Blood-Lines

Part 6

Hank shook his head while he smiled at the squaw who'd just cleanly whooped the insolent likes of Billy Bates and left his partner Sam Addison with a dark stain on his pants for reward as he ran away.

Both boys should have known better than to mess with a wild squaw like that.

She'd reacted with the speed of a rattler, while her body moved with the flowed grace of a panther as she walked away from the fallen boy without a care in the world for what had become of him.

When his wife joined him at the window and saw the boy still curled motionless in the dirt, she gasped and ran to fetch the doctor yet again.

Even with all the time that they'd spent out here, she still couldn't help but hate those that lived just nearby.

But that was one of the few things that the two of them had agreed to disagree with between them.

Bracna had just started looking at what remained of his patient's clothing when the storekeeper's wife burst into the room, broom held at the ready.

She slid to a stop and pointed a finger of accusation at Running-Deer who continued to gently cleanse their patient's wounds while he jumped up to place himself squarely between the two women.

"That squaw did something bad to Billy and probably killed him out there. I demand that you arrest her!"

Bracna sighed with regret as he set the clothing down and gently moved to guide the angry woman from the room, while Running-Deer had paid little or no attention to the woman during the entire tirade.

As he followed the angry swish of Helen's skirts out to where Billy lay motionless in the street, he knelt to check the young man over.

He could only shake his head while he stood to face the angry woman with her broom at the ready as her husband walked over.

"Saw the whole thing Doc, Billy tried to take a poke at the squaw and she poked him back, but good."

Helen whirled on her husband only to find that he was clearly not going to say anything other than what he already had.

With a loud exclamation of disgust, she roughly pushed him aside as she quick-marched back to their store in a huff.

Hank just shook his head. "Billy's partner is probably changing his pants right about now. Should have seen it Doc, she moved like a damn snake. Go on back and I'll take care of this whelp."

"Thanks Hank." Bracna replied in relief.

The very thought of Billy's overconfidence paired with the possibility that he might actually have the upper hand on someone who was not afraid of the braves in her own tribe was the most amusing thing that he'd heard of in quite a long time.

He was still smiling when he picked up their patients belt and spotted the insignia of the United States Marshal Service stamped along the inside of the leather.

His smile faded as he looked along the rest of the belt and spotted the name "Marshal Augustus Poe" crudely stamped on it as well.

"Well ... Son ... of ... a ... bitch!" he swore softly as he left his patient with Running-Deer.

It was doubtful that she even noticed that he was gone.

With several quick strides, he was at the telegraph office in seconds.

Wilson Pickett looked up from over half glasses and smiled until he saw the look on Bracna's face.

A painfully thin man, he'd always seemed to have the half glasses stuck at the end of his nose beneath the visor he wore.

"What is it Doc?"

"You remember the message from Kasher Point yesterday?"

Pickett frowned and turned to leaf through a stack of papers on his desk before he retrieved one and tipped his head back to read it.

"Something about a missing posse and a Marshal sent out to all stations, why?"

"Because we need to tell them that we found their Marshal."

"Found him, here?" Picket asked with confusion; as they were far enough from Kasher Point that it seemed almost impossible for him to have shown up in their midst.

"Just send the damn message Wilson, as well as one to Fort Danna. Colonel Bonnet will want to know as well."

Bracna quickly made his way back to his patient to try to figure out what the hell had happened to both him and the missing posse.

They would have visitors soon that would want answers and he aimed toget as many as he could before they got here.