Guns of the Canyonlands

Chapter 16

A week drifted slowly by. During that time Sally found water farther into the canyon and shot a deer, bringing in armloads of firewood to cook the meat. She harvested prickly pear fruit, passed the pods through the open flame of the fire to burn off the spines, then cut them open to get at the sweet, juicy pulp. She foraged for wild onions to use in thick broths with deer meat and dandelion root, assuring Tyree the soup would give him strength.

But Tyree was not growing stronger. The very opposite was happening—his strength was waning fast. He tried a few faltering steps, but always ended up falling flat on his face, his legs suddenly giving way from under him. The pain in his back grew worse, though the wound itself seemed to be healing well.

All this Sally watched with growing concern. At the end of the first week she told Tyree to strip off his shirt and carefully examined his back.

After a few minutes of painful probing, she finally said, “I think there is a piece of metal in there, and it’s digging right into your spine. Chance, I need to get you medical help.”

“Medical help?” Tyree echoed. “There’s a doctor at Crooked Creek, but if you’re right about Tobin accusing me of murder, the doc could tell him and lead a posse right to us.”

“There’s another doctor—the old man who helped bring you here.”

“The watcher is a qualified physician?” Tyree asked, surprised.

“No, not really, but he was a mule doctor during the War Between the States. Maybe he can get that chunk of steel out of your back.”

“Or paralyze me permanently,” Tyree said.

“I know, but that’s a chance we’re going to have to take. You can’t ride, and we can’t stay here much longer.”

“Can you trust that old man?”

Sally thought for a few moments. “I’ve trusted him this far.” Then she seemed to make up her mind about something and shook her head. “No, I really don’t know if I can completely trust him. But trust or not, right now he’s our only hope.”

Tyree sat in silence, weighing his options. They were few. Sally was right. They couldn’t remain in the canyon, leaving Quirt Laytham to grow in power and become even more entrenched. And what of Lorena? If Laytham took it into his head to put range before romance and decided to move his herds farther north, both she and her father could be in danger.

Of more immediate concern, the strain was beginning to tell on Sally. She looked exhausted, the rough food and constant wakefulness draining her.

“Get the old man, Sally,” Tyree said finally, his decision made. “But make sure you’re not seen.”

“I’ll be careful.” The girl smiled. She kneeled beside Tyree and lightly kissed his unshaven cheek. “Now I have to be on my way if I hope to reach Crooked Creek before nightfall.”

“People ain’t that much different from mules,” the old man said. “They’re as stubborn and just as ornery. Leastways, that’s been my experience.”

He kneeled beside Tyree, groaning slightly as his frosted joints creaked in protest. “One thing I learned about doctoring, mules or humans, is that the art of medicine is to amuse the patient while nature cures the disease.” He studied Tyree’s face in the flickering firelight. “Now I’ll amuse you by telling you about my days with the First Missouri Confederate Brigade while I take a look at that back of your’n.”

“Why are you helping me?” Tyree asked. “You could have gone to Sheriff Tobin, told him where I was.”

The old man nodded. “I could have at that. But me, I kinda enjoy just setting in the shade and watching things unfold. If I went to Tobin I’d be interfering in the natural course of events, wouldn’t I now?” He smiled under his beard. “Like I’m not interfering enough already by coming here.”

“I never got your name,” Tyree said.

“That’s because I never told it to you. Anyhoo, it’s Zebulon Thomas Pettigrew, but most folks call me Zeb, when they ain’t calling me ‘Hey, you.’ ”

“Well, Zeb, I’m beholden to you,” Tyree said.

“Save all that until I take a look at your back, young feller. When it comes to doctoring, there’s some things I can do and some things I can’t.”

Tyree stripped off his shirt and Pettigrew studied the wound, all the while talking of great battles won and a cause lost. Darkness had reached into the canyon and the only light came from the fire. Sally sat closer to Tyree and took his hand in hers.

“It will be all right, Chance,” she said. “I know it will.”

His examination over, Pettigrew shook his head and muttered something under his breath that Tyree couldn’t hear.

“Zeb, is it bad?” he asked.

“Bad? It couldn’t be much worse. You have a piece of metal pressing right up against your backbone and that’s what’s giving you them dead legs. It’s deep, boy, real deep and hard to get at.”

“Can you cut it out of there?” Tyree asked, a formless panic rising in him.

Pettigrew glanced at Sally, giving her a look that conveyed his misgivings, then turned to Tyree. “Boy, one time, right after First Manassas, I seen a Yankee captain with a musket ball in his back, same place where you got that chunk of iron. A doctor—unlike me, a real doctor—dug the ball out of there but it didn’t do that Yankee officer any good. He ended up paralyzed, couldn’t even move his little finger. After that he lasted for two, three days. Then he died.”

