When they limped into the settlement less than half an hour later, townspeople noticed the bloodstained, weary figures right away and hurried over to help.
“This boy needs a doctor,” Luke rasped.
“So does my pa,” Aaron said. “He took an Apache arrow through the arm.”
One of the townies exclaimed, “Apaches! Where’d this happen, mister?”
“About five miles east of here,” Luke explained. When he saw the worried glances the citizens exchanged, he added, “But we wiped out the war party that jumped us. You don’t have to be concerned about them raiding the town.”
That seemed to ease the minds of some of the settlers but not all of them. Still, they put that aside for the moment and two men took over the job of helping Thad to the doctor’s office, which was located on the opposite corner from the bank. Luke glanced at that edifice as they went past it. The gold shipment that had been in there was gone now, steaming downriver on a paddle wheeler. The town was safe from an outlaw threat that they hadn’t even known existed.
The medico was a short, stocky man with rumpled gray hair and spectacles. Watery blue eyes behind the lenses widened in surprise as the men helped Thad into the office and Luke, McKinney, and Aaron followed.
“Good Lord,” the doctor said. “Did somebody declare war and forget to tell me?”
“It was Apaches, Doc,” a man said. “These fellas claim to have wiped ’em out, but who knows?”
“Well, I imagine they know,” the doctor said, “since they were there and all. Bring that boy into the examination room and help him onto the table.” He glanced at McKinney. “What happened to you?”
“Arrow through the arm,” McKinney answered curtly. “I’ll be all right. Tend to my son.”
“Your son, is he?” The doctor looked at Luke and gestured toward his head. “And you?”
“Bullet graze. Nothing to worry about. The boy has a deep cut on his side and lost a lot of blood, so he needs help first.”
“I’ll take your diagnosis under advisement. You three look like you’re done in. Sit down before you fall down.” The doctor waved toward a sofa and a couple of chairs as he gave the order.
Luke, McKinney, and Aaron sank gratefully onto the seats as the physician hurried into the examination room to see to Thad.
After only a few moments, McKinney said, “We can’t stay here long, Jensen. We have to get our hands on a couple of horses and go after Creager and the others.”
“Three horses,” Aaron said. “I’m coming with you.”
McKinney shook his head. “You can forget about that,” he told his younger son. “You’re staying here where it’s safe. Somebody will need to stay and look after Thad. He’s not going to be in any shape to ride.”
“He’ll have the doc to look after him,” Aaron argued. “Besides, you’re the one who’s wounded, not me. If anybody stays behind, it ought to be you.” He snorted. “Not sure that’d be safe, though. You might take off and disappear again.”
“Damn it, boy, don’t talk to me like that.”
“I reckon you gave up the right to tell me how to talk to you when you ran off.”
McKinney stared at Aaron for several seconds, then sighed and shook his head. “You just can’t let go of all that bitterness inside you, can you?”
“I want to, but it’s mighty hard.” Aaron sounded sincere, and Luke believed him.
“Bitter or not, you’re not coming with us.” McKinney leaned his head against the back of the sofa and licked his lips. “Damn, I’m dry. I think a big cup of cool water would do me more good than just about anything else.”
“You’re probably right about that. I’ll see what I can find.” Luke got to his feet, but before he could do anything else, the doctor bustled back into the room.
“That boy’s your son?” He looked at McKinney.
“That’s right.” McKinney got quickly to his feet. “How’s he doing?”
“Well, it’s a good thing he didn’t lose any more blood, because if he had, he never would have made it this far. But I’ve cleaned the wound, and I’m going to stitch it up. Who put the greasewood leaves inside the dressing?”
“That was me,” Luke said. “I would have made a poultice of them, but we didn’t have any water.”
The doctor nodded. “You did well enough, it appears. I don’t see any signs of infection yet. Of course, it could still set in. Only a few hours have passed since he was injured. But I’ll sew up that gash, then let him rest and get a lot of fluids in him. He should be all right.”
