Shotgun by Elmer Kelton

Author:Elmer Kelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 1969-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

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For the better part of an hour the doctor labored in flickering light while first one man then another held a lamp close. But finally he straightened in resignation, wiping a handkerchief over his bald head and his sweat-glistening face. “I’m sorry, Blair. Did all I could, but Finn Goforth is gone.”

Cold lay in the pit of Blair’s stomach. Even as he had paced the parlor floor, pausing periodically to stare blackly out into the darkness, he had known it would end this way.

The doctor said, “If I’d been close by when it happened, maybe I could’ve saved him. Even then it would’ve been close.” He began putting his instruments into his bag.

“Doc,” Blair rasped, wanting comfort and not knowing where to find it, “it’s midnight. No use you ridin’ to town now. We got a bed for you and a couple of stiff drinks to help settle you if you need them.” The doctor nodded his acceptance. “God knows I need them.”

Blair added, “Could be we’ll need you again anyway. When we’ve done right by Finn, we’ll be goin’ back over there.”

“With the few men you’ve got?”

“I’ll have more. I’m fixin’ to send the boys out to round up all the friends we can muster.”

The doctor poured a liberal drink out of a bottle Blair fetched from a cabinet. He sat down wearily, taking one stiff drink that twisted his face, then sipping easier on the rest of it while he pondered. “You have two sons, Blair. Tomorrow one of them—maybe both—could be lyin’ here where Finn is.”

“It’s our land. It’ll be the boys’ land one of these days…” Blair rubbed his cramped, aching hand. “Maybe not so long off.”

“Your land. And you’d expect your friends to come and die for it with you? That’s a lot to ask of friendship, Blair.”

“No more than I’ve done for some of them.” He didn’t have to tell the doctor how it had been in earlier days, about the Comanche raids and the like. Doc knew. “This fight ain’t just for me or my boys; it’s for all these people. You remember how bad it used to be when Macy Modock was here before. If we let him get a foothold, it’ll be the same way again.”

“You’re still not the law, Blair. We’ve got a duly elected sheriff in this county. It’s up to him to handle it.”

Blair’s left fist doubled. His right one couldn’t. “Erly can’t do it all by himself.” He turned to his sons, to Hez Northcutt and to chunky Chaco Martinez. “Saddle up. You got some ridin’ to do.”

He stepped out onto the gallery with them. From the darkness came the sound of a running horse. Blair motioned for the others to wait. “Could be the sheriff,” he said. Nobody had been able to find him earlier. The lawman was still scouring the country for Joe Little.

The horse loped into the open yard, and Blair saw the flare of long skirts. He frowned as Jessie Cass reined to a stop and jumped down in front of the house.

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