Chapter 15

“Paul!” Opal Anne yelled as she ran towards me and Mick, her pistol in hand. Both of us were on the ground.

Betty Mae joined her, running to the side of her man. Out of the corner of her eye, Opal Anne saw the sheriff with his shotgun aimed at Rory and she raised her pistol up to protect her brother-in-law. She was squeezing the trigger when the sheriff pointed the shotgun’s muzzle up in the air.

“Sheriff!” Opal Anne yelled still pointing her pistol.

“Mrs. O’Dell! Relax!” He yelled at her as Rory ran past him to his brothers.

Opal Anne lowered her pistol and turned back to me. I was lying next to Mick and Mick was screaming out every curse he could think of as he writhed in pain. As Opal Anne approached, I stood up and grabbed her.

“I’m OK, Opal Anne. I’m OK,” I said to calm her before yelling out loud. “Somebody go get the doctor!”

“Where is Pauli?” Opal Anne screamed, still on edge.

“She’s here with me. She’s fine,” Raylene replied loudly from the hotel’s doorway, as she unshrouded the three babies she had been protecting with her body.

Betty Mae was at Mick’s side trying to see where he was shot. She got him to stop rolling around long enough to see the blood freely flowing out of his right thigh. The .45 had passed through and left a big hole as it exited. Wrapping the hem of her dress around her husbands leg, Betty Mae squeezed as hard as she could, causing further cursing from her wounded husband.

I’d stood to go to Opal Anne and stop her from shooting the sheriff. As soon as they both lowered their weapons I returned to my brother. Betty Mae looked up to find me at her side. I took hold of the area she was squeezing and applied more pressure which seemed to completely stem the flow of blood.

“It looks like a clean wound,” I said. “There’s no spurting, so the artery seems good. Rory! Where’s the doc?”

Just as I yelled the question to my baby brother, the deputy came running up with an older man. The older man quickly looked things over and opened his satchel and pulled out a length of white gauze. He looked at me in a commanding fashion and I removed my hands and pulled Betty Mae’s dress away. He quickly applied a small wad of cotton to the entry wound and a large amount of cotton and gauze to the exit. He then quickly wrapped the leg with a long gauze. The entire process was pretty familiar to me.

“Army?” I asked the old man.

“Confederate. You got a problem with that?”

“Nope, my brother here was a Captain in your sides cavalry.”

“Well then, in that case, I guess I’ll try to save him,” the doc grumbled.

The doc struck me as being a mean old cuss but having seen men wounded and how the good, competent docs had treated them, I could tell this doc was a good one. In no time at all the doc had the wound wrapped and he began barking out orders.

“You men, get me a board over here so we can carry him to my place!”

Several men bolted off to the side of a nearby building and returned with what looked like a 2 x 12 board. He had the men hold the board just off the ground and had Rory and me slide Mick, so his spine was centered on the board. Then the doc put Mick’s good leg on the board and placed the wounded leg on top of it.

“Keep his feet higher than his head or he’ll pass out and that would not be good,” the doc ordered.

While the doc, and the two men, headed off to the doc’s office, the sheriff came to me and Rory.

“Well those three are dead. Looks like you shot the two of them but who shot shot their partner?”

“The fella in the street was warning us that we were gonna get shot,” I said. “Then his friends shot him in the back. It gave me time to knock Mick down and return fire, but I only got a few shots off before Rory took them out.”

“I yelled for them to drop their guns,” Rory added. “But first one turned with his gun up, then the other, so I shot him and his partner.”

“Clean shots too. Both in the chest. Dead center,” the sheriff remarked.

“Good shooting, little brother,” I said squeezing my little brother’s arm.

“Thanks, Paul. Are the women and kids OK? Did anyone in town get hit?”

“My deputy says that there are some broken windows, but no one was hit,” the sheriff smiled at his partner. “He got the doc as soon as I sent him to the other side of the street. It’s a good thing I keep him around.”

I put my arm around Opal Anne, and she was shaking. Rory and I each picked up a baby, and Raylene had Roddy. We walked back into the restaurant and got Opal Anne settled in a chair and got her a glass of water. I put Pauli in her arms and sat next to her. Raylene and Rory were sitting close and we were all shaking a bit as we calmed down from the whole ordeal.

