Beloved Physician

by Al Lacy

  “And what was his reaction?”

  “He was quite angry. Tomorrow morning he is taking a large unit of men with him to Chief Tando’s village. He told me that he knows Tando will deny any knowledge of the Bates incident, but that he is going to warn him that things are going to get real bad between Tando and the army if this kind of thing happens again.”

  “I’m glad to hear this.”

  The waitress came with their dessert, which was apple pie. When that had been devoured, Dane paid the bill and they left the café.

  Dane helped Tharyn into the buggy by the glow of a nearby street lamp, then climbed in beside her, took up the reins, and put Pal in motion.

  As Dane drove the buggy down Main Street in the direction of their home, he said, “Well, sweetheart, I guess you’ve got a taste of the medical business in Central City by now. We’re staying quite busy, wouldn’t you say?”

  She giggled. “Yes, Dr. Logan, I would say so. But, of course, that’s what we want.”

  “Sure is. It gets pretty hectic for both of us sometimes, with me having to make house calls outside of town while you’re running the office, but I love it.”

  She patted his arm. “I’m sure you don’t love having to ride to the nearest fort and having to deal with renegade Indian problems.”

  He nodded. “No, I don’t love that. When I was a boy, dreaming of becoming a doctor, I didn’t have Indian trouble in mind at all.”

  “I can’t really say I enjoyed doing that appendectomy today. That’s really for a man with an M.D., not a woman with a C.M.N.”

  At that moment, Tharyn noticed that Dane had just driven past the intersection of Main and Walnut Street, which would lead them to Spruce Street, then home. She squeezed his arm. “Ah … darling, are you aware that you just passed Walnut Street?”

  Dane chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”

  A frown puckered her brow. “Where are we going? Do you have another house call this evening that I don’t know about?”

  He glanced at her and smiled. “No more house calls tonight.”

  “Then where are we going?”

  “We’ve had very little time for romance these past several days, so we’re going to take a little moonlight drive.”

  Tharyn’s eyes widened. “Well, you don’t have to twist my arm to get my positive vote on that!”

  He laughed. “Good! I’m not in an arm-twisting frame of mind right now.”

  Tharyn cuddled up closer to him and slipped her arm around his neck. “Drive on, O husband of mine!”

  Dane drove out of town to the south for a couple of miles, then veered off the road and pulled rein on a slight rise above a gurgling creek.

  The full moon was clear edged and bright above them in the starlit sky. Its silver reflection was dancing on the surface of the rippling water.

  Tharyn, looked around at the pines in the moonlight, casting their dark shadows on the ground and the creek. “Oh, Dane, isn’t it beautiful? I just marvel at the handiwork of our wonderful God.”

  Dane hopped to the ground, rounded the back side of the buggy, and lifted her down. He folded her in his strong arms and kissed her soundly. Then he held her and gazed into her eyes. “All of this around us is Gods handiwork, all right, and it is indeed beautiful. But His most beautiful handiwork is right here in my arms.”

  Tears misted Tharyn’s blue eyes.

  At the same moment, the howl of a wolf in the higher country to the west pierced the night.

  Dane smiled. “See there? That wolf heard what I said and he agrees.”

  Blinking at her tears, Tharyn placed a tender palm on his cheek. “Oh, darling, how can I ever thank the Lord for bringing us together when it looked like we would never see each other again?”

  “Well, I can never thank Him enough for that, but now that we’re together again, I want to make up for those ten years we were apart.” He glanced down at the gurgling creek. “Let’s go down there.”

  “Okay.”

  Dane took hold of her hand and together, they made their way down to the bank of the creek. Looking around, he said, “Come over here, honey. There’s a fallen log right on the edge of the water.”

  Dane looked at his lovely wife in the silvery light of the moon. “I was just thinking on my ride home from Fort Junction this afternoon about the very first time we met. You were thirteen, and I was a mature man of the world at fifteen.”

