Doc was glad Caleb knew something of their history.“It’s a long story, my friend.But I’m sure Lucas will be happy to answer all your questions while I operate on his mother.”
Lucas frowned but nodded.
“And right now, I need to find my surgical case and valise.”
Sheila jumped up.“I saw them by the fire.I’ll get them.”
She started going out, but Caleb grabbed her arm.“I’ll get Doc’s things.It ain’t safe out there with that Dodger fella on the loose.”
Sheila took the Colt six-shooter out of her pocket and waved it at him.“No worries, Mr.Marlowe.I’m armed.”
Pushing past him, she went out the door.Doc looked in surprise at Caleb.“She’s changed a great deal in the past few years.”
“Past few years?”Caleb scoffed.“This past week.”
But there was pride in his voice, whether he meant to let it show or not.
Waving Doc off, he went out after her.
ChapterThirty-Six
Lucas Fields was staringinto the fire.“I don’t think you need to worry much about Dodger.”
Caleb studied him.The road agent’s face was pale, and he’d obviously taken a pretty good beating, but he was trying to tough it out.He’d done what he was told and been polite to Doc and Sheila.He certainly was not the killer that Caleb had expected to find when he left Elkhorn.Lucas was more like the way the preacher described this gang of outlaws.And he kept frowning anxiously at the shack where his mother was being operated on.
Caleb stretched and flexed his sore arm again.This had been a full day, starting with that tussle with the cougar.
Once Doc went to work on Mrs.Fields, with Sheila at his side helping him, Caleb had gone out to bring Pirate in.He’d climbed the hill to that ledge overlooking the camp and the trail.When he looked down on the camp, the moon was setting, and he decided it was too far for a clear shot with the breeze that had picked up.Piling some rocks on the dead outlaw up there, he retraced his steps to Pirate.After riding the buckskin back to camp, Caleb fed him, watered him, and left him in the corral.
Dead men were scattered hither and yon, so he took out one of the other horses.Throwing a rope around each of the bodies, he dragged them off to where the sheriff lay next to a gravel pile.He lined them up and covered them with stone and dust, thinking that was more than Horner would have done for him and Doc and Sheila.After gathering up all the weapons and stacking them together, Caleb put their horses in the corral and came back to the fire.
He sat with his back to the shack, a Winchester ’73 that had formerly belonged to one of the deputies across his lap.He’d seen no sign of Dodger, but if the gunslinger came riding into the camp, unaware that there had been a fight, he’d be ready for him.
“What makes you think Dodger won’t come back?”he asked Lucas.
“I think he’ll smell trouble and hightail it.I’ve seen the way he handles himself, and he ain’t one to face trouble on his own or head-on.He thinks he’s smart, but he needs someone else telling him what to do.Don’t get me wrong, though.If he’s got a grudge, he’ll gladly shoot you in the back.”
Caleb thought of the man he’d found by the stream with his throat cut.Wendell.He was attacked from behind.And how appropriate that Dodger should work for Horner.Another backstabber.
“If he thinks there’s trouble waiting for him here, where do you think he’ll go?”He was still a killer, and Caleb wouldn’t mind bringing him in to face justice.
“North, probably.He already got what he was owed after this last robbery.He’ll look for another outfit to join up with.”
Doc already told him Mrs.Fields would need some time to recuperate before she could move again.If she survived the operation.
Caleb glanced across the open space at the place where the trail came into the camp.If the killer didn’t stumble in here unawares tonight or tomorrow, he’d feel a little easier about believing Lucas was right.
“You know all this, but you kept him on in your gang.Why?”
“Not kept him on.He was new to our outfit.We’d lost a gun, and we thought it best to bring on somebody for the one last stage we wanted to hit.”
Lucas moved slightly, holding his arm gingerly.Blood had soaked through the bandana wrapped around it.
“Ma had a bad feeling about him as soon as she met him, but we didn’t listen to her.She did the planning things.Me and Wendell ran the men.He was gonna keep an eye on Dodger.”
“From what I heard, your outfit never was big on gunning down drivers and stagecoach guards.Dodger is a killer.”
“I know that now.By the time we figured out we shouldn’t have hired him on, the bodies were dropping.”
