Beloved Physician (22 page)

“He deserves it.”

Rosemary glanced at Cassandra again, then looked at Greg. “I think she’s ready to be taken home now, where she can lie down and rest.”

Greg found Cassandra looking at him in a loving manner. He felt a tingle slither down his backbone. “I’ll take you and Rosemary both home in the wagon I was driving.”

She flashed him a warm smile. “All right. We both really appreciate it.”

Greg rose to his feet with Cassandra in his arms, thanked the people who were still gathered around for their kind words, then headed for his wagon. Carrying the package that contained her new dress, Rosemary followed.

At the doctor’s office, Dr. Dane finished stitching up the gash in Claude Yardley’s head, and he and Tharyn wrapped his head with gauze. He was lying on his right side on the table.

Dr. Dane looked at Marshal Jake Merrell. “Okay, you can take him now.”

Yardley glared up at the marshal. “Take me where?”

“You’re under arrest for putting Cassandra Wheatley’s life in danger, Yardley. Deputy Len Kurtz and I are taking you to the town jail for now, and within a day or two, you’ll face one of the Gilpin County judges for your deed.”

Yardley’s beefy face twisted in fury. “What’re you talkin’ about? I never hurt that girl!”

Merrell scowled at him. “No, but you put a gun to her head. And if the man who bashed you on the skull hadn’t done so, you might have killed her. You’re going to spend some time behind bars, mister. It’ll be up to the judge just how long.”

Yardley’s features reddened. Before he could make the angry retort that was forming on his lips, Merrell interrupted. “You give me any trouble, mister, and you’ll be plenty sorry. The judge will
add length to your sentence in the county jail if I tell him you resisted arrest.”

Deputy Kurtz said, “Better cool down, Yardley. Believe me, you don’t want Marshal Merrell getting any more put out with you than he is already.”

Merrell said, “Might as well tell you this too, pal. I extracted ten dollars from your wallet to pay Dr. Logan for stitching you up and bandaging your head.”

Yardley gave the marshal a hateful look but did not reply. A plan was forming in his mind. It would take some things falling into place for him, but he was devising a way to get away from the lawmen when they were taking him to Central City’s jail.

Dr. Dane looked at Merrell with a smile. “I didn’t know you had been a deputy marshal under Chief U.S. Marshal John Brockman. He and I are good friends.”

Merrell smiled back. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. I was with Chief Brockman for over five years, then decided to take a lawman’s job that would not require the traveling that being a federal deputy does.”

“Mm-hmm. I can understand that. And I’ll say this, Jake. The way you drew your gun and beat Belton to the draw when he already had his hand on his gun, tells me that you were trained by the man who used to be known as the Stranger. There’s never been a man who was able to match his speed and accuracy, whether it was just a friendly fast-draw contest, or some hotshot gunslinger like Waco Belton who challenged him because he wanted to make a name for himself.”

Deputy Len Kurtz chuckled. “Yeah, every one of those hot-shots who challenged John Brockman made a name for themselves, all right—on a grave marker or a tombstone.”

Claude Yardley scowled up at Kurtz. When Marshal Merrell’s tight gaze fell on him, the scowl disappeared.

The marshal turned to the doctor and grinned. “Doc, I’m
mighty proud to say that it was Chief Brockman who taught me how to fast-draw.”

“When Tharyn and I take Nelda and Eric Cox over to Denver to do Nelda’s surgery, we’ll no doubt see John and Breanna. I’ll tell the chief that he taught you well.”

Jake smiled. “Please tell the chief and Mrs. Brockman hello for me.”

“We both will, Marshal,” spoke up Tharyn.

The marshal said, “Well, Doc, we can take our prisoner and go, can’t we?”

“Sure can. We’ve got a bunch of people out there in the waiting room to see.”

Kurtz frowned. “Yardley can walk, can’t he, Doctor?”

Dr. Dane nodded. “Should be able to. I don’t think you’ll have to carry him now that he’s awake.”

Tharyn said, “I’ll go out and bring in whoever’s first on the list, darling.”

“Okay.”

Yardley looked up from the table. “I—I ain’t near ready to walk by myself. You two guys will have to help me.”

“We can do that,” said Merrell.

“Should we put him in cuffs, Marshal?” asked Kurtz.

“Don’t think we need to, Len. He’ll be hanging onto us as much as we’ll be hanging onto him. Let’s go.”

Yardley smiled secretly to himself. So far his scheme for making his escape was working perfectly.

