Doc

“There were men sleeping in there!”

“So you raised the alarm.”

“Yes, of course!”

“You went back to Roxana’s stall, and you led her out.”

“I had to! She wouldn’t go past the flames! I got Roxana out and helped clear the barn, and when it was all over, I took her back to the fort—just overnight! I couldn’t leave her out on the street, could I? I figured I could come back in the morning and find the kid and sort it all out—”

“So you didn’t see Johnnie?”

“I figured he left. I had no idea he was still in the barn—”

Holliday pulled the hammer back. Eli flinched at the quiet click.

Speaking quickly now and quietly, he said, “I swear I didn’t hurt that boy. I ran back to the barn, and he was already on the ground. Roxana must have—You’ve seen it yourself! Look at her!” Eli cried, for the horse was showing white around her eyes. “She doesn’t trust strangers and she’s liable to go light on her front feet. I don’t think that kid knew the first thing about horses! He probably went into the stall and she came down on him.”

There was a curve to the fracture. It might have been the size of a hoof, but … “Doesn’t matter,” Doc insisted. “You turned his body over. You must have seen that he was still alive.”

“Maybe! Yes! I don’t know! I didn’t look that hard! It was dark, for crissakes! The roof was caving in and —”

“So you paid your debt, you got your horse and saved the cowboys. And you left John Horse Sanders to lie there and burn.”

Mouth dry, Eli tensed slightly, thinking he could—

“By all means,” Holliday urged courteously. “Try it.”

He’s going to kill me, Eli thought. This is how I’m going to die.

“Four years of war,” the Georgian said softly, “to teach them rebs a lesson and set their darkies free! But when it came down to your horse or that boy … Well, hell, he was just a colored kid, and kin to no one.” For an endless moment, John Henry Holliday just stood there, trembling. “God a’mighty,” he said quietly. “To think we lost to trash like you.”

As much as anything, it was the weight of the pistol that saved Elijah Garrett Grier’s life that morning. Suddenly and utterly exhausted, Doc lowered his gun, letting it dangle at his side.

“Bob Wright knows everything,” he said. “I recommend you run.”

Eli nodded his entire agreement but pointed out, “I’ll need a mount.”

Doc glanced toward the corral. “Pick one.”

“They hang horse thieves,” Grier objected.

“Only if you’re caught. Best hurry.”

“I—The money? For Roxana?”

Slate blue eyes went wide.

“Toujours l’audace!” Doc said with specious admiration. “The price was twenty- one sixty. Two grand will go to Miss Kate, to clear your debt to her. I will wire the remaining one hundred and sixty to my father. Grier and Cook Carriage Company owes him the money. That leaves me with thirty-eight dollars and change. Forgive me if I am not inclined to share that with a lyin’, low-life Yankee skunk. God as my witness: I should rid the world of you.”

His face reduced to bone, eyes fever-bright, the not-yet-infamous Doc Holliday summoned all the strength he had left, but could not raise the gun again.

“Get out of my sight,” he muttered, despairing. “Get out of Dodge. And don’t come back, you soulless cur.”

* * *

The oldest of John Riney’s four boys generally showed up at the Elephant Barn a little before seven. Young John—Junior, everybody called him—got the job right after they moved into town, when he was eleven, and he could do the work while half asleep. You drew water for the horses in the stalls, and fed them, and mucked out the straw, and spread new, and then went on to the horses in the corral, who got less attention because the customers paid less.

Whenever Captain Grier was in town, he left Roxana at the barn, and he paid extra, which is to say he put extra on his tab. Even so, Junior always took his time getting around to Roxana because she was a bitch of a horse and he was scared of her. She seemed kind of worked up this morning, too, so truth was, he might’ve drug his feet a little, hoping she’d settle down. It was almost nine when he finally got to her end of the barn and saw what was bothering the animal.

If it’d been any other drunk sitting on the floor in the corner of Roxana’s stall, Junior would have just shoveled the shit out from around him, but his mother was one of Doc Holliday’s patients, and Junior did not consider sitting in horse stalls to be among that gentleman’s habits.

“Are you all right, Doc?” he asked, glancing at Roxana. The dentist’s eyes were open but there was no answer, so Junior bent over and shook the man’s shoulder some. “Dr. Holliday? You all right?”

The dentist seemed to come back from somewhere far away. His voice was weak and kind of wavery, and Junior had to lean in to hear him say, “I am fine, thank you. Very kind of you to ask.”

“You don’t look too good,” Junior told him. “You want me to get somebody?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Junior waited, but the dentist sort of drifted off again. “Who, Doc?”

Junior was a little nervous about asking that because he expected Doc would send him for Kate. If he did, Junior planned to find his littlest brother and send Charlie to get her. Mabel Riney would wear Junior out if he went near a bad woman like Kate, but she doted on Charlie and wouldn’t belt him as bad.

“Doc? Who do you want me to get?”

“Morgan,” the dentist decided, after a time.

Relieved, Junior asked, “Mr. Morgan over by the saddle shop, or Morgan Earp?”

“Morgan Earp. If you would be so kind.”

“You bet, Doc. I’ll get him.” Junior looked up at the horse. “I don’t think you better sit in here. That mare’s dangerous.”

“Yes,” Doc whispered. “So I hear.”

Junior leaned the shovel in the corner, and helped the dentist onto his feet, and got him out into the aisle, and kicked the stall door closed, and found a stool for Doc to sit on, and double-checked the latch on Roxana’s stall, because if a horse that valuable got loose, there’d be hell to pay. Then he went off to look for Morgan Earp and found the deputy at home. Morg’s girl, Lou, said that Morgan was sleeping. Junior explained about how he’d found Doc Holliday sitting like Job on a dung heap, so she got Morg up, and he dressed and came over to the barn with Junior.

Doc was still on the stool when they got back to the barn, and Mr. Earp hunkered down next to him. Junior had more work to do, but naturally he wanted to find out what was going on, so he decided to sweep up the aisle. He was real quiet about it, too, though he still didn’t hear much of anything because Doc Holliday’s voice was always so soft. Then Junior saw out of the corner of his eye that Doc’s face was wet. That surprised him so much he stopped sweeping, and he heard Doc say, “I couldn’t do it, Morg. I just couldn’t do it.”

Mr. Earp’s face got soft. “Don’t worry, Doc. I won’t tell nobody.” The deputy stood up and looked away. “Sonofabitch probably had it coming, but you’d’ve hanged.”

Doc kind of laughed and said something else.

Mr. Earp frowned and said, “Don’t talk like that.” The deputy looked thoughtful. “No point going after him. His word against yours. We wouldn’t be able to prove a damn thing.”

Doc lifted a hand toward Roxana and asked a question.

Mr. Earp glanced over his shoulder at the horse and said, “Not a chance, Doc. You know Wyatt.”

Doc sounded stronger and more awake when he said, “Not well, but well enough. Help me up.”

Leaning on his broom, Junior watched the two men as they left the barn. Doc Holliday was unsteady on his feet, and Mr. Earp was helping him quite a bit, but they were talking, heads down, all the way out to the tracks. They had just turned toward their little houses north of Front Street when Junior saw Mr. Earp stop short. Doc turned back to look at him, and the dentist was smiling now. Then Morgan gave a great shout of a laugh and put his