Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [137]
As he pulled the door open an icy blast came in. Sam reached for his fur-lined coat and hat and quickly stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. Beth got up to look out of the tiny window, but all she could see was Sam’s shoulder and the snow-covered ground. But as she heard people shouting, her curiosity was aroused, and she reached for her coat and hat too.
Sam grinned as she came out. ‘Didn’t think you could resist! Dare we walk down there? It sounds like it’s in State Street. Let’s just take a peek. We won’t get involved.’
They hurried, Beth taking Sam’s arm for security on the slippery ground. As they turned the corner into State Street they came upon a crowd of people huddled around a man lying on the ground. Even in the poorly lit street they could see blood staining the snow.
‘Who did it?’ Sam asked a man walking past.
‘Dunno his name, just a guy who’d been fleeced, I guess.’
‘Do you know the man that’s been shot?’ Beth asked.
‘That guy they call the Earl.’
Chapter Twenty-seven
Sam tried to restrain her, but Beth wriggled away from him and pushed through the people crowding around Theo. Her heart was thumping with fear, but all memories of her last angry words to him were wiped from her mind.
‘Theo!’ she cried as she sank down on her knees beside him.
‘He ain’t gonna make it, mam,’ a man in the crowd called out.
It didn’t look good. Theo was unconscious and Beth could see a hole where the bullet had gone through his coat into his shoulder. Blood was pumping out of it. Catching hold of his wrist, she felt for a pulse. It was there, but weak. ‘He certainly won’t make it if we leave him here to freeze,’ she said sharply. ‘Someone help me get him to the doctor.’
Theo stirred and opened his eyes. ‘Beth!’
His voice was so quiet, Beth leaned closer to his face. ‘Yes, it’s me. But don’t talk or move, it will only weaken you.’
As Sam came forward to help, one of the other men suggested they got something firm to lay Theo on, and almost immediately a woman came running out of the nearest saloon with a narrow table-top in her arms. ‘They busted the legs off in a brawl,’ she said by way of explanation and rushed back inside out of the cold.
Sliding the table-top under Theo, Sam took his head end and two others took his feet.
Dr Chase’s cabin was close by, and someone rushed ahead to knock him up. Beth had never met the doctor as she’d never needed any medical help, but she knew him to be a good man because he and Reverend Dickey were responsible for funding the building of a cabin as a hospital, due to open very soon, and the doctor was also well known for treating very poor people without charge.
Dr Chase, a small, slender man with glasses and thinning hair, was already in his apron and rolling up his sleeves as they arrived at his door.
‘Put him on the table,’ he said, moving the lamp closer. ‘Are any of you relatives?’
Sam explained that he and Beth were Theo’s friends and travelling companions and gave him their names. The doctor asked them to stay to help, and for the others who had followed on to leave.
‘I hope you aren’t squeamish,’ he said to Beth as he began peeling Theo’s clothes away at his shoulder. ‘Because I’ll need you as a nurse. Go and wash your hands thoroughly.’
As Beth washed her hands in the basin the doctor had pointed to, she glanced back at Theo. He had no colour in his face, his lips were blue and he was unconscious. She felt sick with fright, for as the wound was exposed it looked terrible, a mass of dark red tissue and blood.
She put on an apron and rolled up her sleeves, and the doctor asked Sam to stand firm behind Theo to restrain him if he struggled.
‘It’s fortunate he is unconscious,’ he said quite cheerfully. ‘But the chances are he’ll come round when I begin probing, so be ready.’
Beth wanted to ask why the doctor couldn’t give him chloroform, but she didn’t quite dare, and stood by to follow his instructions.
‘If one has to take a bullet, it’s a pretty good place for it,’ Dr Chase said, indicating Beth