“Opal Anne, are you OK?” I asked my wife. “Can you care for the babies while I go and check on Mick?”

“Yes, Paul. I’m just fine. Go to your brother,” Opal Anne said as she patted my arm.

I kissed her and took off out the door, running to catch up with the sheriff as he walked to the doc’s office.

“We didn’t come looking for trouble, Sheriff.”

“I know, Mr. O’Dell. I knew those boys were going to try something, but I had no idea what or when. They hadn’t done anything wrong so I couldn’t hold them or run them out of town. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, Sheriff. I’m just hoping that Mick’s alright. You know he got through the entire war without a damned scratch.”

We walked into the doc’s office and found Mick lying face down on a large table. I’d never seen a get up like the docs. Mick was laying on a clean white sheet and was covered in a second clean white sheet, except for where the doc was working on his wound. Betty Mae was holding Mick’s hand and holding back tears, because he was unconscious.

“Looks like everything here is under control. Please come and see me before you leave town, Mr. O’Dell.”

“Will do, Sheriff.”

I turned to see the doc sewing up inside the wound and when he finished, he began to sew up the outside of the wound. Every once in a while, he would stop working and spray some liquid around the wound. When he was done, with Betty Mae’s help, he rolled Mick over onto his back and examined the work he had already done on the entry wound. He rewrapped the wound, front and back, with a thick bandage and some gauze.

“You will need to do this every day and keep it as clean as possible,” the doc explained to Betty Mae. “He’ll get full use back but will have a nasty scar.”

“Hey doc how’s he doing?” I asked to let them know I was there.

“He’ll be fine. He’s lucky that I’m a smart old Rebel. I used a solution of cocaine to numb the wounded area and a spray of carbolic acid to stop any infections. It’s new science I was working on during the war. He should be up and running around in a few weeks. He should be able to travel in a couple of days and ride a horse in a week and a half.”

“Where was all this during the war, doc?” I asked.

“Mr... ?”

“O’Dell. I’m Paul, you’re working on my younger brother, Mick.”

“Captain Mick O’Dell? I heard of him. Word was he was a good man.”

“Other than being my younger brother, I think he still is a good man,” I laughed. “Thanks for saving him. How much do I owe you?”

“How much you got?”

“What?”

The doc laughed and looked around at his office.

“Look I’m a doctor in a small town. Miners and farmers aren’t rich, so I take what I can get.”

“Doc, this is your lucky day. I happen to have some extra cash. So, what do you need that will help you and the folks hereabouts?”

“There’s lots of stuff I’d like to have, but I guess what the town really needs is a hospital. Treating gunshot wounds and the like should be done in a room lots cleaner than my office.”

“I don’t know if I can afford a whole entire hospital, but if you can come up with the plans for a clean room like you want and have it added to your office, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Really? Were you in the army like your brother?”

“Yes, but I was on the other side.”

“A damned, booger-eatin’ Yankee?”

“Well, a Yankee for sure,” I answered laughing.

“I suppose you can’t be that bad if you have a son of the south as a brother.”

“Even if he’s from Nebraska, doc?”

“Nebraska!? That ain’t the South, son.”

“He believed what he believed, just like me. Lots of men died because they believed. I just hope we don’t have to do that ever again.”

“I agree, son, but the Apache and Cheyenne have some strong beliefs. I’m afraid it’s going to get worse out here in the West before it gets better. So maybe I better take you up on your offer to build that room onto my office.”

“Doc, it would be my pleasure to help anyway I can. I’ll let Mr. Banks and Mr. Howe know and you can deal with them.”

“Thanks, Yank.”

We shook hands and went back to the table holding my brother. He looked a little groggy to me.

“I gave him some ether so he would calm down enough for me to treat the wound. He should be good to walk out with a cane or crutch in a few minutes.”

“A few minutes? I thought you said a few weeks.”

“Did I? Amazing what money will do, ain’t it?”

“OK, doc, tell me the truth.”

“The wound was clean, but messy. He can walk a little at a time with crutches. He should be able to ride a horse in a few days as long as it’s a smooth ride. If he’s going to be in a wagon, he should spend more time lying down, with his leg raised up, instead of sitting up. It’s gonna hurt and it’ll itch like the dickens as it heals, but keeping it clean will help a lot”