In the few days of our empty lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? And who can tell what will happen in the future after we are gone?” –Ecclesiastes 6:12 (NLT)
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McBride made his train and went home for Christmas and things had settled down to normal, whatever that is, after the incident in the diner. Two men walked in, catching me by surprise. With one on each side of me there was no way I could get both men.
But the Lord intervened. I remember throwing myself off my chair to my left, drawing my gun at the same time. When I looked for my assailant all I saw was the pot-bellied stove. Then the voice of McBride rang out as he came from the kitchen. “You touch that gun and you’ll never see another Christmas.”
The man threw his hands in the air, but either the other man didn’t hear or see, or was just all-fire ready to do something stupid, and he jerked his gun. I didn’t see what happened, but I heard a shot, and a thud as the man hit the wooden floor. Slowly I pulled myself up, looking first at the man with his hands in the air, then to the one on the floor as I finally made my way to my feet.
McBride came up behind the man to lift his pistol from his holster. Then he pushed him with the barrel of his gun to a chair commanding him to sit and not move. I watched as he checked him over for any other weapons which produced a knife from his belt.
“You mentioned Lem Collins. Who is he to you?” I had shot Collins when I was arresting him for rustling cattle. He resisted, but he couldn’t resist the piece of lead. I didn’t kill him; he was spending time in the pen, but he does have a nice hole in his right shoulder.
He wasn’t defiant with his answer, but he wasn’t overly joyous either. “Lem was my cousin. My aunt was heartsick when she heard the news, and I reckoned I should try to make it up to her,” he said with in monotone voice.
“You got a name?” asked McBride as the two of us looked at him carefully. McBride shook his head, and I went over to the man lying on the floor to check on him. He hadn’t moved an inch, so I figured he was dead.
As I was stooped down over him, Mateo and Doc came through the door. “Get away!” ordered Doc, as he bent down taking over my ministrations. There was a lot of blood.
I could hear Doc muttering but couldn’t make out a word he said.
“Never seen the like,” he muttered. “Hand me my bag.” By now Molly and Emelda had emerged from the kitchen as Doc took out a bandage and began to bind it around his head. Then he took another one to put against the wound on the man’s shoulder. When he was satisfied, he stood looking down at the still unconscious man.
“He alive?” I questioned.
Doc scratched his cheek. “Oh, yes, very much. The bullet hit the top of his collar bone then glanced upward taking off a piece of his ear and making a nice groove along the side of his head. He’ll come to in a short spell.”
McBride came over, and Mateo had handcuffs on the other man moving him on out of the diner to the jail. “Man said his name was Lucius Feeney.” He nudged the man on the floor with his boot. “This is his brother Mort.”
Doc proceeded to pour himself a cup of coffee, while McBride and I took a chair at the table with him, waiting for Mort Feeney to gain consciousness.
Well, that was all the excitement, nothing amounted to anything the rest of the week. A heavy snow did come in which put off my hunting trip until after it settled. Folks had mixed emotions regarding it. The kids were excited for now they would have a white Christmas, and I warned Mateo to be ready for an attack by those rascals with snowballs.
Christmas…why a thing like what happened could put a damper on it, but then when a person took the time to look at the big picture it only made more sense why Christ came to earth. It was to put an end to the death-grip of sin. Sure, it was still around, but now with the sacrifice of Jesus there was hope of redemption.
Molly and me, why we hope to spend the morning at the diner feeding the derelicts and out of work miners, then sit in front of a cozy fire back in the cabin. Maybe sneak a piece of pie from the diner, and drink some coffee. Mainly relax, with her by my side, reminiscing and thanking the Lord for all He has done for us through the years.