McKinney sighed again, a huge sigh of relief. “I’m mighty glad to hear that, Doc.” Suddenly, he blew out a breath and swayed a little on his feet. “Sorry, got a mite lightheaded there . . .”
“I don’t doubt it. Sit down again. I’ll get to you shortly. In the meantime . . .” The doctor went to the doorway leading into the front room where several of the townspeople waited to see what was going to happen. “One of you rattle your hocks up to the café and tell Maudie we need a pot of coffee, a pitcher of lemonade, and some of her beef stew down here, pronto.” He turned his head and dropped a wink at Luke, McKinney, and Aaron. “Best medicine in the world for what ails you fellows.”
* * *
When the foodstuffs arrived Luke, Aaron, and McKinney quickly guzzled some lemonade. While the doctor, whose name was Linus Pettigrew, cleaned the arrow wounds in the outlaw’s left arm and took several stitches in both to close them up, Luke and Aaron downed a bowl of beef stew. Luke washed his down with strong coffee. The headache that had plagued him all day had faded away to almost nothing, and he felt almost human again.
Pettigrew removed the bandanna, examined the bullet graze on Luke’s head, and cleaned it just to make sure it wouldn’t fester, even though he proclaimed that it was starting to heal already. He sat next to McKinney, who was finally eating the beef stew and drinking coffee. “If you expect a family discount on all this work, don’t get your hopes up.
“About that, Doc . . .”
Pettigrew snorted and said, “Let me guess. You don’t have any money to pay me.”
“I have a little money, but I need to get a horse and saddle.”
Pettigrew frowned at him. “You’re planning on riding with that arm?”
“I don’t ride on my arm,” McKinney said. His voice took on a grim note as he added, “And it’s not my gun arm, either.”
“We have to be somewhere, Doctor,” Luke said. “And we don’t have any time to waste, either.”
“I’m surprised you’d want to leave while Thaddeus in there is recuperating. That is his name, isn’t it? Thaddeus?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said. “But we only ever called him Thad. He never liked the whole thing.”
McKinney said, “That was your mother’s grandfather’s name. She picked it.” He turned back to Pettigrew. “But you said he’d be all right, didn’t you, Doc?”
“I believe he will be. Still, if it was my boy in such a shape, I wouldn’t want to go gallivanting off.”
“It’s not that I want to,” McKinney said. “I promise you that.”
Luke said, “And I promise that you’ll receive payment for your services, Doctor. I give you my word on it. But it may take a short period of time to deliver on that.”
Most of the money Luke had collected for the bounties on the men he had brought into Singletary had been in his saddlebags, so that loss was one more score to settle with Creager.
“I’m a doctor, young man. Believe me, I’m used to waiting for my pay!”
With Luke and McKinney patched up and sporting fresh bandages on their injuries, it was time for them to hit the trail again.
Thad was sleeping, but McKinney stepped into the room where he had been carefully placed in a bed and bent down to rest a hand on the young man’s head for a moment. “We’ll be back, son,” he said, even though Thad couldn’t hear him.
He joined Luke and Aaron in the front room. Aaron glared stubbornly at him.
/> McKinney said, “If we ride off and leave you here, you’ll just find a way to come after us, won’t you? Even if you have to steal a horse to do it.”
“I reckon I might,” Aaron said tightly.
“All right. You can come along, but you’re going to steer clear of any shooting, you hear me?”
“I didn’t steer clear of it any of the times Apaches jumped us, did I?”
“You’re just a kid, damn it. You’ve had enough fighting and killing to last you a lifetime.”
“I just want to make sure Ma’s all right,” Aaron said. “If I can, I’ll stay out of any trouble.”
“I suppose that’s the best I’ll get out of you,” McKinney said. “Come on.”
The three of them stepped out onto the porch of the doctor’s house to find a man in a black suit, with a badge pinned to his vest, waiting for them.
“Hold on there,” Stanton’s marshal said. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you fellas.”