  Tharyn chuckled. “Mature man of the world, eh? Well, if you say so.” Abruptly, a lump came to her throat and she frowned.

  “Honey, what’s the matter?”

  “I—I can’t help but think about my parents being killed when that frightened team of horses hitched to that wagon loaded with building materials charged into them. And—and—”

  “What, sweetheart?”

  “Dane, I would have been killed, too, if you hadn’t been there and so courageously risked your own life to remove me from the path of those same charging horses.”

  There was a loving expression on his handsome face as he seemed to catalogue each of her features.

  He reached out and with a forefinger, tipped up her chin. He kissed her tenderly. “I would do it again if called upon to do so.”

  They held on to each other for a long moment; then Tharyn said, “You not only saved my life, but with Mama and Papa gone, you took me to the alley where you lived with all those other orphans and so willingly gave me a home with you.”

  Dane grinned. “Mm-hmm. I just had this feeling toward you like a big brother has about his little sister. My own little sister, Diane, was dead like the rest of my family, and you filled an emptiness in my heart.”

  She reached up and stroked his cheek. “And it didn’t take you long to show it.”

  He chuckled. “No, it didn’t. And it didn’t take you long to respond to it. We hadn’t known each other but a matter of weeks when we were calling each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’ ”

  “Uh-huh. I really loved having a big brother.”

  “We indeed had a brother-sister love between us.”

  She smiled. “We sure did. And I owe you so much.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you—who had only been saved a short time yourself—began witnessing to me about Jesus. You were already doing that with the other orphans in the colony, and it was because of your testimony that the others and I turned to Jesus when you had Dr. Lee Harris come to the alley and show the rest of us from the Bible how to be saved.”

  Dane nodded. “It was my pleasure and joy.”

  They both looked down at the bubbling creek with the white foam floating on its rippling surface.

  After a moment, Tharyn lifted her head and put her soft gaze on him. “You know what?”

  As he looked at her, he saw the reflection of the moonlight in her eyes. “What?”

  “Even though you’re my husband now, I still have a feeling about you as my protective brother. Do you understand what I’m saying? You were such a protector back in those days when I called you my brother, and that particular relationship still lives in my heart. I believe it always will. That’s not wrong, is it?”

  Dane chuckled and tweaked her nose lovingly. “Of course it’s not wrong, sweetie. In fact, it is quite scriptural.”

  A surprised expression flitted across her features. “Really?”

  “Mm-hmm. Just a few days ago in my devotions, I was reading in the Song of Solomon about the love between King Solomon and his wife, the Shulamite. This took me back to one time in Manhattan just before you came into my life, when Pastor Alan Wheeler preached a sermon from the Song of Solomon and pointed out that Jewish history said her name was Solyma.”

  Tharyn nodded and waited for him to go on.

  “The Jewish historians had no way of knowing if she changed her name to Solyma after she married Solomon, or if it was the name given her by her parents. Anyway, when I was reading in chapter 4 a few days ago, it struck me that Solomon called her my sister, my spouse’;
and I thought of how I still had brotherly love for you, in addition to the love that I have for you as your spouse—your husband.”

  She moved her head slowly back and forth. “Hmm. I recall reading that term in the Song of Solomon not so long ago, but I didn’t give it much thought.”

  “Well, sweetheart, I have given it some thought since reading it recently, and I realized that Solomon called Solyma ‘my sister, my spouse’ as if he could not express his near and dear relationship to her by any one term. He called her his sister because they were partakers of the same natural love for each other, and he called her his spouse because in one shared love, they were joined by sacred ties of passion that only a husband and wife can know.”

  Tharyn’s eyes were swimming in tears. “Darling, I agree with your assessment of that Scripture passage. It’s wonderful!”

  They were in each other’s arms again.

  Dane held her close and whispered into her ear, “I love you, my sweetheart, with a powerful, undying love that only the Lord Himself could put there.”

