by Al Lacy
The big man paid him no mind as he cried out in pain and thrashed about on the floor.
Dane looked up at Tharyn, and above the yelling and moaning of his patient, said, “Go out on the street and find me two of the strongest men you can! It’s going to take a lot of brawn to hold this man down! The adrenalin pumping through his body right now is making him as strong as a bull!”
Tharyn was wringing her hands. “Okay, honey. I’ll be right back.” With that, she bolted toward the door that led to the office.
When Dr. Dane let go of his patient and stood up, Rudy stopped thrashing, swallowed hard, and looked up at him, his face beet red.
The doctor said in a firm tone, “Rudy, stay right where you are. You want some anesthetic now?”
Rudy shook his head.
“You still want me to pull the tooth?”
Rudy nodded, biting his lips.
“All right. Then calm yourself. My wife has gone out on the street to get some help. I can’t hold you down and pull the tooth at the same time. When the forceps slipped, they did some damage to the tooth. So it’s going to hurt even worse when I clamp the forceps on it this time. You dead sure you don’t want anesthetic?”
“Dead sure. I may scream and holler, Doc, but don’t pay no attention to me. Just do what you have to do.”
The sound of the front door of the office opening and closing met the ears of both men, followed by the sound of three pair of footsteps.
Dr. Dane looked into the miner’s eyes and said, “Sounds like reinforcements are coming.”
NINE
The door opened, and both Dr. Dane Logan and Rudy Louden saw Tharyn enter the room with two rugged men behind her. Each one had a badge on his chest.
Marshal Jake Merrell and Deputy Len Kurtz looked past Tharyn as she led them to the spot where her husband stood over the thick-bodied miner, who was sitting on the floor.
Tharyn set her gaze on her husband “These two were just passing by on the boardwalk when I stepped out the door. Will they do?”
Dane grinned. “Yes, they’ll do.”
As they drew up, the marshal looked down at Rudy with a frown. “I understand you came in here to get a tooth pulled, but you’re puttin’ up a fight when Dr. Logan tries to pull it.”
Rudy cleared his throat nervously. “Well, it’s just that he’s givin’ me a lot of pain when he tries to pull it.”
Len Kurtz gave the miner a puzzled look. “You mean even with the anesthetic, it still hurts so bad you can’t take it?”
“Well, I—uh—didn’t let him give me no anesthetic.”
Jake Merrell chuckled. “Oh, sure. It’s that weird thing among you miners. You boys have more fear that somebody will call you a sissy than you have of any physical pain. So I guess you’re still not going to let Dr. Logan give you a pain killer?”
Rudy gave him a slanted grin. “That’s right.”
“But being afraid that somebody will call you a sissy isn’t sissified, eh?”
Rudy scowled at him, then looked up at the doctor. “Let’s get this over with. You want me to stay on the floor?”
“I do. Marshal, Deputy, I need you to get down here and hold Rudy down.”
Both lawmen dropped to their knees beside the miner.
Dr. Dane knelt down at Rudy’s head and looked at the lawmen. “Len, I need you to sit on Rudy’s legs and hold them flat on the floor. And Marshal, I need you to hold both of Rudy’s wrists above his head and pin them to the floor. Stretch his arms straight out and don’t let him move them.”
The marshal took hold of Rudy’s wrists and drew them all the way above his head. “Got him, Doc.”
Len sat on the miner’s stocky legs between the knees and ankles. “Got him, Doc.”
Tharyn put a hand over her mouth and smiled.
Dr. Dane looked at Rudy. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
The doctor put one knee on Rudy’s chest and said, “Open your mouth and close your eyes.”
The miner did as commanded. Dr. Dane pushed the tip of the forceps into Rudy’s mouth and got a good hold on the abscessed second molar. He set his jaw and gave a hard yank. This time, the tooth came out.
Rudy bucked like a wild horse, screaming and yelling, but the two lawmen held him down. After two or three minutes, he finally went quiet and looked up at the doctor, who was standing over him with the bloody tooth between two fingers.