McKinney had his left arm in a sling. Luke saw how the outlaw moved his hand a little to use the sling to conceal the lack of those two fingers. McKinney didn’t want the lawman to notice it and maybe be reminded of some wanted poster he had seen.
“I’ve heard about your fight with the Apaches,” the marshal went on. “Is there anything more you can tell me?”
McKinney shook his head. “I don’t know what it would be. They jumped us, and we killed them. That’s about the size of it.”
“What about your horses?”
Without hesitation, Luke said, “The Apaches killed them, of course. They did that first to put us on foot so we couldn’t get away from them.”
“You didn’t bring in your saddles?”
“We knew we had a long walk in front of us, Marshal, and three of us were injured. We didn’t figure it was worth lugging heavy saddles all that way.”
The lawman grunted and then nodded. “I reckon that makes sense, all right. Were you bound for Stanton to start with?”
“Actually, no,” Luke said. “We were on our way down to Singletary. But we knew this place was closer and we needed to get medical help. So we made the jog over here.”
“But now we have to get moving again,” McKinney said, not doing a very good job of concealing his impatience. “It’s important that we get to Singletary as soon as we can.”
“How come?” the marshal wanted to know.
“No offense, but that’s our business, isn’t it?”
The lawman shrugged and said, “I suppose it is. As long as you’re not plannin’ on breakin’ any laws there.”
Luke said, “I can assure you, Marshal, lawbreaking is the furthest thing from our minds. Now, I was wondering . . . where can we rent or buy some horses? I’m afraid we’re burning daylight.”
CHAPTER 34
It took all the money Luke and McKinney had to buy three horses and tack for the ride to Singletary. The liveryman refused to rent the animals, saying that it would be too much trouble for him to get them back. Luke could tell he didn’t really trust them, either.
When they pooled their funds, they had enough, and Luke didn’t have to ask Aaron whether or not he had that nearly new harmonica with him. They didn’t have to use that to sweeten the pot.
The horses were decent mounts, although Luke could tell they didn’t have the stamina for a long run, day after day. McKinney set a fast pace, though. He was naturally anxious to stop Creager and to make sure his wife was all right. Luke insisted on several stops to rest the horses, pointing out that if they ran the animals into the ground, Creager would be able to do anything he wanted without anybody getting in his way. McKinney went along with that reluctantly.
By dusk, the horses were beginning to play out, but McKinney and Aaron had spotted some familiar landmarks.
“We’re not far from the ranch now,” McKinney said. “We’re going there first.”
“You’re going home?” Aaron asked. “For good?”
“I didn’t say that. I may have broken ranks with Creager and the rest of the bunch, but I’m still an outlaw. A wanted man.”
“You could turn yourself in. Go to prison for a few years, and then when you get out—”
“I told you before,” McKinney broke in, “I don’t cotton to the idea of being locked up. And chances are, that’s not how things would play out, anyway.”
Aaron looked over at his father in the fading light. “What do you mean?”
“I mean they’d probably hang me, son.”
“No! They couldn’t do that!”
“Tell him, Jensen,” McKinney said.
“Your father’s wanted on some pretty serious charges, Aaron,” Luke said. “It’s entirely possible he might be sentenced to hang.”
“But they only hang you if you kill somebody! Isn’t that right, Pa? You never killed anybody.”
When McKinney didn’t respond to that statement, Aaron went on. “Did you?”
“Whether I actually pulled the trigger or not, people were killed in some of those bank robberies. A judge and jury might consider me to blame for those deaths, since I led the raids. What it comes down to, Aaron, is that they might decide to hang me, and even if they didn’t, I don’t intend to go to prison. That’s just the way it is.”
“You don’t get to decide how it is for everybody else! You don’t have the right! I know Ma wants you back, even after all this time—”
“I’d never bring all that pain back into her life,” McKinney declared. He pointed to a ridge looming darkly in front of them. “That’s why we’re going up there to take a look around instead of just riding in. If everything’s all right, we’ll head on to town without stopping.”
