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gotten nothing else right. Cole had been expecting a robust figure, a man with fists like cured hams and a chest as wide as a wine cask. He’d anticipated a man who had little sense of his own appearance and would be disheveled, if not slovenly. Cole realized he hadn’t given enough thought to Judah’s days as a performer.
    There was a resonance to Judah’s speech that Cole thought he must have used to great advantage in his Shakespearean roles. Even an actor whose audience probably first gathered in a tent would want to project his voice for better effect. Cole could imagine now that Judah had had little difficulty keeping attention on him.
    Judah’s clothes were faded from repeated washing and his boots showed evidence of a recent spit shine. On closer inspection, Cole saw the cane that Judah had used to wave them into the house was more properly a walking stick. It was a polished work of art; a column of chess pieces carved into ebony from the pawn tip to the crown knob, and would have been coveted by any New York gentleman for a turn in Central Park.
    The interior of the cabin was clean and tidy, completely at odds with the disrepair and neglect that was the appearance from the outside. The thin film of grime on the windows added to the illusion, but on the inside those windows were framed by lace curtains, yellow with age, but nonetheless clean.
    Cole did not know what to make of it, so he continued simply to gather information for sorting out later.
    Will returned from the pantry and pointed to one of the chairs at the table. “Mind if I sit?”
    “As you like,” said Judah. He glanced at Cole. “You, too, Doctor.”
    “Thank you, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to begin the examination.”
    Will held up one hand as he dropped into his chair. “First things first, Doc.” He regarded Judah levelly. “Where’s Ryan?”
    “Out.”
    “I know that, but where does he go? I couldn’t make out the direction of his shot.”
    “Upstream a piece, I expect. He usually walks that way when his tolerance for my company is at its nadir. I send him out when my tolerance for him has reached the same low point.”
    “Which was it today?” asked Will.
    “The latter.”
    Will nodded. “All right,” he said, coming to his feet again. “I’ll leave you two here and go find Ryan. Maybe I can convince him to come back long enough to meet the doc and have a go at conversation.”
    Cole thought Judah looked as though he wanted to object. There was just enough hesitation in his manner to suggest he was searching for a reason to keep Will in the house. He tried to set Judah’s mind at ease. “The examination is painless,” he said. “And I’ll be asking you to answer some questions about your medical history that you may not want the deputy to hear.”
    “I may not want you to hear the answers either,” Judah said.
    “That’s certainly your prerogative.”
    Judah’s eyes followed Will as he crossed the cabin. They lingered on the doorway after he ducked out.
    Cole set his bag on the table, opened it, and removed a small clothbound notebook and pencil. He held them up so Judah could see and didn’t miss the surprise in the man’s eyes. Cole’s tone was dry, the arch of his eyebrow ironic. “I don’t think I’ll be needing the bone saw just yet.”
    Will chose to stretch his legs with a brisk walk rather than look for Runt on horseback. He knew his quarry couldn’t be too far upstream or he wouldn’t have been able to see his and Cole’s approach earlier. Every so often he turned, surveyed the point in the distance where he and Cole had been when they heard Runt’s shot, and figured as long as it was in sight Runt was still within a shout.
    If he’d come alone to the cabin, Runt would have joined him, no matter how out of sorts he was with his pa. Escorting the doc, though, made Runt even more suspicious than Judah. And that was quite a feat since Judah didn’t trust his right hand with what his left