need a man I can depend on. Not one who’s drug-addled all the time.”
“I see. Well, that’s plain enough.” He opened a cedar box and removed a black cigarillo. His spidery fingers crisped the black leaf as he struck fire to the end. He whipped the match out, tossed it into an aluminum pan.
“So you’ve heard about that?” he asked.
“If you’re talking about the laudanum, yes, I have. Doctor, I need a man who can patch me up using all his faculties. Same goes for the men I might have to bring in.”
Men in this country weren’t sheep. They weren’t liable to come peaceable because I said please and thank you. I had to know there was someone I could trust on the medical end. If not, I would have to push Toland out of town and get someone I could depend on.
I explained all this to him in clear terms. “Believe me, when it’s my life on the line, I’ll sure do it. I’ll post you out of town.”
He squinched through a blue cloud of cigar smoke. “Like coming into a man’s office and telling him what to do, don’t you, son?”
“No, sir, I don’t. We’re both professionals. We have to work together. The law needs the support of medicine as much as medicine needs the law. That means you’ll have to depend on me, too, Doc. I’m willing to accept that arrangement. The question is, are you?”
He smoked in contemplative silence, weighing it all out.
“I heard stories about you, Marwood,” he said at length. “You’ve got a mean reputation. People say you cut a bloody swath up Montana Territory way. You get the job done, but at a high cost.”
“The War Department sent me here at the behest of the Haxan Peace Commission because they thought I was the best man for the job. I’m not out to prove them right or wrong. I just intend to stay alive.”
“What you want is to know if I can stay off the laudanum.”
“Let’s say I’m asking for mutual respect, one professional to another. That’s all.”
Doc Toland turned my proposition over in his mind. He rose and used a small silver key to unlock a walnut sideboard. He removed a tall square bottle with liquid sloshing around inside.
He pressed the bottle into my hand with some reluctance. “You hang onto that, Marshal. There may come a time when I need it. When that time comes, I request there be no questions asked on your behalf.”
“Okay.”
He took a deep breath. “However, in the meantime, I’ll try and do as you ask.”
I got up, slipping the bottle inside my grey duster. “Thanks, Doc. I won’t forget this.”
“Marshal Marwood, it’s been a long time since someone treated me like the professional I once was,” he said. “I want you to know that meant a lot, what you said. I thank you for it.”
“We’ve got to pull together on this job, Doc, and that’s a fact. Oh, one last thing. Can you perform autopsies?”
“I have all the equipment I need. I left Georgia with every-thing but my pride intact.”
“It might be necessary, time to time. Submit your fee through my office. Okay?”
He looked as if an iron yoke had been lifted from his bowed shoulders. He was standing a little straighter and there was more more hope than despair in his face.
“I will look forward to working with you, Marshal.”
I touched the brim of my hat. “Take care, Doc. Hope I don’t have to see you too often.”
A pawky grin tugged the corners of his mouth. “From what I hear that might be a false hope. But I share your sentiment.”
I followed the stairs down and walked across the plaza into a general store. It was the one with stamped metal panels on the outside.
“I’m going to need a few things, and provender, for the office,” I told the proprietor after I introduced myself.
Mr. Whatley whipped a pencil from behind his ear and pressed it to paper. “Go ahead with your order, Marshal.”
“Five pounds of beans. Salt. Sugar. A tin of Arbuckle coffee. Enough to last the week. You got any pemmican?”
“We’ve