by F. M. Parker
A man and woman had halted on the sidewalk halfway down the block and were now watching. A man on horseback sat observing the confrontation. Two men came out of the store across the street and stopped and cast their eyes upon Eddy and Lester.
"You're a liar," Lester shot back. "I saw the look on your face when I came up on you two. Now I'm going to do what any man would do if somebody insulted his wife."
"I didn't insult Alice. Just ask her and she'll tell you that."
"Stop whining and fight," Lester said with a sneer.
"I don't want to fight you, and I don't have a gun."
"You'll have to fight me for I'll make you."
"Lester, Alice isn't your wife," Ben called out in a voice heard throughout the street.
Lester and Eddy had been so focused on each other that they hadn't seen Ben and Tom approach. Now both whirled to look in the direction of the voice.
Ben continued to speak. "She can't be, for there's a new federal law against a man having more than one. So Eddy has a perfect right to talk to Alice. Hell, he can even take her out walking and do a little hugging and kissing."
"Hawkins!" Lester shouted, his surprise complete.
"Yeah, it's me, Lester. I think I'm the fellow you're really mad at."
"God how I've prayed to see you again and make you pay for running off with Maude."
Ben smiled, pleased at being able to redirect Lester's anger from Eddy to himself. He coiled, ready to draw his pistol and kill Lester. "Like I told you, you can have only one. All the other women you've got can go off with any man they take a fancy to."
"Are you sure about the law?" Eddy asked. "That a man can't have but one wife?"
"Yes, it's a fact. One wife for each man."
"That's a lie," Lester shouted. "I'm going to kill you, you wife-stealing bastard."
"No!" Eddy called out in a strong voice. "Lester, you started with me first. And by God you have to finish with me first."
"Then get yourself a gun," Lester snarled. "Let's get it over with so I can tend to that brother of yours."
Eddie crossed to Ben. "Loan me your pistol, Ben."
"He'll kill you," Ben said in a low tone. "Let me have him. I'll shoot both his eyes out."
"I can't do that. I want Alice for my wife, and I believe she's willing if Lester wasn't around to stop her."
"I've got a woman reason to shoot him too."
"Stop the confab," Lester called out harshly.
Ben and Eddie ignored Lester's shout.
"I know about Maude," Eddy said. "But this is something I've got to do for myself. He's beat me up twice and I can't take that. And he stands in the way of me getting Alice."
"If he kills you, I'm going to kill him."
"I'd want you to," Eddy said with a crooked grin.
Ben pulled his pistol and gave it to Eddy. "The trigger's mighty light, so watch it."
"We do crazy things for a woman," Eddy said.
He whirled and began to walk toward Lester, firing the pistol. The first bullet, fired unintentionally because of the light trigger, went into the ground at Lester's feet.
Lester raised his pistol to return the fire of the man walking with determined steps toward him. As he sighted down the barrel, Eddy's second bullet struck him in the side and spun him partially around. He turned back to the front again and aimed his pistol.
Eddy's third bullet hit Lester in the side of the neck. A fourth stabbed him in the stomach. Eddy was within a very few feet of Lester. He emptied his last two shots into his adversary's collapsing body.
FIFTY TWO
Ben's body quivered and quaked with unimaginable pain as the scalpel cut into the flesh of his face. His muscles corded and bulged against the straps that held him to the operating table, and they fought against the strong hands of Talbott, Tom Hawkins, and John Davis, who were holding him down with all their strength.
"Hold him still," Evan said sharply. "I must make this last incision very precisely." The operation had gone on for more than two hours with the shock to Ben's body building relentlessly. Evan must quickly finish before he killed Ben, as he had other men.
The operation had begun when the first sunlight had come streaming in the window and brightly illuminated the operating table within the office of Doctor Talbott in El Paso. The generous doctor had agreed to lend his office and surgical instruments to Evan for the operation. Also, he remained to observe and to help Evan when he could.
Prior to beginning the operation, Evan had heavily dosed Ben with laudanum and whiskey until he was stupefied and finally unconscious. Yet he knew the drugs were only partially effective in alleviating pain and that Ben would suffer horribly from the cutting of the scalpel. Ben had then been strapped to the operating table and the three strong men had taken hold of him. Evan had made his first incision.
Now and again the pain brought Ben up from the stupor caused by the drags, and his eyes would open and he would seem to be aware of what was happening, and would look at Evan as if trying to see him from some great distance. At those times, Evan spoke to Ben. "Hold on, my friend, for we are making good progress." And Ben's eyes would close. Each time this occurred, Evan gave thanks that Ben's expressive eyes hadn't been damaged by the cannonball that had struck him.
Evan had cut free, by sections, the flesh that had been damaged and had grown attached to the skull in the wrong place. Then, with his artistic surgeon's hands, he had stretched and shaped the flesh to its original form and sewn it back into place with small, neat stitches.
The operation was turning out more successfully than Evan had dared hope. He had found that some muscles and tendons of the mutilated face were still attached to their proper position on Ben's skull. However, most had been torn completely away from their anchor point. Some of those were ripped and shredded, making their reattachment very difficult.
Finishing the last stitch, Evan spoke to the men holding Ben. "You can release him now."
He turned to Maude, who had sat and watched the operation from the very beginning. He had heard her sob at times, when Ben cried out with pain, and at those times when Evan cut free a section of flesh and blood had poured out and run across the table.
"The operation is complete, Maude," Evan said.
"Thank God" Maude said looking at Evan through tears. "How is he?"
"This was a very major operation. However, Ben is a stout fellow and has come through it. His face will swell and he will be in great pain for days. Pray that there is no infection."
"Oh, I will pray every minute."
"Ben will need at least one more operation. Nothing nearly as long or as difficult as this one. Just a minor one to put a final smoothness on the scars that remain. In the end, you will have a handsome boyfriend."
"He has been a handsome man to me even during these past months. Now soon he will be my handsome husband."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WIFE STEALER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEADLY DINNER
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY ONE
TWENTY TWO
TWENTY THREE
TWENTY FOUR
TWENTY FIVE
TWENTY SIX
TWENTY SEVEN
TWENTY EIGHT
TWENTY NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY ONE
THIRTY TWO
THIRTY THREE
THIRTY FOUR
THIRTY FIVE
THIRTY SIX
THIRTY SEVEN
THIRTY EIGHT
THIRTY NINE
/> FORTY
FORTY ONE
FORTY TWO
FORTY THREE
FORTY FOUR
FORTY FIVE
FORTY SIX
FORTY SEVEN
FORTY EIGHT
FORTY NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY ONE
FIFTY TWO
Wife Stealer
Copyright © FM. Parker, 2000 and 2011
Originally published as ‘Blood and Dust’ in 2000.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
This digital edition published in 2011 by F.M. Parker
ISBN 978-1-908400-22-2
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