Chapter 10

April 25, 1849

I have a bad feeling about this doctor. The men found him in Salem, but I've never seen him before. I wish they had gotten Alex's doctor friend. He dismissed us from the room as soon as he got here and when I asked if he was going to wash his hands he looked at me as if he was offended that I would talk to him at all. Even then his hand washing was indifferent. If I wasn't so scared that I'd do something wrong, I'd remove the bullet myself. I took in some boiled water for him to use to clean the wound and some whiskey to irrigate it with. I just hope he doesn't drink it instead. - Louise

The doctor came out of the bedroom after about 45 minutes with a long face and looked at us, "I got the bullet out and the bleeding stopped. I don't know how much damage was done or how much blood he lost before I got here. The wound is showing signs of infection and I can't give you any assurances that he will live. All you can do now is wait and pray."

Claire and I broke out in wails of grief, but Louise gave him with a skeptical look, "Did you irrigate the wound with alcohol?" The doctor looked annoyed. "Did you irrigate the wound with alcohol?" she repeated.

"I'm the doctor, not you! What would a nigger know about medicine anyway?"

Louise looked at him and brushed by him into the bedroom. When he tried to stop her, she used one of the hold breaks Alex had taught her and continued into the bedroom. The water she had brought in was still in the pot unused, likewise the sterilized cloth was set to the side. When she turned around the doctor backed up from the look in her eyes, "Didn't I tell you to wash your hands and use the cloth I gave you? Didn't I say to use alcohol to irrigate the wound?" With every word, she took a step forward until he backed up to the bedroom door. When she grabbed his bag and threw it at him, he turned and ran out the house.

Turning to Claire and I, Louise took command of the situation, "Claire get jug #4 from the kitchen, Elizabeth bring me the whiskey and Alex's bag. Josh, help me turn him over." With his help Louise turned Alex on his stomach and she took off the bandage the doctor had put on the wound. She washed her hands with soap and boiled water as Alex had taught her. She got mad when she saw the treatment the doctor had done. Cloth from the bandage was pushed into the wound and a bit of cloth from his clothes had never been removed.

When I brought the bag, she took out the probe and felt around inside the wound for any fragments of the bullet. Alex flinched when she did and Louise barked at us to, "Hold him still!" After we held him down, Louise began to probe as gently as possible. She found another fragment of the bullet and three pieces of cloth. Using the narrowest forceps she could find in the kit, she pulled the pieces out and probed again until she couldn't find anything else. Getting the whiskey from Claire, she poured it in the wound, causing Alex to lurch around in our grasp. She used the probe again and found another small piece of cloth. Irrigating the wound again with whiskey, she looked again with the probe and found nothing. Picking up jug #4 she poured some of the fluid from it into the wound and bandaged the wound with the clean cloth. Finished, Louise looked at us and broke into tears. - Elizabeth

I'm so afraid. I've watched Alex and helped when he looked for things in a wound, but I've never done anything like this before. What if I do something wrong? If I don't do something though, he'll die from that bungling so-called doctor. Try to remember what Alex did when he operated, Louise. First wash my hands completely. Second take out the probe and check for foreign objects in the wound. Careful, careful. He's hurting, but I can't stop. There's something! What next, Louise? Think, what would Alex do next? Get a forceps and pull whatever it is out. Carefully, don't hurt him more than you have to. Got it! That fool left a fragment of bullet in his shoulder! Now the probe again. There's another object! No, two! Reach in with the forceps again and pull them out. Cloth from his shirt. Anything else? Not that I can find. Now what? Think, Louise! Wash out the wound and check again to see if something washes loose! It hurts so much when I see him like this! Now the probe again, Yes, there's something there! Another piece of shirt. Anything more? No. One more time. Wash out the wound with alcohol. Should I try the solution Alex has been using to treat the animals for their infections? It can't hurt. I'll give him some to drink too if he can take fluid. Put the bandage on and I'm finished. Please God, let me have done the right thing! - Louise

April 28, 1849

I woke up in the bedroom with a raging thirst. I opened my eyes and tried to talk but managed only a croak. Elizabeth was sitting by the bed and I heard her call out, "He's awake!" I tried to reach out to touch her and couldn't move. Looking down I saw my hands were tied to the sides of the bed. Louise and Claire came in and started crying. I croaked again, and looked at the water pitcher. Elizabeth grabbed a glass and raised me up from the bed and put it to my lips. I don't think I have ever tasted anything so sweet before.

I managed to take three small sips before I had to stop. I looked at my hands and managed to whisper, "Hands?"

Louise said, "You were tossing around so much we were afraid you'd hurt yourself while you were unconscious."