As the lawmen were half-carrying a shuffling Yardley through the examining room door, Dr. Dane said to her, “Honey, Charlie Holmes handed me a telegram just before I followed the rest of you in here. It’s from John Brockman, but I laid it on your desk. I’ve got to wash this blood off my hands. Will you bring it to me, please?”

“John Brockman, hmm? Sure will. Wonder what it’s about.”

“Don’t know, but it’s got to be important.”

“I’ll get it right now, then go back for the first patient.”

Dr. Dane was drying his hands at the washbasin when Tharyn returned with the yellow envelope. “Three of the patients left, darling: They told the other two to let us know that they had things they had to do, but they will be back later. We still have two women out there to see. Here’s the telegram. Be back in about three minutes.”

Dane took the envelope and started opening it. “Okay. See you in three minutes.”

In exactly three minutes, Tharyn returned alone. “Sarah Bradley will be first, honey. I checked the burn on her hand, and it’s looking much better.”

Dane was placing the telegram back in its envelope. “Good.”

“I thought I’d see what the telegram is about before I bring her back.”

“Chief Brockman learned from Breanna’s brother-in-law, Dr. Matt Carroll, that you and I are coming to Denver on Monday in preparation to do the hip replacement surgery on Nelda Cox on Wednesday. He and Breanna want us to stay with them at their place in the country while we’re in Denver, instead of the Brown Palace Hotel.”

“Well, that’s nice of them.”

“Sure is. And John says Eric is welcome to stay with them, as well. They have a second spare bedroom he can stay in.”

“I’d love to stay with John and Breanna.”

“Me, too. We’ll tell Eric what John said in the telegram and encourage him to stay with the Brockmans.”

“I’m sure he will take John up on the offer,” said Tharyn. “Well, I’ll go bring Sarah in.”

As Marshal Jake Merrell and Deputy Len Kurtz were half-carrying Claude Yardley along the boardwalk toward the marshal’s office and jail, people stared at Yardley with acrimonious eyes. One man
focused on the bandage that was wrapped around Yardley’s head and commented to the man next to him, “He deserved that clout on the head. Too bad Greg didn’t hit him harder.”

Yardley heard it, but his mind was fixed on creating a way to escape. He acted as if he were weaker than he really was and leaned heavily on the lawmen as he shuffled along the boardwalk.

As they crossed the street, Yardley looked up into the next block and saw the sign at the far end that read:
Marshal’s Office and Jail
. He knew he had to think fast.

Suddenly, Yardley saw the chance he had been hoping for. Just ahead, in front of the hardware store, a small group of people were collected and looking toward him and the lawmen as they moved slowly down the boardwalk. One man was bending over to help a little boy tie a shoestring. On the man’s hip was a holstered revolver. The handle seemed to be inviting Yardley to grab it and make his escape. If he timed it right, he could grab the gun, then snatch up the child, and put the gun to his head like he had that brunette girl. His horse was too far down the street, so he would take one that was tied at the hitch rail close by, and ride out of town with the boy as his hostage.

As they drew up to the spot, Yardley purposely stumbled, made it appear that he was falling, and caused the lawmen to lose their hold on his arms. He adeptly got his legs under him, quickly grabbed the gun from the man’s holster, then sank the fingers of his free hand into the boy’s shirt and yanked him close.

The boy’s father reacted quickly. He snatched his son from Yardley’s grasp and swung a fist at his face. The blow glanced off Yardley’s jaw and at the same time, Yardley angrily snapped back the hammer, meaning to shoot the man.

Suddenly a shot rang out and Claude Yardley collapsed, dropping the gun. The little boy was wailing in terror and his mother quickly folded him into her arms.

Everyone on the boardwalk looked on in shock as Marshal
Jake Merrell moved toward the fallen man, his gun smoking. Len Kurtz was instantly beside the marshal. As Merrell picked up the revolver Yardley had dropped, he said so all could hear, “He’s dead.”

Merrell handed the gun to its owner and holstered his own weapon. “Ralph, I’m sorry about this. The guy made Len and me think he was almost totally immobile. He just surprised us.”

Ralph put an arm around his wife, who was consoling the frightened child. “It’s all right, Marshal. You handled the situation quite well. This guy won’t be putting anyone else in danger … ever.”

At the doctor’s office, Dr. Dane and Tharyn were working on their second patient in the examining room when the sound of the gunshot echoed down the street. The heads of all three came up, and the woman said, “Oh no. More trouble.”