“You can’t mean that,” Aaron continued to argue. “You’d really be that close and not ride down to see her—”
“I’m doing what’s best, boy,” McKinney said, his voice hardening. “When you get older and meet some gal you care about, you’ll understand.”
Aaron shook his head. “I’ll never understand you.”
“Maybe not. Time will tell.” McKinney urged his horse toward the top of the ridge. “Come on. I want to take a look around before it gets full dark.”
Luke trailed father and son up the slope. They stopped and dismounted before they reached the crest.
McKinney handed his reins to Aaron and said, “Hold the horses while Jensen and I go the rest of the way.”
“Tie ’em to a damn bush,” Aaron snapped. “I’m coming, too.”
McKinney shrugged, took the reins back, and fastened them to a scrubby bush growing out of some rocks. Luke and Aaron did likewise, then all three of them catfooted toward the top of the ridge.
Some brush grew along there, too, so they didn’t have to get down on their bellies and crawl. The vegetation, as well as the gathering shadows of evening, gave them enough concealment that they likely wouldn’t be spotted by anyone down below. They were careful anyway. If Creager and the gang were nearby, they had probably posted some lookouts.
Peering down the far slope toward the spread, they saw yellow light glowing in the ranch house’s windows but no horses tied up anywhere nearby. As they watched, the back door opened and Amelia McKinney stepped out onto the porch. She had a bucket in her hand, lifted it and threw out some water, then turned and went back into the house, closing the door behind her.
Luke had heard the breath hiss between McKinney’s teeth at the sight of his wife. The outlaw’s eyes never left her during the brief moment she was in sight. Enough of an afterglow remained in the western sky for Luke to see the deeply pained expression on McKinney’s face.
“At least I got to see her again,” McKinney said hollowly. “And she seemed to be all right.”
“How can you not . . . not go down there . . . and hug her, at least?” Aaron demanded.
“If I did that, boy, I might never leave . . . and then, sooner or later, things would be even worse for all of us.” McKinney looked over at Luke. “Creager’s not here. He doesn’t
appear to have been here.”
“The money he can get by raiding Singletary is the most important thing to him right now,” Luke said. “If they ride out of there with plenty of loot, it’ll go a long way toward making his hold solid on leadership of the gang. They can stop by here while they’re making their getaway, if that’s what he wants.”
“And take Amelia with them,” McKinney said, his face and voice grim. “Well, that’s one more reason for us to stop them, once and for all.”
“We’d better head for town, then.”
“In a minute.” McKinney turned to Aaron. “You go on back down there to the ranch now, son. There’s no need for you to go to town with us. Go give your ma a hug for me and tell her . . . Well, I guess it’s too late now to tell her much of anything except that I’m sorry and that I always loved all of you. The two of you can take the wagon and head back to Stanton to get Thad and bring him home as soon as he’s strong enough to travel.”
“What about you?” Before McKinney could answer, Aaron went on. “No, there’s not any need to wonder, is there? After you settle things with Creager, you’ll just run away, the way you always do. Isn’t that right?”
“Be best for everybody if I move on,” McKinney answered with a shrug.
“You promised Thad you’d be back for him!”
“I know. You can tell him I’m sorry, too.”
Aaron stared at his father for a long moment, then spat out words. “You’re a coward. Nothing but a damn coward. I reckon you always were.”
“Aaron—”
The youngster turned away sharply, stalked back to the horses, and jerked his mount’s reins free. He practically leaped into the saddle and then kicked the horse into motion, sending it churning over the ridge crest and then down the slope toward the ranch house. Aaron didn’t say anything or even look back as he rode off.
After several seconds of taut silence, McKinney said, “You told me before that you don’t have any kids, Jensen. In some ways, you’re a lucky man.”
“I’ve never particularly felt like it,” Luke said. “We’d better head on to Singletary. Once it’s good and dark, Creager’s liable to make his move.”
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