"Water," I managed to whisper. I drank again. I don't remember anything else.

April 29, 1849

I woke up again feeling a lot better. I found Claire giving me sips of soup when I became aware again. She saw me open my eyes and almost dropped the spoon in her excitement. I tried to talk and she held her hand to my mouth, "Don't try to talk right now. We almost lost you to the bullet and then to that so-called doctor the men got. Louise finally had to treat you or you would have died."

I just lay in the bed content to stay there. Claire continued feeding me soup with occasional sips of water. I tried to move my right arm and felt an immediate pain shoot through my shoulder. I must have shown the pain in my face because the first thing Claire did was pick up a hypodermic and inject something in my arm that quickly stopped the pain. I looked at the table and saw a bottle of heroin on the table. When she saw me look at it, Claire told me that she had gotten my doctor friend from Salem to come out and look at me. He had told them to use it as needed to stop the pain. I managed to croak, "No more!" She looked at me and put the needle down. I slowly began to fade out to black.

I woke up later to see Elizabeth sitting by my side, reading a book in the fading sunlight. She looked up when I made a movement and reached out to hold my hand. We looked at each other in the sunlight without a word. I tried to squeeze her hand and felt her squeeze back. I saw the bottle of heroin was gone and gave an inward sigh of relief. Elizabeth reached out her other hand and stroked my hair, "We almost lost you again," she said in a soft voice. "If we ever do, I'll die too." She gave me a stern glance, "Remember that you are not the only you have to worry about. Think of us and be more careful in the future."

She got the glass out and gave me some more water to drink. This time I managed to get down a half a cup. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep feeling her hand holding mine.

April 30, 1849

I woke up and this time found Louise sitting there by the bed. I felt a lot better and managed to reach out my left hand to touch her face. She looked exhausted. I stroked her face and she woke up. She reached out her hand and stroked my face in return. I tried to speak and somewhat to my own surprise managed to talk in a low voice without too much trouble, "I understand that you had to operate after the doctor managed to mess up."

An angry look came into her face, "Doctor? That man wasn't any more a doctor than that table over there. He was just the first person they found who claimed to be a doctor." I had the feeling that she had let the offending parties know already about their mistake, probably loudly. "Do you think you can talk to the sheriff soon? He wants to know what happened to you." I considered the way I felt and slowly nodded. "Good. I'll send Josh to find him and tell him to come over."

She went out and I saw Claire and Elizabeth looking in with Josh standing behind them looking over their heads. Soon Louise came back with a cup of thin gruel and a cup of some kind of herbal tea. I suddenly was starving and tried to reach out with my right arm. Again I felt the sharp pain in the shoulder and winched. "Do you want something for the pain?" Louise asked. I nodded and asked for some of the willow bark tea. I wanted to stay away from anything stronger.

Using my left hand I managed to drink the tea and the willow bark tea and then tried to feed myself. I spilled more of the gruel than I managed to put in my mouth but I still felt full afterwards. When I asked how long I had been in bed Louise told me that I had been there for five days. No wonder I felt so weak. Feeling a need to take a piss, I struggled to sit up and use the thunder pot. Louise brought it over to me while I was sitting and I managed to release a satisfying stream. I asked Josh to help me and managed to stand with his help. I was finally able to move to the parlor. I saw Helen peek around her mother's skirt and held out my hand to her. She tottered forward and grabbed my hand. Soon the other two appeared and I looked at my children and my wives as they surrounded me.

After about an hour I heard some horses outside and heard a knock on the door. The sheriff came in and looked relieved to see that I was alright. He looked at my right shoulder and asked, "How's the shoulder?"

"It hurts too much to move it right now."

He gave me a sympathetic look, "Shoulder wounds are always painful." Then he became more official, "What happened?"

"I was coming into town with a prisoner, white man 5 ft 8 inches, brown hair and blue eyes, probably that flim-flam operator that's been selling the fake land grants. Some of the men I had talked to earlier held on to him when he came around asking about land claims that no one was on. He couldn't explain why he was so interested in the land claims to me so I was bringing him here to see if Josh could identify him as the man who sold the fake land claim to his father. I was about a mile out when something hit me from behind and knocked me off my horse. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and that's all I remember."

"He was caught by the sheriff in Portland when he tried to get on a ship to California with two confederates. Must have been one of them that shot you."

"I wish I could tell you for sure, but I never saw the person who shot me."

"Doesn't matter. They're going away for a long time anyway for fraud. They had about a thousand dollars on them and some fake land claims, but most of what they stole is gone. You get paid until you heal up and then I'll have to see if you can still be a deputy."