Dr. Dane bent over, holding the tooth so Rudy could get a good look at it, and said, “You’ll need to get up on the table now, so I can stitch up the hole the tooth left and get the bleeding stopped. None of us here will let on to your pals at the mine how much you screamed and hollered.”
Rudy’s beefy features turned crimson as the lawmen helped him get on the table, and Tharyn placed a pillow under his head as he lay down.
The doctor went to work, and within fifteen minutes, the hole had been stitched.
“Okay, Rudy,” said the doctor, laying needle and thread aside, “all done. I’ll need to see you in a week to take the stitches out.”
Rudy sat up and put a hand to the swollen jaw. “I guess it’ll take a few days for the swelling to go down.”
“Mm-hmm.”
The miner slipped off the table and stood up. “How much do I owe you, Doctor?”
“My fee is three dollars.”
Dr. Dane, Tharyn, and the lawmen made their way to the office, where Rudy gladly paid Tharyn the three dollars. He thanked Marshal Merrell and Deputy Kurtz for helping Dr. Logan, then holding his jaw, he stalked proudly out of the office.
Dr. Dane wiped a palm over his face. “Boy, am I glad that’s over!”
The lawmen burst into laughter, and Dr. Dane and Tharyn quickly joined them.
When the laughter subsided, Dr. Dane picked up two of the three dollar bills Tharyn had laid on top of the desk, and handed one to each lawman. “You gentlemen deserve your share.”
They had another good laugh, then the lawmen both said how glad they were that the peace treaty signing at Fort Junction went well. Merrell reminded the doctor that he and Len wanted him to come by the marshal’s office soon and tell them every detail of the story. Dr. Dane assured them it would be soon, then the lawmen left.
Dr. Dane glanced at the clock on the wall behind Tharyn’s desk and said, “Well, Mrs. Logan, let’s lock the door, clean up here, and go home.” He noted the single dollar bill that still lay on top of the desk. “You can put that dollar in your purse if you want.”
“Well, Dr. Logan, Marshal Merrell and his deputy earned what you gave them, but I didn’t do anything.”
“But you were there to help me if I needed it.”
“But—”
Dane picked up the dollar bill and placed it in her hand. “No arguments, ma’am. Put the money in your purse.”
That evening while Dane and Tharyn were eating supper in the kitchen of their beautiful two-story house, Tharyn said, “Honey, as far as I know, you haven’t told anyone except Marshal Merrell and his deputy about Chief Tando signing the peace treaty. Have you told anyone else?”
Dane shrugged. “No.”
“Why?”
“Sweetheart, if it comes from me, people will think I’m wanting glory for my part in it. Before we left the fort, General Dayton said he was going to see that the whole story got to every newspaper in Colorado and Wyoming. Everybody in town will hear about it when the Rocky Mountain News shows up with the story in it. I figure it’ll be in the News by tomorrow, or at least by Friday. I’d rather the people of this town learn about it that way.”
Tharyn took a sip of coffee from her cup and nodded. “Okay, Dr. Humble Logan, I agree. It will be best if the people of Central City learn about it from the newspaper. Maybe you should at least have told Mayor Anderson.”
Dane pondered her words for a moment, then said, “You may be right about that. Mike really ought to know ahead of time. If it isn’t in tomorrow’s paper, I’ll make it a point to go to his office and tell him t
he story.”
“Good. And darling, I want to say once more how proud I am that you were the one the Lord used to bring about the change in Chief Tando.”
Dane smiled at her comment, then said, “Chief Tando invited me to come back to his village any time I could. I’m definitely going to make time to do that. I’d like to talk to him about the Lord, and because of the way he feels toward me, he just might listen.”
Tharyn’s eyes lit up. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re right! I think he would listen to you. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could lead him to Jesus? He could very well be instrumental in bringing many of his people to salvation.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
When supper was finished, Dane lent a hand to help Tharyn with the dishwashing and the cleanup of the kitchen. That done, Tharyn put two cups of steaming coffee and a plate of oatmeal cookies on a tray. Dane carried the tray as they went to the parlor together.