  She looked at him dreamily and lifted her lips toward him. When they had kissed, she said, “Oh, darling, I love you so much! And my love for you is equally as powerful and undying.”

  The gurgling stream, the soft mountain breeze, and the beautiful moonlight seemed to embrace the young couple and to draw them closer together than they had ever been. They relished it wholeheartedly while falling deeper in love.

  They kissed again, and Dane said, “Tharyn, my sweet, I didn’t know it was possible to love someone as much as I love you.”

  “I was about to say the same thing, darling. I love you so very, very much!”

  Periodically the sound of one wolf calling to another in the nearby mountains filled the air.

  Dane squeezed his wife’s hand and met her soft gaze. “Sweetheart, this is such a marvelous way to close a day like I’ve had. The terrible tragedy I saw this morning at the Bates ranch so struck my heart that I almost became sick to my stomach.”

  “I can well imagine. What a dreadful thing to happen to that poor man. I can’t even pretend to grasp his grief over losing his entire family. If he isn’t a Christian, he doesn’t have the peace and comfort that the Lord can give to one of His own children. We must go and see him as soon as we return from Denver.”

  “We’ll do it, honey. But at least right now, Jack is in good earthly hands with Rex and Dora Wilson. I’m sure they’ll be as much a comfort and strength to him as human beings can.”

  “I’m glad for that, but I know the sadness must be overwhelming. I know we need to head for home, but how about we pray for him right now?”

  “Yes. Let’s do that.”

  The Logans bowed their heads and prayed for Jack Bates, asking the Lord to help him in his hour of need and to allow them to show him the gospel when they returned from Denver.

  When they had finished, Dane stood up and offered his hand to Tharyn. As she took it and rose to a standing position, he said, “Feel better about Jack, sweetheart?”

  “Yes, indeed. The Lord has really burdened my heart for Jack, and there is nothing as precious as giving our burdens to Him. ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.’ We serve a wonderful God, don’t we?”

  “Indeed we do, my love. Indeed we do.”

  “We’ll keep praying for Jack till we can see him in person.”

  “We sure will. Well, sweet stuff, you ready to head for home?”

  “Sure am.”

  Dane surprised her by sweeping her off her feet and cradling her in his arms. He kissed her again and said, “All right, my sister, my spouse; this brother, your spouse will now drive you home.”

  THIRTEEN

  On the west edge of Chief Tando’s village in the mountains, a bright fire burned at the burial ground beneath the star-filled sky.

  While six warriors beat softly and rhythmically on drums, the dark figures of all the village people, who were gathered around Yamda’s grave, moaned and wailed as four warriors began filling in the grave from the mound of dirt they had piled up earlier.

  Next to Yamda’s grave was that of Joyce, the young white woman who had been their servant. Though Leela and the other women were unhappy that Joyce had died, there had been no crying or moaning when her body had been placed in the yawning hole in the ground, then covered over with shovels that had been stolen from various ranches where the Indians had plundered the white men’s cattle and goods after massacring them.

  Chief Tando had given a speech, marking Yamda as a hero because he had gallantly fought the whites since the day he had been commissioned by Tando as a warrior some five grasses previously. And now, the chief stood with Latawga and Danpo flanking him. His angular face was a mask of sorrow beneath the wolf’s scalp headdress with the white teeth showing in their strange grin.

  The fire was dying down and a soft wind fanned the embers, blowing sparks, ashes, and coils of smoke away into the enshrouding blackness.

  When the last of the dirt was now a mound directly over the body of Yamda, Chief Tando lifted his hand. Instantly, the drummers stopped their haunting beat, and the moans and wails of the Utes died out.

  The leader ran his dark eyes over the faces that reflected the dancing flames of the fire. “We have paid our respect to the brave Yamda, who is now in the presence of the Sky People. Let us treasure his memory, but grieve no more. Return to your tepees now and get your rest.”

