If I don’t operate, she might not live even two days.”
“I don’t care if she don’t live two minutes.I need to talk to her.”
“Why?”
“That ain’t your concern.”
Doc frowned at the man.“Well, it’s not possible.My patient has been enduring tremendous pain, so I gave her all the morphine I had left.”
He took the empty bottle from his pocket, showing it to him.
