It Happened in a Stormy Night

2. In the Darkness

After Rango had calmed down, he took a step forward. His eyes still focused on the creature.
"Relax. Always keep a level head," he thought.
He took a closer look at the person on the ground to see more details, which was not so easy because of the darkness and the weak moonlight. In addition, the person lay in the shadow of the cactus and made the investigation even more difficult.
"Okay, keep calm, don't panic," Rango murmured, taking the last few steps forward, always mindful that the person was only playing the dead man and could attack him anytime. He nudged the person gently with his foot and then he backed away immediately.
No sign of life. Maybe the shots from earlier were not fancy and someone was shot dead out here.
Rango swallowed. Were the perpetrators still nearby? It did not look like that. Rango gave a yank on himself. He should control whether the person was still alive. Otherwise, he would be guilty of denial of assistance.
Carefully, he knelt on the ground in front of the unknown person. Now he noticed details. The person was well built, almost a little obese, according to which animal it was. Some animals were thicker, others thinner by nature. Slowly, he reached out his hand to feel the pulse where he suspected the neck. He flinched as his fingertips touched cold skin. Groping, he searched the body. The skin was firm, probably reptile-like and scaly. It had to be a lizard. Examining, Rango felt the skin more closely. It was wavy, rather humpy. With more courage, because the person still did not move, his hand moved up to where the head was.
It was unpleasant for him to touch someone without permission. But in this case, it was a necessary investigation. Rango spread his fingers to find out how big the head was. The size scared him a little. The head was very big.
Rango slapped his face inwardly. The pulse! He wanted to feel the pulse!
Hastily his hand moved back to the neck. He pushed in several places, hoping to feel something pulsating.
He winced. There! There was really a very slight movement under the skin.
He took his hand away, shaking it and pressing it again on the skin to make sure that it had not been his own heartbeat he had felt. Again he felt something. It was really a pulse. The person was not dead. At least not yet. But he did not even know how big the damage was.
He stood up quickly and walked thoughtfully around the person. He was very tall. Who was that and what was he doing here? Rango remembered something.
Stable side position! Maybe he could choke any moment.
With effort, Rango grabbed the giant lizard on the arm and bent it. He paused. That weight and that size of arm reminded him of someone. Casting all reason overboard, he felt the whole body now. He felt shirt, pants, shoes, thick lizard tail, massive face and ... a hat lying next to him.
Rango stared blankly at the person who lay in front of him and was not a secret to him anymore. The lizard in front of him was no one else than Bad Bill.
But why lay the villain of the city here? And why unconscious?
His hands wandered again about the Gila lizard. First, the upper body, and it was not long before Rango found what he was looking for when his palms touched something on Bill's stomach. Rango swallowed hard as he ran his fingers over a knife handle, which stuck in Bill's body.
He kept searching. His hands reached the legs. There he did not find a knife, but something damp on his left leg. Judging by the smell, he identified it as blood. Whether it came from bullets, or from the knife, he could not say, which was not so important at the moment. Whether he was a felon or not, he had to bring help. Immediately!

As fast as Rango's legs could carry him, he raced back to town. There he sprinted to Doc's house immediately. As soon as he reached the door, he hammered and kept ringing the doorbell. Even in a small town, it was customary to close the doors at night as a precaution. It took almost a minute before the door was finally opened and Doc was almost slayed by Rango's hands.
"Good that you are awake Doc," Rango babbled immediately.
The doctor yawned tiredly. "No wonder with the noise you are making. What's going on? Is it burning anywhere? "
"No, it isn't burning, just ... Bill is lying outside of the city. I suspect, seriously injured. You have to come immediately. "
"Bill?" Doc repeated in disbelief.
Rango nodded. "Yes, come on, come on."

Moments later, they were on their way to the place. Doc had spent no time to change his clothes, and had thrown a coat over and left the house with a doctor's bag.
"Over there," Rango said, pointing forward. "Next to the cactus."
They quickened their steps. "I think the second or third one... Exactly h ..."
Rango's sentence stuck in his throat. Instead of finding a senseless Gila lizard, the place was empty.
"Uh ... but ..." Rango looked confused. "But ... I do not understand that. He had been there, I'm absolutely sure. "
He turned to Doc. "Honestly, he had been here!"
Doc did not respond to his assurances and went around and searched the floor. He sniffed. He knew the smell of blood well enough that he had no doubt that someone would have lain there moments before. He picked something up off the floor.
It was Bill's hat.
"Do you have a guess where he could be?" The rabbit asked.
Rango scratched his head in irritation. "No ... not that I ... I mean ..."
"How long have you been away?"
"Just a few minutes. I ran to you from here after I found him. "
Doc nodded. "Enough time to run away."
"But he had been unconscious. How could he run away? "
Thoughtfully, the doctor scratched his chin. "There are two possibilities. Either he woke up in the meantime and dragged himself on, or ... someone took him away. "
Rango swallowed. "But where?"