Pettigrew looked into Tyree’s eyes. “To answer your question, yeah, I can cut that metal out of there, but I can’t guarantee you’ll ever walk again.”

“Maybe I can get a real doctor,” Sally suggested, a worried frown creasing her forehead. “Take a chance on the one at Crooked Creek.”

“Sam Neary?” Pettigrew spat. “He’s a butcher. He’s a butcher when he’s sober and worse when he’s drunk—and he’s drunk most of the time. Let him be, girl. He can’t help here.”

“Zeb,” Tyree said, “cut the damn thing out of there. Do it now.”

He heard Sally’s sharp intake of breath and saw the fear in her face. He held her hand tighter. “I’ll be all right, Sally. Maybe that Yankee captain was just unlucky.”

Zeb grinned. “You got that right, boy. Luck’s got a lot to do with it.”

The old man took a pocketknife from his overalls, opened the blade and passed the knife to Sally. “Burn that blade real good in the flames, girl,” he said. “And don’t worry none about the soot, it won’t do any harm.”

When Pettigrew deemed the knife was ready, Tyree turned his back to him and the old mule doctor went to work. The tip of the blade dug deep and Tyree felt Pettigrew working it this way and that as he dug for the shard of steel.

The pain was intense, and Tyree breathed hard between clenched teeth. Despite the coolness of the night, sweat covered his face and stained his shirt. Sally held his hand, her face pale and drawn in the yellow firelight.

“Damn, but it’s deep,” Pettigrew muttered. “Real deep.” He placed a hand on Tyree’s shoulder and spoke into his ear. “I can see the metal, boy. It ain’t no longer than a match head, but it’s got a jagged end to it. Trick is to get it out o’ there without nicking your spinal cord.”

“Do what the hell you have to do,” Tyree said, a harsh, irritated edge to his voice. Then, surprised at his own angry tone, he said, softer this time, “Zeb, just . . . just get it over with.”

“Doing the best I can,” the old man said. “But I could sure use some more light in here.”

The knife blade dug deep again. “Just gonna ease the iron away from the backbone,” Pettigrew muttered, more to himself than anyone else. “Nice and easy . . . real nice . . . and easy . . .”

Tyree felt the knife scrape bone to the right of his spine. Then again. And again.

He gritted his teeth against the pain, wanting to cry out, to yell at Pettigrew to stop, but he knew there was no going back from this. It had to be done.

To add to the light, Sally threw another branch on the fire, and flames flared up, shot through with dancing red sparks. Out among the mesas hungry coyotes were complaining to the night and a haloed moon dominated the rectangle of sky that could be seen high above the canyon walls. The still air around Tyree smelled of wood smoke, blood and man sweat, and when he looked over at Sally he saw that his suffering had become a physical force that was pressing down on the girl like a mailed fist.

He took Sally’s hand again and tried a weak smile as Pettigrew’s knife scraped and skidded in his raw flesh. But the smile quickly died on his lips and he closed his eyes tight against the hurt.

“Got it!” the old man yelled after what seemed like an eternity. “And I was right. Damn thing’s as sharp as a mesquite thorn.”

Pettigrew rose and stepped in front of Tyree. He took the younger man’s hand and dropped a tiny piece of the steel ring into his palm. “That little thing was what caused all the trouble. Hard to believe, ain’t it?”

Sally also rose to her feet. “Zeb, is his spine . . . I mean . . .”

“It’s too early to tell,” Pettigrew said. “If the surgery was a success, he’ll be able to take some steps in a day or two. If it wasn’t . . . well, we’ll see.” He handed his bloody knife to Sally. “Heat that blade until it’s red-hot. I have to cauterize the wound real good. I can’t risk an infection getting started so close to the backbone.”

Sally did as she was told, and Pettigrew got behind Tyree again, the red-hot blade held upright in his hand. “This is gonna hurt like the dickens, boy.”

Without waiting for a reply, Pettigrew instantly plunged the glowing knife into the open wound. Tyree heard his flesh sizzle and almost fainted from the searing, hammering agony of it.

“It’s done,” Pettigrew said. He eased Tyree against the wall of the canyon. “Now you rest up, boy. Gather your strength.” The old man turned to Sally. “I’ll try to come back in a day or two and see how he’s doing. In the meantime, don’t let him attempt too much. His legs will be weak for a while, so he’ll have to take it one step at a time.”

Sally was effusive in her thanks, but the old man waved them away with a dismissive hand. “Hell, girl,” he said, “I’d a done it for a sick mule.”

After Pettigrew left, Sally sat beside Tyree and held him in her arms, listening to his soft breathing as he slept.

Beyond their canyon, out in the vastness of the night, the coyotes were still calling, and the fire crackled and snapped, bathing them both in a shifting scarlet light.