Dane placed the tray on a small table beside the sofa, and as Tharyn sat down, he went to the fireplace and tossed in a couple more logs. He rubbed his hands together briskly as he headed back toward her. “The night air in late September is quite cool in Central City, Mrs. Logan.”
She laughed. “Yes, Dr. Logan. Quite cool.”
He lowered himself in his favorite chair next to the sofa where Tharyn sat, picked up his cup of coffee and a cookie, and sighed heavily. “I’m absolutely exhausted. Rudy Louden wore me out.”
“I can understand that, sweetheart. Just observing it wore me out. Let’s hope that the rest of his teeth stay healthy. I wouldn’t want either of us to go through that again. He’d probably be just as stubborn about the anesthetic the next time.”
“Without a doubt!”
The Logans talked further about Dane’s desire to return to the Ute village and tell Chief Tando the gospel. They spoke of what a joy it would be to see the chief, his family, and the other people in the village open their hearts to Jesus.
When it was drawing near bedtime, Dane and Tharyn read their Bibles together and then prayed.
Tharyn prayed first, and after praying for many people, including their adoptive parents and their pastor and the church, she talked to the Lord about starting their family. Silent tears coursed down her cheeks as she told the Lord it would be difficult for Dane to find another nurse-receptionist to come to Central City to replace her when she was ready to give birth to their first child.
Tharyn felt Dane’s firm hand on her shoulder as she prayed on, asking the Lord to show them His will about when they should start their family. She told the Lord that when that time came, Dane would need His leadership in seeking a new nurse-receptionist and the money to pay her sufficiently.
Tharyn closed her prayer by thanking the Lord for helping Dane to be the one to cause the change in Chief Tando’s thinking.
As Dane prayed, he also went over the people and things they prayed about regularly, then said, “Lord, if this increasingly strong desire in Tharyn’s heart to become a mother is because You are putting it there, then show us this for sure, and we will know that we are to start our family earlier than we had planned. If this is Your will, we know You will bless the practice sufficiently so we can afford to hire a lady full-time. I thank You that we are doing so well financially, and that we can already be thinking about turning it into a clinic and adding another doctor.”
When Dane closed his prayer and opened his eyes, he saw the tears streaming down Tharyn’s cheeks. He took her into his arms and said, “Sweetheart, don’t concern yourself about the finances. I want to become a father as soon as the Lord is ready. Quite possibly He would have us hire the new nurse-receptionist so you can have our first child before we take the step to turn the practice into a clinic and hire another doctor. The Lord will provide when it’s time.”
Tharyn clung to him as she wiped tears from her eyes. “Darling, I want so very much to be a mother, but only when it’s God’s time. The desire has been inside me so strong ever since we got married, but somehow it grew stronger today when I got to hold little Lydia Marie in my arms.”
Dane smiled and looked into her eyes. “I can understand that, honey. Well, it’s getting late. We’d better head upstairs.”
Half an hour later, Dane blew out the kerosene lantern that sat on the small table beside the bed and slid down into the covers. Tharyn cuddled up close to his back for warmth. After several minutes, she kissed the back of his neck and whispered, “I love this time of night. Everything seems so quiet and peaceful.”
Dane did not respond.
A frown formed on Tharyn’s brow in the darkness. “Sweetheart, don’t you agree that this is the best time of the night?”
Then she heard his steady breathing and realized he was already asleep.
“Poor darling,” she said in a faint whisper, “he has had a hard day. Bless him, Lord, and give him a good night’s rest. Thank you for giving me such a thoughtful and wonderful husband.”
Lying there snuggled up to Dane’s back, Tharyn relived little Lydia Marie Miller’s birth, and wiped tears on the sheet as she whispered, “Thank You, dear Lord, for giving Jack and Sally such a precious little girl. I will be so glad when we can have our first baby. I … I will be happy whichever it is, boy or girl. But somehow, Lord, I feel that our first child will be a girl. I’ve got to think about names, so when it comes time, I can tell Dane what I want to name our first girl.”
