Doctor Who_ The Gunfighters - Donald Cotton [42]
Mind you, he had every excuse, his hands being currently encumbered by a tray-full of Clancy’s bas-cuisine
– crawdad chowder and mash, if you want to know – but still... Try as he would, he could not off-hand recall a similar happenstance; and you could say it rankled.
Moreover, the fire-arm now waving at will in the general direction of his midriff was held in the inexperienced grip of one whom he had hitherto counted amongst his dwindling circle of friends. That would teach him to trust people, he thought.
‘Hands up!’ said Dodo.
‘Well now,’ he temporised, ‘if I do that, then these high-priced victuals is a-goin’ to slop all over the flowered linoleum.’
‘All right then, half-way up,’ she agreed, making a concession.
‘Have you any particular motive in makin’ so free with these fool-hardy instructions?’ he asked her. ‘Or is you jest passin’ the time of day?’
‘You promised you’d take me back to my friends this morning,’ she explained, ‘and here it is, lunchtime. I am no longer prepared to tolerate this kind of shilly-shallying; and I now insist that we hit the trail. Are you ready to start?’
As we know, Doc had privately decided, in view of everything, to give Tombstone and its hostile purlieus the miss for the foreseeable. So he prevaricated.
‘Little lady, I’m ready to leap like a mountain goat, you ever do somethin’ like this again! May I enquire further what you are a-fixin’ to do with that there instrument of bloody destruction; which is, rightly speaking, the trousseau of my intended?’
‘Shoot you, if you force me to adopt such a course!’ Doc had suspected as much.
‘Then will you kindly declare, here and now, whether you have ever in your sweet life handled that class of weapon before?’
‘No – but.I am familiar with the principle of its operation. You pull the trigger, I believe?’
‘That’s about it, I reckon. So then, how would you propose to rejoin your loved ones?’
‘I shall try not to kill you. I am aiming for your right arm. I have already drawn a bead on it.’
‘You have? Then I would like to point out that right now you got me in the thoracic cavity. Where my heart hangs out,’ he explained, in deference to her lack of medical knowledge. ‘What you’re about to do is blow me to Glory!’
‘I shall just have to take my chance on that.’
‘Seems like it’s me that’s takin’ the chance!’
‘Very well; in that case I suggest you escort me back to Tombstone at once.’
He sighed, deeply; for he had grown fond of the girl –
and in other circumstances, would have preferred not to kill her. Ah well, we can’t always do as we’d like in this world, that’s for sure.
‘Maybe I’d better, at that,’ he lied, smoothly. ‘You don’t mind, do you, if I leave a note for Kate? Her bein’ out an’
about doin’ the household shoppin’ an’ all, she might take it kind of personal if you an’ me jest high-tail it out of here, without tellin’ her goodbye. You know what she’s like. She acts a mite suspicious on occasion...’
He placed the tray carefully on the table, and began to reach for the pen he kept in his Derringer pocket.
She forestalled him.
‘There’s no need for that,’ snapped Dodo. ‘I’ve already attended to the matter. I’ve written a letter, explaining what we are about.’
So what could he do? Except face the inevitable; always an unpleasant experience.
‘Well, I surely hope you’ve explained real good! O.K.
then – since you appear to have taken care of every goddam thing, we’d best vamoose before she gets back an’ gives us the kind of argument I wouldn’t by no means wish to be a party of. By God, little girl – first you clean me out at poker, an’ then you get the drop on me! When we do get to Tombstone, I’m gonna be right glad to observe your disappearin’ rear end!’
So Doc Holliday rode off to keep his date with Destiny, and such, spurred to this course by a gun in the lower vertebrae and held there as a reminder that Dodo was right