I felt my shoulder hurting and agreed that I had to think about if I could continue as a deputy after I healed. After he left, I felt totally exhausted and asked Josh to help me back to bed again. I climbed in bed and fell asleep again. Later I woke up and felt a warm body next to me. I moved and heard Elizabeth ask, "Are you in pain?"

"Yes, but I really need someone to hold more right now," I whispered back. I felt the bed move and felt Elizabeth kiss my lips gently. Moving my left arm I gathered Elizabeth into my shoulder and felt her head next to mine. I fell asleep again with her sweet breath against my neck.

May 3, 1849

I gradually got better and began to walk more every day until I was able to move between the bedroom and the rest of the house. I still had a lot of pain in the right shoulder when I moved it, but at least I was able to move the arm. Louise grumbled about men and being underfoot so much that I think she was glad to finally get me out of the house. I had a chair put out in the front of the house under one of the oak trees and I spent a lot of time sitting there watching the children as they played.

The doctor from Salem came out today and looked at my shoulder. "I thought you might be dead by now", he told me. "You had a bad infection in that shoulder and I saw a lot of pus in it. Louise insisted that I put some sort of fluid in it that made it disappear almost overnight. She said that you'd tell me what it is if you recovered." I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Louise! Could you come in here, Honey?"

She came in holding Robert on her hip with one hand and a spoon in the other, "What do you need, Alex?"

"What did you put in my wound when it became infected?"

"You remember that you told me that you were trying out the contents of jug #4 on the cattle to see if it would kill infections? That's what I used."

I understood now, and shuddered to think what could have gone wrong. I've heard of doing abbreviated testing of new medicines, but straight from cattle to humans? Luckily it was an attempt that worked so I now may have an antibiotic. I explained to the doctor that I had been testing various molds to control infections since the old grannies sometimes used moldy bread to do it. He shuddered himself when he heard that. That could have caused an infection as fast as it cured it. I was lucky.

"Louise, do you still have that jug?"

"Yes, Alex, but there's only a little bit left." She brought it in and I saw that there was only about an inch of fluid left in the jug. I offered to give the doctor some of the fluid to test on animals and asked Louise to refill the bottle with boiled water and sugar again. I'll continue testing and see if it works on the animals longer. I'll only use it on a human after I know it works or if there is no other choice.

June - November 1849

I decided to continue as a deputy after I recovered from the shooting. I never did get back full usage of the arm and always had pain in the shoulder from the damage the bullet caused. I often wished on mornings when the pain was bad that I could go to the future again for surgery to correct the problem. I'm sure any competent surgeon could have repaired the damage in no time. I was no longer able to do a fast draw with the same speed as before. I found that I liked being a deputy. Even though it was a dangerous job, I felt that I was doing something important. My wives weren't really happy about the decision but they accepted it.

I resumed the patrols of my district and began to become more familiar with the area. There were several claims that were still abandoned after the people homesteading them had gone to California and there were discussions about what should be done with them. In many cases there were young people just starting out who wanted to move onto the land before it returned to wilderness, but were unsure of the status of the land. I advised the couples who wanted to move on to the land to contact the Probate Court and file on the land as abandoned property.

Josh turned 18 not too long ago and announced that he wanted to file on a small valley in the hills above us. He had found the valley when he was looking for a lost cow this spring. It was a pretty place of about 560 acres about 5 miles away from us. The way the wives took on you would have thought that he was moving to Alaska and that they would never see him again. Josh and I just shook our heads in puzzlement over the actions of the women. I don't think any man will ever understand why women act the way they do.

Josh finally got Claire to help him survey the land and write a description to file with the Land Office in Oregon City. None of the wives were willing to let him go alone so I booked passage for them to travel on the Mogul down to Oregon City and back. The children will be staying with Ola while they're gone so they can have a break from the constant work. I hired a man to work for the time they're going to be gone. They leave this week.

November 13, 1849

Josh and my wives left today to go to Oregon City with a side trip to Fort Vancouver to shop at the Hudson Bay Company store there. I gave each of them $50 to spend on themselves and authorization to access our credit line at the store. I have over 800 pounds of credit there. I just hope they don't spend it all. Josh is going to file for 320 acres of his valley after they get to Oregon City and if he gets married he can file for the rest of the valley. We have decided that we will get everything he needs for a household at the HBC store and have it shipped up here. I have told them to see if they can get large sheets of boiler plate or a hot water boiler at Oregon City. I am going to try and set up an Oriental style bathhouse for us while they're gone. The showers should be easy to make with wood and a watering nozzle. Plumbing should be not much trouble as I still have over 75 feet of the copper pipes left after we made some metal coins for small change.