Tharyn fell asleep thinking about her first child.
She was in her kitchen at midmorning one day, and while standing at the sink, she looked out the window into the backyard and smiled as she saw her little five-year-old daughter swaying back and forth in the swing her father had made for her and hung from a limb in one of the large cottonwood trees.
Tharyn felt impelled to step out on the back porch and watch as the little girl happily swung back and forth with her back toward the house. Her long dark brown hair, the same color as Dane’s, fluttered in the air.
After watching for a few minutes, Tharyn stepped off the porch, walked around in front of the swinging child, and saw that she had dark brown eyes—exactly like her father’s.
When the girl saw her mother, she flashed a big smile. “Mommy, will you push me so I can go up real high?”
Tharyn noted how beautiful the child was and marveled that she bore a strong resemblance to her mother. “Honey, it will be dangerous if you swing too high. I don’t want you to fall out and hurt yourself.”
“Daddy swings me real high. I’m a big girl. Come on, Mommy. I’ll hold on tight.”
Tharyn smiled and shook her head. “All right, Elizabeth Ann, but you make sure you hold on real tight.”
Elizabeth Ann. What a beautiful name!
Suddenly Tharyn found herself sitting up in the bed, breathing hard and repeating the name Elizabeth Ann over and over.
Pale moonlight touched the curtains at the bedroom windows, giving just enough light to illuminate the room and to make deep shadows all around.
“Yes!” Tharyn said exuberantly, popping her hands together. “That’s it! Elizabeth Ann Logan. It’s beautiful!”
Dane stirred, rolled over, and opened his eyes. “Honey, shouldn’t you be asleep? What are you clapping about in the middle of the night?”
A hand went to Tharyn’s mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry, Dane. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She leaned over and hugged him joyfully. “I was just having such a wonderful dream, and it made me so happy!”
Dane rubbed his eyes. “Well, now that I’m awake, do you want to share it with me?”
“Yes! Oh, yes, I want to tell you about it!”
Tharyn shivered in the cool air and settled herself comfortably under the covers, placing her head on Dane’s shoulder. “Darling, you know I don’t believe in omens or things like that, but just before I dropped off to sleep, I was thinking about the first baby God will give us, and somehow I had a girl in mind.”
“Oh, really?”
“Uh-huh.
And this dream fell right into line with what I was thinking.”
Dane twisted under the covers so he could see her face in the moonlight. “Okay, now you really have my attention. I’m wide awake. Tell me why this dream was so special. I want to share it, too.”
Tharyn raised up on an elbow, bent down and kissed her husband’s stubbled cheek. She lay back down and placed her head on his shoulder again. “Well, I dreamed that we had a girl first, and in the dream she was already five years old. She had dark brown hair and eyes just like yours, and she was absolutely beautiful. She … ah … did look a lot like me.”
Dane snickered. “Well, she indeed would be beautiful, then.”
“You’re a flatterer. And you know what?”
“What?”
“Her name was Elizabeth Ann.”
“And how did you learn her name?”
“Well, in the dream, I just walked up to her and called her Elizabeth Ann. And she called me Mommy.”
“Hmm,” said Dane. “I wish I could have been there, too. Elizabeth Ann, eh?”
“Yes! And that’s what we will name our first baby girl! Ah … if that’s all right with you.”
“Sure it is. I love it. Elizabeth Ann Logan. I really do love the sound of it.”
A thrill went through Tharyn’s body. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Most certainly. Now it’s time for the future Elizabeth Ann Logan’s mommy to get some sleep.”
Tharyn raised up on an elbow again, kissed him on the lips, and said, “All right. Good night, future Elizabeth Ann Logan’s daddy.”
TEN
There was night music in the air around the village of renegade Ute Chief Antono as a dozen fires flickered their light on faces of braves and squaws and the tepees that stood close around the spot where the adults were gathered. All the children had been put in their blankets inside the tepees for the night.
Antono’s village was situated in the Rocky Mountains a few miles due west of Chief Tando’s village.