Dr. Dane had just lanced a boil on the woman’s arm and was squeezing it to make it drain. “Can’t stop to go see what happened. We’ll just have to wait a few minutes till I get this done.”

Ten minutes later, the bandage was on the woman’s arm as Dr. Dane and Tharyn were walking her to the office. When they stepped into the office, they saw people moving by on the street from the direction of the gunshot. Dr. Dane stepped out the door and called to a man who was drawing near. “Albert, do you know what that gunshot was all about?”

Tharyn and the woman moved to the door so they could hear what was being said.

The man hauled up and nodded. “Yes, Doctor. That no-good who put the gun to Mabel’s niece’s head just tried to get away from Marshal Merrell and Len as they were taking him to the jail. He grabbed a gun from Ralph Stanley’s holster and tried to nab little Joey and take him as a hostage. Ralph punched him, and just before
the guy could shoot Ralph, the marshal shot and killed him.”

Dr. Dane breathed a sigh of relief. “So nobody else is hurt?”

“Right.”

“Okay, Albert. Thanks.”

When Albert was gone, the woman with the bandage on her arm paid Tharyn and left. Dane had already gone to the back room.

Since there was no one else in the office, Tharyn hurried to the back room, where her husband was cleaning up the table.

Tharyn rushed up and threw her arms around him.

Dane pulled her close. “Mm-mmm! I love the hug, but is it for something special?”

“Yes! I haven’t had a moment alone with you since we came back from the first shooting incident. When I heard that Waco Belton trying to get Jake to draw on him and saw you standing close to Jake, my heart almost stopped. I’m just so relieved that nothing happened to you. I couldn’t very well hug you like this with people looking on, so now you’re getting your hug!”

He squeezed her tight. “Good! I’ll take all the hugs I can get.” He held her tight for a moment, then released her. He kissed her tenderly. “I’ll leave the rest of the cleaning up to you, sweetie. I’ve got to look in on Mike Anderson right now.”

Mabel Downing was on her front porch, watching for her niece and Rosemary to come down the street with Greg Holton. She was wondering what the second gunshot from over on Main Street meant when her eye caught sight of the Holton Coal Mine wagon coming around the far corner.

As the wagon came closer, Mabel saw Cassandra sitting on the seat between Greg and Rosemary. She left her chair, moved down the porch steps, and made her way toward the wagon as Greg pulled it to a halt.

“Did you children hear that gunshot just a minute ago?” asked Mabel.

Greg jumped down from the seat. “We did, Mrs. Downing. We don’t know any more than you do about it.”

Greg lifted Cassandra from the seat carefully and set her down. Mabel wrapped her arms around Cassandra and started weeping. Rosemary was holding on to her package while Greg helped her down.

As Greg and Rosemary moved up to Mabel and Cassandra, Mabel let go of her niece and wiped tears with both hands. “Walt and Myra Stockton came home a few minutes ago and told me about the shooting that took place in front of Wortman’s store. They saw the whole thing. They told me about the gunslinger who challenged Marshal Merrell and about his accomplice who grabbed Cassandra and put a gun to her head. They also told me what you did, Greg. What a brave thing to do. The Stocktons wanted to let me know that Cassandra was unhurt. They also told me that you two were bringing her home.”

Mabel sniffed and looked at her niece. “Are you all right, my dear?”

In a feigned, shaky voice, Cassandra replied, “Oh, Auntie Mabel, it was just awful. I’ve never been so frightened in all my life.”

Greg moved up and put an arm around Cassandra’s shoulder.

She took hold of his hand for effect. “Greg is my hero, Auntie Mabel.”

Mabel smiled at Greg. “Yes. I can understand why. He might very well have saved your life. I commend you, Greg, for your courage and quick thinking.” She looked at her niece. “Cassandra, you look a bit peaked. Let’s get you in the house so you can lie down.”

Greg put loving eyes on Cassandra. “Do you feel like walking up the porch steps, or should I carry you?”

Cassandra would take full advantage of his attention. She gave him a weak smile. “Maybe you’d better carry me.”

Greg chuckled and picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

Rosemary said, “Cassandra, I need to go on home. I’ll check on you later.”

Cassandra smiled at her. “Okay. Come on over whenever you can.”

Mabel said, “Greg, take Cassandra on in the house and put her on the sofa in the parlor. I’ll bring something in to refresh her in a few minutes.”