Doctor Who_ The Gunfighters - Donald Cotton [8]
‘So fine!’ said Billy. ‘So we know him when we find him. So how do we find him?’
‘We don’t have to find him. You boys never heard of Holliday’s drinkin’ an’ gamblin’? So where’s the only place in town he can do both?’
The boys nodded, sagely. ‘Right here,’ they concluded.
‘So then, we jest sit here – maybe havin’ us another little drink – an’ we wait for him... an’ then we blast him! That’s all we gotta do... Easy as... as...’
‘Bakin’ a possum in a pie?’ enquired Phineas, tentatively.
This was a new one, at any rate – and they thumped each other some more.
While Kate, who could do more than play a mean piano, let me tell you, spoke to Charlie. ‘I’ll be right back, Charlie’
was what she said.
‘Why, where you fixin’ to go?’ enquired her employer, likewise speaking for the first time.
‘Jest thought me of an errand I forgot,’ she explained, plausibly.
‘Well, you better be back right smart – if you aim to keep on workin’ here!’
‘Why, of course I will, Charlie...’ And she made a splendid exit.
A simple conversation, you may think? But significant, as events will prove.
5
Notice to Quit
You see, it was precisely at this time in his life, so Doc Holliday told me, that he had decided to get married for once; and likewise settle down – if, that is, the lady was going to insist on it. And to this end, he was even now installing a handsome dentist’s chair, complete with all the trimmings a lady loves, in his new premises on Main Street, Tombstone.
‘Easy there!’ he said to the Wells Fargo delivery boys,
‘You hear me? You carry that there piece of merchandise real gentle – like she was a one-day bride!’
His mind right set on domesticity, you will note? And I’ll tell you for why. In some fly-bitten cow-town down the circuit a-piece, he had recently had occasion to shoot the bejesus out of one Reuben Clanton – of whom we have already heard so much.
Some trifling altercation of an academic nature – in fact, as to just how many aces a man can reasonably be expected to have up his sleeve at the one time; that was the point at issue between them which had caused the argument. And, as usual, Doc had won it. Fair enough, you will likely say; and, on account of the sporting ethic prevailing at the time, I agree.
But the said Reuben Clanton had friends in town, and they didn’t see it our way. They objected to the luck of the quick draw, and demanded a ballot. The outcome of which was that Doc should be strung as high as convenient forthwith, if not sooner.
It was about then that Big-nose Kate had the delicate female initiative to set fire to the saloon; thereby distracting the interested parties for long enough so she and Doc whom she admired, could depart for points West.
Well, after all, that’s the sort of thing a lady will do –
especially if the feller in question hasn’t yet paid her for his previous night’s entertainment and lodging; and Doc was as grateful as a man should rightly be under the circumstances.
Moreover, seeing as he had carelessly left his money-belt back in the conflagration, he considered the only honourable course open to a Southern gentleman was to propose marriage to his fair rescuer, in lieu of lucre.
It was a proposition she duly accepted with some gratitude – and a lot of surprise; because such a slap-me-down suggestion had never come her way before. Johnny Ringo had never made it, for one; nor Jesse James for another. Oh, and several more prominent citizens – none of them had.
But Holliday was different; and he figured a gentleman gotta do what another sort of man would run a mile from –
that’s all.
So there he was, this wild, free spirit, feathering the love-nest with gew-gaws, fal-lals, and a certain amount of hooch, when the sound of size nine high-button boots in a tearing hurry indicated the approach of his intended...
‘Doc, I gotta talk to you!’ she panted.
He rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. ‘Well, now, yes, of course I’d taken that into consideration, Kate – and decided as I’m prepared to go along with it. Sure, I know matrimony