  As the Ute people began moving back into the village, two braves shoveled dirt on the fire to extinguish it, and Chief Tando moved toward his tepee with Leela and Latawga at his side.

  The gray gloom on the eastern horizon was beginning to lighten the sky as Colonel Perry Smith and some two hundred mounted cavalrymen moved through the moderately dense forest and drew near Chief Tando’s Ute village in rugged mountain country.

  There was a dull thump of hooves on the grassy floor of the forest, plus the creak of the wheels on the two flatbed wagons that carried the deadly fifty-caliber Gatling guns. The ranks were broken and uneven because of the tall pines, birches, and cottonwoods that made up the forest. Riders and wagons alike had to constantly weave around the trees.

  The soldiers who manned the Gatlings were ready for action, as were the mounted men who held their rifles in hand as the unit moved ever closer to the south edge of the forest.

  Through the trees, they could now see the long rows of tepees across an open area a hundred yards beyond the edge of the forest.

  The grayness was vanishing as the morning sun—not yet above the eastern elevations—sent its rosy and golden shafts between the towering mountain peaks to tip the lofty pines.

  As the troops moved out of the forest onto the grassy open land, they closed ranks.

  Colonel Perry Smith rode in the lead with Major Colin Harper on one side of him, Captain Ron Craddock on the other, and a wagon bearing a Gatling gun on either side of them. Sergeant Clint Burke rode on the far side of the wagon on the right, holding a long stick with a white flag at its tip, flapping in the breeze. The other mounted men were now spreading out behind them in a show of force.

  As they drew nearer to the village, suddenly two Ute warriors assigned as lookouts sprang to their feet from a low spot in the terrain and dashed toward the gathering of tepees.

  Sergeant Clint Burke watched the Indians as they ran toward the village, then said, “Colonel, I hope they saw this white flag.”

  “I don’t know how they could have missed it,” replied Smith. “They’ve had time to look us over real good since we came out of the woods.” He ran his gaze around to the rest of the men. “Just keep your pace as is.”

  They were within forty yards of the village when Major Colin Harper pointed to the west side of it. “The burial ground, Colonel. See it? There are two fresh graves.”

  Smith fixed his gaze on the two mounds. “I wonder if one of them is the grave of the warrior Dr. Logan told me had been shot in the raid on the Bates ranch.”

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p; “Could very well be, sir.”

  Captain Ron Craddock said, “Look over there, Colonel!”

  Smith saw him pointing to several beef carcasses that had been skinned and dressed out, hanging from trees in a small patch of woods off to the east side of the village. “Yeah. Probably Bates cattle.”

  The two warriors were now in the village and there was a stirring among the people who were milling about.

  The day brightened, and a long bank of high, fleecy clouds was turning a bright rosy color. The sun would soon put in its appearance.

  By the time the army unit was drawing up to the edge of the village, the scene had changed. The only Indians in sight now were warriors who were scurrying about, rifles in hand. Chief Tando was moving toward the oncoming army unit with several warriors collected around him. A few women could be seen peering out of the tepee openings, but no children were in sight.

  “Looks like we’ve got Tando’s attention, Colonel,” said the major. “That’s his son, Latawga, beside him.”

  Smith nodded. He said loudly, “Everybody stay alert. Be ready for anything.”

  “We are, Colonel,” said one of the men in the wagon with a Gatling gun.

  The mounted men remained in their saddles as previously instructed by their commandant. When the chief and the group with him drew up and halted, Colonel Smith raised his hand in a sign of peace.

  Tando’s dark features were like stone as he eyed the white flag held by Sergeant Clint Burke and the formidable Gatling guns. Then set his icy glare on the colonel. “You are from Fort Junction?” he grunted in English.

  “Yes. I am the commandant, Colonel Perry Smith. You have been in conversations with some of my officers before, including Major Colin Harper.”

  Tando fixed his gaze on the major, but made no comment. He looked back at Smith. “Why are you here?”