A MAN'S NERVE.
The doctor paused in his story, as though recalling the thrilling scene
which had so nearly cost him his life, and a sad look came into his eyes
as though he felt that his mission seemed ever to kill.
So lost was he in thought, that Landlord Larry had to recall him to his
story by saying:
"It was a very close call for you, Doc."
"A close call indeed, and, but for the shadows on the cliff, revealing
the hostility of my two passengers, my death would have followed. But my
discovery of their intention, and quickness in facing them, disconcerted
them both, destroying their aim, close as they were to me."
"They did not fire again?"
"Oh, yes; several shots, two of which killed my wheelers; but I got in
my work by firing two shots, also."
"Killing them?"
"Yes, for you will find my bullet-brands in their foreheads. The horses
had started forward at the shots, and as the wheelers fell, the coach
gave a lurch which sent the two men from the top to the ground just as I
fired on them.
"I quieted my team, and first bound my arm up as tightly as I could to
stop the flow of blood, and then, dismounting, picked up the two dead
men, threw them into the coach, and drove on.
"Of course my wounded arm gave me more and more trouble, and I could
drive only very slowly with one hand, and hence my delay in arrival. But
I got in without being robbed, which I am very glad of, for there is a
large registered mail on this run.
"Now I will have Loo Foo fetch me some supper and retire, for I am about
played out, and you can search the two men and let me know the result in
the morning. But one minute--how is my patient?"
"Bodily all right, but his mind, as you said would be the case, is
gone."
"Poor fellow! Good night, Larry, and hurry Loo Foo over with my supper,
please."
Landlord Larry bade Doctor Dick good night and departed, more than ever
impressed with the idea that the gold king gambler was a very remarkable
man.
Going to his hotel Landlord Larry found nearly every denizen of Last
Chance awaiting him, and a suppressed excitement was apparent in all.
The two bodies had been taken into the hotel office, to await the coming
of the landlord, and there they lay covered with a blanket. The moment
Landlord Larry was seen, coming from the cabin of Doctor Dick, cries
arose of:
"Speech! speech!
"Tell the news, landlord!" and so on.
Larry mounted to the piazza of the hotel and in a few words told the
story of Doctor Dick's running the gantlet and the nerve he had shown in
the ordeal he had passed through.
"Oh, he's got ther narve of Old Nick, as we all knows," cried a miner,
and this intended compliment was acquiesced in by one and all.
Having learned the news the miners adjourned to the saloons and the
toasts for the next few hours were to:
"Doctor Dick, a man o' narve from Wayback."
Until a late hour the miners drank and gambled, and then, toward dawn,
quiet reigned in the camps, broken only now and then by a yell from some
man who was too full of liquor to go to sleep.
The next morning, greatly to the delight of all, Doctor Dick appeared at
breakfast and received an ovation. Loo Foo had dressed his wounded arm,
and though sore, it was all right, Doctor Dick said, yet he was pale
from loss of blood.
After breakfast he mounted his horse and took the rounds to see his
patients, and everywhere he was greeted with a welcome that could not
but flatter him.
But the two weeks before date for the return of the coach--for the runs
were semimonthly--passed away and no driver appeared from W---- to take
the stage out. It began to look very much as though Doctor Dick would
have to again take the reins.
The search of the dead bodies of the two road-agents had revealed
nothing as to their identity, for, excepting their weapons, a little
money, some odds and ends in their pockets, they had nothing of value
about them, and they were buried at the expense of Doctor Dick, who
would have it so, as he very laconically remarked:
"As I killed them, I should pay their expenses when they are unable to
do so."
At last the day for the starting of the coach came round, and Doctor
Dick, as no one else volunteered, expressed his willingness to take the
reins, though he remarked:
"This will be the last run I shall make, so you must get a man here,
Landlord Larry, to go, if I do not bring one back with me from W----."
And once more Doctor Dick rolled away with a cheer from his admirers.