Doctor and the Kid, The (A Weird West Tale) (Weird West Tales) Read Online Free PDF

alone.”
    “He wants you to do precisely what you must do,” answered the warrior. “But you cannot do it alone.”
    “And what is that?” demanded Holliday.
    “You will know when the time comes.”
    “And when will that be?”
    Suddenly he was facing a coyote again.
    “Soon,” promised the animal, and ran off into the night.

 
    “Y
     
OU LOST IT ALL ?” demanded Kate Elder.
    “Every last cent of it,” said Holliday. “I have about two hundred dollars left in the world.”
    He was standing before her desk in her office, trying not to sway as he stood there facing her.
    “This isn't another of your damnfool jokes?”
    He was about to shake his head, decided that would precipitate a headache, and settled for saying, “No.”
    “What now?”
    An almost-amused smile cross his face. “Now I find a new place to die.”
    “I could shoot you right now,” said Kate.
    “If anyone else said that, I'd think they were kidding,” replied Holliday. A pause. “I've got to sit down, Kate.” He walked over to a chair and half-sat, half-sprawled in it.
    “Well, you can't gamble if all your money's gone, and you haven't been able to work as a dentist for months,” she said. “Have you figured out what you're going to do to raise some money? You can live here, of course, but if you want a newspaper or a drink, how do you plan to pay for it?”
    “I'll have to go out and earn it.”
    “I just explained: you can't gamble without money, and you can't be a dentist if you keep coughing blood on your clients.”
    “There's a third way,” said Holliday.
    “There'd damned well better be.” She stared at him, and finally her expression softened. “Come on to the kitchen and I'll cook you up some eggs.”
    “You haven't cooked in all the time we've been in Colorado,” noted Holliday. “Am I that much a figure of pathos?”
    “I plan to have Annabelle do the cooking.”
    He frowned. “Do I know her?”
    “You'd damned well better not. She's one of your friend's robots.” She walked to the door and turned to him. “Well?”
    “Give me just a minute for the world to stop spinning,” said Holliday. “I'll be along.”
    “Damned well better be,” Kate muttered and walked down the hall to the kitchen.
    Holliday sat perfectly still for a long minute, then got to his feet and went to the kitchen. The world seemed a little steadier, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to vomit.
    Annabelle—super-hardened brass, huge-breasted, tiny-waisted, and expressionless—was scrambling some eggs as he took a seat at the table.
    “Thank you,” said Holliday as she slid the eggs onto a plate and handed it to him.
    “Oh, baby, you're the best,” said Annabelle. “Want to do it again?”
    “It would have been nice,” said Kate caustically, “if your friends had given her more than three sentences or one topic of conversation.”
    “I'm sure if you order a cook instead of a whore, they will,” said Holliday.
    “Those look pretty good,” said Kate, indicating the eggs. She turned to Annabelle. “I'll have some too.”
    She seated herself opposite Holliday. “So how are you going to get your money back?”
    “I do have another talent,” he said.
    She studied his face for a moment. “You're going to be a gun for hire?”
    He shook his head. “I've never worked for anyone in my life. I don't intend to start now, so close to its end.”
    “Then what?” she asked, puzzled.
    “I hear Wyatt's in Denver. I'll take the Bunt Line over there tomorrow morning, and—”
    “Morning?” she interrupted him with a disbelieving look.
    “When I get up,” he amended. “Wyatt's still a lawman, last I heard. He'll know who has the biggest prices on their heads. If he can find a gang where they all have prices, maybe we'll go after them together and split the reward.”
    “It's always Wyatt,” she said contemptuously. “Wichita, Dodge, Tombstone, now here. What's his hold over you?”
    “He's my friend,” said