Part 31 (1/2)

”Jim, a doctor's place is where he's needed.”

”I left a twenty dollar gold piece in your medicine chest for the stuff I took.”

”You go to h.e.l.l!” The Doctor pulled a handful of money from his pocket and threw a double eagle at Laramie. ”There's your gold piece.”

”Belle, look at them fellows,” exclaimed Sawdy moodily, ”pockets loaded. I never had more than twenty dollars at one time in my life.

My mother told me to take care of the pennies and the dollars would take care of themselves. The blamed dollars wouldn't do it. I took care of the pennies. I've got 'em yet--that's all I have got. Jim, I'll match you for that gold piece.”

”Gamblers never have a cent,” commented Belle darkly.

”That gold piece,” explained Laramie, ”is not my money, Harry. It's Carpy's money and he'll keep it if I have to make him swallow it.”

”That's not the question,” declared Carpy. ”Did you get what you wanted?” Laramie told him he did. ”And by the great Jehosaphat,”

added the doctor, ”you b.u.mped into Kate Doubleday!”

”What else did you expect?” retorted Laramie, not pleased at the recollection.

Carpy, throwing back his head, laughed well: ”After Kate Doubleday told me she was going for the dressings herself, I says to myself, 'There'll be two people in my house tonight--a man and a woman--I hope to G.o.d they don't meet.'”

”Jim,” intervened Belle, ”you ought to get Abe Hawk to a hospital.”

”He's got to get him to one,” affirmed Lefever. ”I've seen that man,”

he added emphatically, ”I know.”

”How's he going to do it,” inquired Carpy, ”without starting the fight all over again?”

Lefever stuck to his ground: ”Get him down to Sleepy Cat in the night,”

he insisted.

”Can he ride?” asked Sawdy.

”He may have to have help,” said Laramie.

”There's a moon right now. They'd pick you off like rabbits,” objected Sawdy, ”and they've got that whole trail patroled to the Crazy Woman.

They're watching this town like cats. You'll have to waste a lot of ammunition to get Abe to a hospital.”

”From all I hear,” observed Carpy, ”if Abe gets any more lead in him you won't need to take him to the hospital. He'll be ready to head straight for the undertaker's.”

”We've got to wait either for a late moon or a rainy night; then we'll get busy,” suggested Lefever.

”He might die while you're waiting,” interposed Carpy.

Lefever could not be subdued: ”Not as quick as he'd die if Van Horn's bunch caught sight of him on the road,” he said sententiously. ”We'll get him down and he won't die, either.”

”Well, pay for your supper, boys, and let's get away,” said Carpy. ”I want some sleep.”

But for Lefever and Sawdy there was little sleep that night. The echoes of the ”fatal” shot--almost fatal, as it proved, to the prestige of the enemy--were being discussed pretty much everywhere in Sleepy Cat and wherever men that night a.s.sembled in public places, Sawdy and Lefever swaggered in and out at least once. The pair looked wise, spoke obscurely, looked the crowd, large or small, over critically, played an occasional restrained and brief finger-tattoo on the b.u.t.ts of their bolstered guns and listened condescendingly to everyone that had a theory to advance, a reminiscence to offer, or a propitiating drink to suggest.

Wherever they could induce him to go, they dragged Laramie--at once as an exhibit and a defi; but Laramie objected to the thoroughness with which his companions essayed to cover the territory, and unfeelingly withdrew from the party to go to bed. Sawdy and Company, undismayed by the defection, continued to haunt the high places until the last sympathizer with Van Horn and Company had been challenged and bullied or silenced.

But the differing sympathies on the situation in Sleepy Cat were not to be adjusted in a single night, either by force or persuasion. The whole town took sides and the cattlemen found the most defenders. What might be designated, but with modesty, as ”big business” in Sleepy Cat stood stubbornly, despite the violence of their methods, with Van Horn, Doubleday and their friends; the interest of such business lay with the men that bought the most supplies. The banks and the merchants were thus pretty much aligned on one side. The surgeon of the town professed neutrality--at least as regarded operations--for he was needed to administer to both factions. Harry Tenison, as dealer of the big game in town and owner of the big hotel, was of necessity neutral; though men like himself and Carpy were rightly suspected of leaning toward Laramie, if not even as far as toward Abe Hawk. The open sympathizers of the Falling Wall men were among trainmen, liverymen, the clerks, the barbers and bartenders, and those who could be usually counted as ”agin the government.”