She shook her head hazily and blinked. Dwight’s face was blurry as she tried to focus through her tears. “Then…then he’s not…but why was he still in handcuffs?”
Slowly, the room started to go dark around the edges of her vision, like a tunnel closing in on itself…Dwight’s voice asking if she was all right seemed far away…other voices and noises didn’t make sense…she thought she heard a shout…and the sound of running feet…and then…nothing.
~~
It seemed like only seconds had passed when Mary opened her eyes, surprised to find herself lying on the settee in the library.
Doc sat next to her, holding her wrist with one hand as he kept track of her pulse with his pocket watch in the other. A damp cloth rested across her forehead. As she fought her heavy eyelids, everything seemed jumbled in her mind.
“She’s coming around,” he murmured, glancing up at someone standing near. His face was a mass of concern.
“She hasn’t eaten a thing since breakfast, the poor dear,” Pearl’s worried voice spoke.
“We need to get something down her. A glass of milk if nothing else,” Doc agreed. Then, his eyes met hers. “Mary, my dear…can you hear me?”
Her brow furrowed. “Yes. I…what happened?”
Then Dwight’s anxious face came into view and she realized he was on his knees next to the settee. “You fainted, sweetheart. I carried you in here. I was telling you about Hank and—” he stopped at her gasp.
Doc put a finger under her chin and made her look at him again. “Now Mary, calm down. Hank is fine. The news was good. You hear me?”
She managed to nod, and then they were helping her to sit up before someone pressed a glass of cold milk into her hand. “Here, try to drink as much of this as you can. I fear you’re on the verge of becoming dehydrated, plus you need to give that little one you’re carrying some nourishment,” Doc encouraged. Dutifully, she obeyed.
Draining the glass and slowly feeling more like herself, she smiled at the apprehensive faces looking down at her, and then to Dwight who was still on his knees at her side.
“All right. I think I’m better now…please tell me about Hank. I promise I won’t faint again,” she added, trying for a little levity.
Dwight exchanged glances with Doc, and then sat next to her as he filled her in on what happened, adding, “The only drawback to the sheriff releasing him is the possibility of him being wanted by the authorities back in Lincoln—” he held up a hand when she opened her mouth to object.
“Don’t worry. Tobias and I are taking the train in the morning. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Hank gave us all of the details as he knows them. There’s been no wanted poster printed concerning him. The sheriff doesn’t want to send a telegram to inquire because we don’t know if corruption played a part in what happened. He’s not sure who to trust. But if worse comes to worst, David said he will defend him pro bono publico…that means he won’t have to worry about compensation…payment,” he added when he saw her confusion.
Oh my. She hadn’t thought of that. If there was a warrant out for his arrest… A bounty on his head… They could put him in jail in Lincoln and if he can’t prove he didn’t steal that money, he could go to prison…or worse!
Meeting her husband’s eyes again, she declared, “I want to go with you.”
She watched the emotions in his eyes, and saw how he looked from his mother to Doc, and finally settled back on her, before gently shaking his head. “No, honey. It would be better if you stayed here.”
Her eyes filled with tears of worry for her brother, but Dwight grasped her hands in his and pressed them against his heart. “Mary, I give you my word. I’ll do everything I can to get him cleared or whatever I have to do—with as much care as I would if he were my own brother. I promise you.”
There wasn’t much she could do but nod in acquiescence. And pray. But this time, she vowed she would pray in faith, and not in doubt and unbelief of God’s power and goodness.
Dwight and Tobias had been in Lincoln for two hours, but hadn’t turned up anything solid.
They were being exceedingly careful as they surreptitiously asked questions around town, not knowing who could be involved and how big of a cover up it truly was. They hadn’t yet gone to the sheriff.
Hank had told them he had gotten a job as a stockman at the Union Pacific train depot, and that he’d been accused of stealing money from the safe there. He swore he was innocent, but since the theft meant that a great many people working on a large building project for the City Water Works would go without their monthly pay, a mob had formed. Then, as the sheriff was taking Hank to the jail for questioning, the mob surged forward to string him up but he was able to break away and run. Neither his boss nor anyone else had believed he was not guilty.
Dwight and Tobias decided to try visiting one of the saloons down at the waterfront. As they had plied a patron with drinks, he had turned into a fount of information.
The men gave one another careful looks and nods as the story unfolded. Seems that the depot manager had committed the actual theft of the money and—no surprise—had been the one to lay the blame on his new employee, Hank. The sheriff had found the money when they’d searched the manager’s room at the boarding house two days later. That explained why there was no wanted poster with Hank’s name
