Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [8]
‘Jules took a lot of convincing to cut out the stuff about the Sil-urians.’ He handed it to her with a wan smile. ‘Still a great romp, though.’
‘ Doctor,’ Martha put a little edge in her voice, bringing him back on track. ‘Perhaps Miss Forrest can shed some more light on what we were just talking about?’
‘Oh, call me Jenny, please,’ said the woman. ‘Did you have a question?’
He took a breath. ‘The sickness you talked about. You said it was cured.’
Jenny nodded. ‘That’s quite correct, although the manner of it was beyond me.’ She frowned. ‘Frankly, Doctor, and as a learned man I’m sure you would agree, it has always been my estimation that those who pose as miracle workers are nothing of the sort.’ She got up and walked across to a cabinet on the wall. ‘Every encounter I have had with men who peddle these so-called patent cures, these powders or philtres for what ails you, they have all been nothing more than confidence tricksters. . . ’
‘But?’ said the Doctor.
The teacher sighed. ‘He came into town a couple of weeks ago, in a gaudy wagon with an Indian youth as his travelling companion.’ She pointed out into the street. ‘He set up a stand across from the Bluebird saloon. At first he did magic tricks, silly parlour prestidigitation and that sort of thing. He used a lot of long and complicated words to dazzle the less educated members of the community.’
‘You’re talking about a medicine show,’ said Martha. ‘Like a travel-18
ling salesman. Con artists, really. Quack doctors with made-up cures that do more harm than good.’
The Doctor glanced at Martha. ‘The Western equivalent of a guy trying to get you to buy rubbish double glazing or knock-off DVDs.’
Martha’s jaw hardened. She took her career as a doctor as the most serious thing in her life, and the thought of people playing at the job, making things worse instead of saving lives, made her quietly furious.
‘On any other day, he would have been run out of town,’ Jenny continued, ‘but the Lesters, they’d come down with a powerful malaise.
So this man, who went by the name of Alvin Godlove, he ignored the red flag outside their house and went inside, bold as brass. And that night, the Lesters were up and about, as well as you or I.’
‘Is that so?’ The Doctor threw Martha a look. ‘But the Lesters weren’t the only sick ones, were they?’
She shook her head. ‘The contagion had touched a lot of folks, truth be told. But Godlove made them all well again, and pretty soon everyone in Redwater was lining up to buy a bottle of his remedy from the Indian.’
‘That’s. . . quite a story,’ Martha said carefully. ‘An overnight cure for smallpox.’
Jenny took a bottle of liquid from the cabinet. ‘I must confess, despite all my misgivings about the man, in a moment of weakness I purchased a measure of the solution myself. Not that I was infected, mind, but I thought it best to have some in the schoolhouse’s medicine cabinet. Just in case.’
‘Can I see?’ The Doctor took the bottle and examined it. There was a crudely printed label gummed to the outside. Professor Alvin Q. Godlove’s Powerful Dispatulated Incontrovertible Panacea Potion –
For All That Ails Man or Beast! Promised to Recover Potency, Aid the Retainment of Hair, Banish Illness and Inoculate Against All Forms of Croup, Grippe and Sickitude. Thin liquid sloshed around inside the container. He took out the cork, sniffed it and made a face. ‘It’s a bit whiffy.’
‘We’ve heard tell that Godlove has worked the same miracle all over the county.’ Jenny sat down across from them. ‘But still I find it dif-19
ficult to put aside my prejudice about the gentleman.’ She grimaced.
‘He was a lewd sort, if you take my meaning.’
‘Shameful,’ said the Doctor, peering into the bottle. ‘Miss Forrest. . .
Jenny. Could I borrow this for a bit? I’d like to give it a closer examination.’
‘You believe you could fathom its secrets?’
He stood up. ‘I’ll have a go.’ He nodded to Martha. ‘Why don’t you stay here, finish your tea? I’m going to pop back to our, uh, transport.’
He flashed Jenny a smile and made