Chapter 24

As I was slowly regaining consciousness, I tried to look around, but it seemed as if every little movement was a new experience in pain. Giving it up as a bad idea, I quickly drifted off to sleep, again.

The next time I regained consciousness, I noticed a woman whom I did not recognize. I tried to call out, but what came out of my mouth, was more of a dry croaking sound. At least it got her attention. She rushed out of the room. A few moments later, Doc Williams came rushing, in with the woman on his heels.

"Damn, I'm glad to see you back with the living, Doc. You have been unconscious for the last three days. I was starting to get worried a mite."

I tried to ask him what had happened, but again, all that would come out was a croaking sound. Hearing this, the woman brought me a cup of water. Putting it to my lips, she gave me several small sips. I finally thought I could form words.

"Doc Williams, what happened? All I can remember was it seemed we were winning, when it felt like I was kicked in the back by a mule."

"We were winning. Then suddenly, this big Indian rose up from behind a stack of supplies, and shot you in the back. We learned later that his name was Red Dog, and that he was the leader of the renegades."

"Damn! Did he get away?"

"Nope! Right after he shot you, this other Indian ... the one that brought the reinforcements, Tall Bear, I think his name was ... shot him! Then, as soon as the fight was over, Tall Bear went off by himself and started wailing. It turns out this Red Dog was his brother."

"Damn, I promised him that the braves would not have to fight their family. Nevertheless, he killed his own brother, and probably saved my life by doing it."

"Spotted Owl said Tall Bear wanted to talk to you, if you lived."

"That makes me nervous. I wonder if he's going to want to fight me for breaking my word about him having to fight family, and kill his own brother? I may owe him an honor debt.

"What about the others? Were any others wounded or killed? And how many prisoners are there and where are they?"

"They didn't seem too mad at you, not even Tall Bear. We had five wounded, and you are the worst. Two of the Indians were killed. I think it was because their weapons were so poor in quality. They don't seem to know about the upkeep of them. They were surprised when we told them that we needed to clean our guns.

"We didn't take many Indian prisoners, but the white men? About half of them gave up when it was clear we were winning, and they couldn't get away. The renegade Indians kept trying to fight, to the last man. We only took four of them prisoner, and that was only because they were too badly injured to keep fighting."

"That's understandable. They know Red Cloud will have them put to a very painful death, for disobeying his orders, and endangering the tribe."

"I guess that would stop them from surrendering. Spotted Owl and some of the men from Silver City escorted the prisoners to Hill City. I got them patched up, using some of your medical instruments.

"Speaking of those, they are the best instruments I've ever seen. Where can I order some?"

Trying to cover up that my instruments were from a different time, I said, "I had the lot of them made for me by this fellow from Germany, while I was back east in school. I don't know how to find him, anymore, or even if he's still alive. I think if we can find someone that can copy them, we might be able to get you some. I don't know how he did it, but they are plated, somehow, to keep them from corroding. I just ordered a lot of new stuff in the Montgomery Ward catalogue, too. Speaking of my doctoring stuff how badly hurt am I? I can tell you I seem to hurt all over?"

"You were lucky. The bullet, as far as I can tell, missed all your vital organs, but it did a lot of muscle damage, and you're going to be sore for a long time. What concerns me is even though I'm pretty sure I got the wound cleaned well, and got all foreign substances out, you are showing some signs of an infection. I'm just not sure how to fight it. I'm a horse doctor. I do pretty well with cattle, too. I can patch up people in a pinch, but I just don't know enough."

"Sounds like you did a pretty good job. If you'll get my bag, I think I have something in it that will help get rid of the infection."

After he got my bag, I had him give me a quarter of the normal dose of laudanum. You had to use laudanum carefully, because of the high chance of becoming addicted. However, for this time period it was the best painkiller available.

I had him take some hydrogen peroxide and a small cleaning brush, and thoroughly clean the wound. I told him to keep at it, until it stopped bubbling. That let me know that most of the infection had been cleaned away.