Rafe

'Take it easy,' Doc said. 'This is very encouraging.' He went on with whatever it was he was doing. 'Feel like pins and needles going through them?'

It took all Rafe's breath to keep from yelling. When he reluctantly slatted one eye to take a peek, Doc, settled back, had let go and was smiling.

'You're going to have to get used to it, Bender. A lot of tissue was crushed. It's impaired the circulation. You're going to have to exercise—'

'How'd you know my name was Bender?'

'Isn't that what you told Bunny?'

Rafe didn't like Pike's stare. It put him in mind of the way the girl had looked when he had told her his name, when he'd been answering all them questions. It came over him now she'd hooked him up straightaway with the horse spread out at the Ortega place; and he wondered if Chilton had made this connection—if, indeed, it hadn't been the basis of his interest, of that job he'd dug straight out of the barrel.

He demanded, glowering, 'Who else knows about it?'

Pike fished a bottle out of his pocket. When Rafe testily looked his disgust and contempt, Bunny's father, shrugging, put about ten swallows hurriedly down his own hatch. Smacking his lips with a satisfied sigh the old gaffer said, 'Whole town, probably. But I will tell you this—they never got it from us. The relationship between a patient and his doctor—wild horses couldn't have dragged it out of us! And,' he declared, leaning precariously nearer, 'I don't believe Chilton knew about it when he hired you.'

Though Rafe couldn't follow the convolutions of Pike's reasoning, and didn't for a moment put any stock in his protestations, the Doc's final statement rang a bell deep inside him.

'How do you figure that?' he said.

'He's up to his ears in that place, been itching to take it over,' Pike urged, 'ever since he fixed up those papers for Bender. Spangler's the only thing that's stood in his way. You think he'd have steered you into the deal if he'd had any notion your name was the same?'

'Maybe not,' Rafe growled, 'but if Spangler is takin' all the profits outa the spread I can't see how he's hurtin' Chilton any. I would say he's playin' right into Chilton's—'

'That's because,' Pike said darkly, 'you don't—' and chopped off his talk as Bunny came wide-eyed into the room.

'Oh!' she cried, suddenly smiling, 'you've got the bandages off. I'm so glad!' She looked at her father. 'He'll be all right now, won't he? He'll be able to use them?'

Pike with his mouth puckered up looked undecided. He finally said, 'I don't really know. If he keeps working them, puts in the time and the patience it will take, I'd say that right hand will maybe come out pretty good; but the left—They didn't leave much to work with. He'll get some use out of those fingers, but the first and third—I really ought to open.'

'Not on your tintype!' Rafe snarled, glowering, and lividly thrust both hands behind him.

Bunny looked shocked. Almost reproachfully, she said, 'If Daddy thinks—'

'By grannies,' Rafe shouted, backing hastily away, 'I don't care what he thinks! They're my hands, dammit! And they've had all the monkeyin' I'm goin' to stand for, you hear?' he yelled, bowing up like a cornered cat.

Bunny, appearing dismayed and bewildered, said, 'But Daddy—'

'Never mind! I'll make out, don't you worry! Send me your bill. I'll pay it when I can, but don't either one of you come any nearer. I'm gittin' outa here an' nobody, believe me, better get in my way!'

'But you can't!' Bunny wailed. 'Don't you know that's what they want?' She whipped around. 'Daddy, tell him!'

Pike, sighing mightily, steepled his fingers. 'I'm afraid your life wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel if they were to catch you out of this house right now.'

Rafe, bristling with distrust, was half convinced in spite of himself. ''They'? What 'they'? You talkin' about that squirrel-faced banker an' his bought-an-paid-for sheriff?''

Pike's eyes kind of goggled. His jaw flopped down like a blacksmith's apron. 'Great Scott!' he exclaimed, sounding pretty upset. Peering nervously around, and with all his chins quivering, he cautiously lowered his elephant-like behind. With a considerable expulsion of grunts and wheezes he eventually got it settled in the chair. 'Young man,' he said, 'the subject of your remarks is not one to be taken lightly.' His simmering stare swiveled around to his daughter. 'Show him, Bunny.'

'Come along,' she bade with her own glance averted, and Rafe followed her out into a room that faced the street. He trailed her over to the window. Being careful not to disturb the curtain she said, 'Take a look at that.'

Straight off Rafe didn't see a thing but the scenery. Then the wink of metal drew his narrowing stare to a scrub oak thicket a couple of hundred feet away. Barely discernible through the foliage was the shape of a squatting man.

Bunny touched his arm and they returned to the bedroom where she stopped beside her father. Following her eyes Rafe went again to look out. Another man was waiting in the rocks beyond the shed from which, the first time he'd quit this place, he'd got Bathsheba. 'Well?' he said, staring hard at Pike. 'What's about it?'

'If this were Chilton's doing,' Bunny's father said, 'they'd not need to be under cover.'

But Rafe wasn't ready to holler calf rope yet. 'Maybe,' he said, 'his tin-badge' had other fish to fry.'

'You can't have it both ways,' Bunny exclaimed indignantly. 'If the sheriff was hand-in-glove with Mr. Chilton, and it was Mr. Chilton's intention to put you out of business, you'd be in jail right now. To be made a public example of!'

'Maybe it didn't suit—'