Part 2
If Buck thought the incident would just blow over quietly after they were back home, he was much mistaken. When they arrived, Buck and Ezra went through their usual routine, reporting to Chris how their errand went, if there had been any complications or impediments, that sort of thing. But after they were finished, Ezra disappeared up to his room for several hours, not coming back down until the next day for his patrol. When asked about it, Ezra had just said that he had needed the extra time to rest. At the time, Buck thought everything would be find, but it soon became very obvious things weren’t.
Everything was quiet that was true, but that was also the problem. Ezra was too quiet, and everyone in town was noticing. The normally gregarious gambler remained silently contemplative. He didn’t try to entice newcomers into his games. He had even been seen to turn some men down when they asked for a game. While he had kept his amiable disposition, he was as quiet and introverted as Tanner on a bad day. Everyone was getting worried about him.
Chris even noticed and wondered if he might need to step in. After a couple of weeks of this, he corralled Buck and asked him point blank what had happened on that trip to Harvest Hills to set this off.
Buck wasn’t sure what exactly he should do, so he just told him that they had run into a situation that had brought up so very painful old memories for Ezra. Chris fully understood how badly memories could affect a man, so he let it go and moved on.
Buck, however, was getting more and more worried about Ezra. Since the town was well taken care of at the moment, he decided to go out to a secluded pool about a half mile outside of town and think. He had found it about three months after they had come to town, and in all that time, he had never seen anyone else there. Today, he was surprised to find Ezra sitting among the rocks that edged the pool looking intently at something in his hands.
Not sure what he should do, Buck stayed hidden in the shadows of the bushes, silently wondering if he should leave him undisturbed or step forward and announce his presence. Just as he decided to leave Ezra in peace, Ezra spoke up.
“Mr. Wilmington, please come out and make yourself comfortable. I will be leaving momentarily.”
Buck jerked in surprise, then stepped forward asking, “How did you know I was here? I didn’t make any noise.”
“An old survival skill, Mr. Wilmington. It is prudent to be familiar with the positions of the people around you are at all times.” Ezra looked up as he finished, “Such skills have kept me alive this long, Mr. Wilmington. It would be very difficult and very ill-advised to disregard them now.”
Buck nodded that he understood what he meant, but he didn’t say anything else and continued watched his friend. This man had been with them since the very beginning, yet Buck knew the least about him that he did about any of them. Ezra kept to himself and no one ever pushed him, only gleaning what little they could from his actions and words. However, they had made some big assumptions when they first met, and Buck was beginning to think they had made some big mistakes.
Buck just about gave voice to one of the questions that had been bothering him for a while when Ezra rose and called his horse over to him and prepared to leave. That horse was one of the things that bothered Buck. He was perfectly trained and cool under fire, the kind of animal that could save you life in battle, but what was Ezra doing with him? Chaucer wouldn’t let anyone ride him but Ezra, so Ezra had to have been the one to train him. But according to Ezra only a fool would have gotten mixed up in the war, so why would he have occasion to train a horse for battle? For that matter, Ezra himself was more than your average rider. Ezra could control just about any horse you put him on. He never used spurs and unless he had to leave in a big hurry, Ezra always checked all of his tack before mounting. Just like now. Even though all he had done was ride out to the pool and let the horse wonder around for a while, he was checking everything from the cinch to the bridal to make sure absolutely nothing had come loose.
As Ezra finished his inspection of the tack and slipped the item he had been looking at into the saddle bag, he moved around to mount and accidentally kicked a scrub bush growing beside the rocks. Buck was horrified to hear the bush start to rattle and see a snake begin to unwind itself in anger from its resting place. Knowing instinctively that there was no way Ezra could move in time, Buck drew and fired without hesitating. He hit the snake dead in the head, but Ezra, startled by first the appearance of the snake and then the sound of the gun shot, twisted quickly and lost his footing on the slippery, moss covered rock and fell into the water, striking his head on the rocks on the way down.
Buck was over to the pool and in after him in less than five seconds, but Ezra was floating face down, out cold when he got there. As fast as he could, Buck got him turned over and pulled him out of the water. Dragging Ezra up the shore, Buck called, “Ezra?!” Ezra was breathing he was relieved to find, but remained unresponsive, so Buck grabbed Chaucer’s reins and tied them to the back of his saddle. The horse hadn’t so much as flinched at the sound of the shot and was still standing exactly where Ezra had maneuvered him. Carefully, Buck heaved Ezra dripping wet form up into his arms and then onto his own horse in front of the saddle. Ezra never so much as twitched.
Quickly Buck mounted behind Ezra and grabbed the reins,
cradling Ezra’s limp body back against his chest. He then spurred his horse toward
~~~~~
Josiah threw down his hammer and hurried off the church roof as fast as he could as soon as he saw Buck coming in at full gallop, Ezra’s limp form clutched in front of him, bellowing for Nathan. He got to the clinic stairs just as Buck pulled his horse to a stop and helped him to gently lower the injured man. His worry heightened as he heard Nathan hiss through his teeth as he tried to examine the wounded gambler. “Nathan?”
Nathan just ordered, “Get him up stairs.” Without questioning, Buck and Josiah maneuvered the gambler up the stairs and into the clinic proper. Only after they had arranged the unconscious man on the cot and he could start cleaning the bloody head wound did Nathan ask what happened.
“There’s a pool out on the south side of Thompson’s rocks. I go out there to think some times,” Buck hurried to explain as Nathan worked. “Ezra had beaten me out there and was about to leave as I got there, but as he was checking his tack, he kicked one of the scrub bushes and disturbed a rattler. I shot it to keep it from striking, but Ezra was caught off balance. He twisted and lost his balance on the rocks. I think he hit his head as he went down into the water, but I got him out as fast as I could.”
Pulling Josiah around, Nathan showed him how to hold the pad against the still bleeding head wound. Nathan then quickly unbuttoned Ezra shirt and stripped it off him. Putting his ear to Ezra’s chest, he listened then muttered, “There’s water in his lungs all right.”
Buck looked up at Josiah with a stricken expression. He had hoped he had been fast enough to keep that from happening, but to no avail. His attention was drawn back to Ezra when the unconscious man started heaving, and Nathan and Josiah quickly rolled him onto his side. After a few minutes, Nathan shooed him out so that he and Josiah could work better. Buck stood outside staring at the door helplessly for a few moments, and then turned to go stable the horses and tell the others what had happened.
