Doctor Who_ The Gunfighters - Donald Cotton [21]
‘You mean, like your friend, Wyatt Earp?’ said Ike, nastily. ‘Yes, I bet you’d like that jest fine!’
‘Oh, I’d hardly say he was a friend – just a casual acquaintance, you know.’
‘That ain’t the way I heard it,’ said Billy.
‘Nor me neither,’ said Phineas. ‘The way we heard it, you an’ him’s closer than... than fleas on a hound-dog.’ He grinned round for approval. Another good one!
‘Wyatt Earp an’ Doc Holliday,’ sneered Billy. ‘The bible-punchin’ law-man, an’ the drunken, good-fernothin’
gambler! Now, ain’t that somethin’?’
‘Steady, boy,’ cautioned Ike; ‘let Seth handle it, like we arranged.’
Seth looked at them, plaintively. This wasn’t like they’d arranged at all...
But the Doctor had seen the light – and about damn’
time, too!
‘Now, wait a moment,’ he said. ‘I think I begin to realise your mistake...’
‘It’s your mistake Seth’s thinkin’ of,’ said Ike.
No, it wasn’t. Seth was thinking something entirely different; like, how in hell he’d got himself buffaloed into this in the first place.
‘But I am not Doc Holliday! No – goodness me! – the man you wish to interview is the local dentist! You’ll find him in his shop; and I am confident he will give you an appointment, if you approach him in a civil manner...’
‘That’s where I found you, ain’t it?’ grumbled Seth. ‘And if that ain’t enough, I declare, your name’s right there on your gun-butt – so don’t give us no argument!’
‘But Holliday lent me this gun! Look here...’
And incautiously he drew the weapon, to show them.
You shouldn’t do a thing like that. Not in the West.
Well now, the Clantons couldn’t draw, of course, because Kate was behind them, and she already had. And Steven was at least wondering whether to draw. But Seth, seeing no way out compatible with honour – which he’d heard about, some place – did draw... And a shot rang out, in that staccato way they have! And Seth’s gun rocketed from his fist, spinning across the room to a well-earned rest in a cobwebbed corner, by the eventual-grill...
For a moment nobody moved – and it ain’t hardly surprising! Because Kate hadn’t fired; and Steven thought he hadn’t; and the Clantons knew they hadn’t.
But you, if you have been following closely, will realise that the bullet came by courtesy of Doc Holliday –
concealed, you may remember, on the landing.
However, the rest of the assembly did not have your advantages; and so assumed that the Doctor was responsible – well, the light was bad, Kate having damaged, you’ll recall, the chandelier – and he didn’t at once disillusion them. He was nobody’s fool, after all...
‘Why,’ admired Phineas, ‘I never even saw his hand move!’
‘He never even aimed!’ complained Seth.
‘My God, that was fast!’ agreed the rest. ‘We never did see nothin’ faster! Wow!’ they added.
‘Well, let that be a lesson to you,’ said the Doctor.
‘Steven, my boy, – and you, Miss Elder, if you will be so kind – collect their fire-arms, and remove them to a place of safety. Out of their reach,’ he elaborated.
Impressed, they hastened to obey.
‘What do I do now?’ he enquired of Kate, not being familiar with the protocol.
‘You back ’em against the wall with their hands up,’ she advised.
And so that’s what he did.
But what he would have done next we shall never know; because, as Doc Holliday, with an air of business being temporarily adjourned, snaked his way back to Dodo’s quarters, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson stomped into the action-packed water-hole.
12
Arrest Is As Good As A Change
‘Howdy, Sinners! Holdin’ a prayer-meetin’?’ asked Wyatt.
He could perhaps be forgiven for thinking so, in the atmosphere of awe-struck reverence which prevailed.
Bat said nothing. He generally left that kind of crack to his friend.
And the Doctor breathed the sigh of relief he’d been hoping to be able to use whenever convenient. ‘Ah, my good Marshal!’ he exclaimed. ‘How very pleasant to see you! I was just trying to explain to these gentlemen...