One More Sunrise (28 page)

“I’ll look forward to every minute we can be together.”

“Me too.”

They had now entered the lobby and were headed toward the double glass doors that led to the street and the parking lot. When they drew up to the doors, Dane noted that they had some privacy at the moment.

He moved close to her. “Could I hug you before I go?”

“You sure can!”

They enjoyed their brief embrace; then as Tharyn watched him pass through the doors and head for his newly purchased horse, she whispered, “I love you, Dane.”

When Dane reached the horse, he looked back to see Tharyn watching him. She waved. He waved back, then mounted up.

As he put the horse in motion, he waved at her one more time. When he reached the street and put the animal to a trot, he said in a soft voice, “Tharyn, you do something to my heart that no other girl has ever done.”

I
t was a cold, brisk cloudless day and the sun was at its apex in the azure sky when Dr. Dane Logan rode into Central City and dismounted in front of Dr. Robert Fraser’s office on Monday, October 18.

He dismounted, tied the reins to the hitch rail, and patted the horse’s neck. “Well, Pal, it’s time for me to get the wheels rolling so I can buy the practice. There’ll be a nice barn and corral for you at the boardinghouse, I’m sure.”

Pal nickered softly and bobbed his head as if he understood.

Dane stroked the horse’s long face. “You see why I named you Pal? You agree with everything I tell you.”

Pal nickered again.

Dane started around one end of the hitch rail and spoke to two older men who were passing by on the boardwalk. He was about to step up on the boardwalk, but when he looked up at the sign by the door, he stopped.
Robert Fraser, M.D
.

A smile broke over his features. “Hmm. I’ll have to have a new sign made. ‘Dane Logan, M.D.’ Wow, does that sound good!”

He glanced up and down the street, taking a moment to better familiarize himself with his new town. He patted his horse’s neck again. “Welcome home, Pal. Welcome home.”

Pal nickered once more.

When Dane opened the door and stepped into the office, Nadine Wahl smiled at him from behind her desk. “Hello, Dr. Logan. Welcome back.”

He moved to the desk. “Thank you, Nadine. How are you today?”

“Just fine, thank you.”

“Is Dr. Fraser in?”

“Mm-hmm. He’s with a patient at the moment, but he should be through shortly. He received your wire, of course, so he has left his calendar open the rest of the day so the two of you can go to the attorney’s office and finalize the sale of the practice.”

At that moment, the door to the examining room opened, and Dr. Fraser emerged beside his patient. The man thanked him for his good care, paid Nadine, and left.

Dr. Fraser smiled warmly. “Well, Dr. Logan, it’s lunchtime. How about I buy your lunch; then we’ll go see my attorney and make everything legal on the sale of the practice.”

“We’ll do that, my friend,” said Dane, “but I will buy
your
lunch.”

Fraser winked at Nadine. “How do you like that? His name isn’t even on the ownership papers yet, and he’s already bossing me around.”

Nadine laughed. “I guess you’d better let him pay for lunch, Doctor.”

It was just past 2:30 that afternoon when Nadine looked up from her desk to see the two doctors coming through the door. She smiled. “Well, that’s a pair o’ docs if I ever saw a pair o’ docs.”

The doctors looked at each other and frowned.

Dane said, “Pardon me, Mrs. Wahl, but a paradox is a statement that seems contrary to common sense, yet is perhaps true. We haven’t said anything yet.”

“Yes,” said the silver-haired Fraser. “What are you talking about?”

Nadine laughed. “Not P-A-R-A-D-O-X. Two doctors. Get it? A pair o’ docs.”

Both men laughed.

“Nadine,” said Fraser, “you’re a case; you know that?”

She smiled. “Guess I am.”

“But I’ll keep you around as long as I can,” said Dr. Dane.

She smiled back. “That’s something we need to talk about, Dr. Logan. But right now, I want to know if the official papers have been signed and the earnest money on the practice has been paid.”

“The papers are all signed, and the earnest money has been paid,” said Fraser. “In fact, because our young doctor did a hip replacement in Denver and was paid generously for it, I got more earnest money than I expected. If I hadn’t promised Dr. Dane I’d stick around, I’d take Esther on a cruise to Europe.”

Nadine snickered. “Sure you would!”

Fraser laughed, then looked at Dane. “In all seriousness, I will be at your side here at the office for the next several days just in case you need me. Even after that, as I already promised, I’ll be available whenever I’m needed. And, of course, there will be times when you have to take patients to the hospital in Denver to perform surgery on them, and you’ll need this old man to fill in for you.”

Dane smiled. “This means more to me than I can ever tell you, Doctor. I’m sure I will need you often.”

“Well, while we’re talking business,” said Nadine, “what I’d like to talk about, Dr. Logan, is my future here.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I’m putting some years on and I’ll be wanting to retire
within the next year or so. I’m telling you now so you will have time to find another nurse to take my job.”

“That’s fair enough, ma’am,” said Dr. Dane. “I’d rather keep you on, but I can understand why you want to retire.”

Nadine smiled. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“Well,” spoke up the older man, “guess I’d better take you to your boardinghouse.”

The doctors walked down the street together with Dane leading Pal. At the next intersection, they turned and walked a half-block to a white frame building.

“This is it,” said Fraser. “There’s a nice barn and a small corral at the back for your horse.”

“I figured so. I didn’t realize the boardinghouse would be this close to the office.”

“Well, I could have reserved you a room at one of the other two boardinghouses in town, but they are not as nice as this one and they are both farther from the office.”

“You’re a true gentleman, sir. You really are.”

“I try,” Fraser said, grinning. “The lady who owns this place is a widow. Her husband died four years ago.”

“I see.”

They entered the front door, and Dr. Fraser led Dane into a small office. He introduced him to the owner, Laura Sparks, whom Dane figured was in her late fifties.

Laura said, “I’m honored to have Central City’s new doctor living in my boardinghouse, Dr. Logan. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show you your room.”

Dr. Fraser accompanied them as they climbed the stairs to the second floor, and Laura guided Dr. Dane to his room. When she opened the door and stepped in ahead of the men, Dane was pleasantly surprised at the size of the room. It was more like two rooms.

“Wow! Lots of space, Mrs. Sparks. I like it.”

“This is my largest room, Dr. Logan. I was glad it was vacant when Dr. Fraser told me you were coming to town to take over his practice. I believe you will enjoy it.”

“I know I will,” Dane said, moving in a little farther and running his gaze around the room. “I’m very fortunate that it’s available.”

It was a corner room, with windows facing both south and west. The clean windows sparkled in the sunlight. They were adorned with dark green draperies that could be pulled closed when needed.

A large colorful rug lay in the center of the highly polished wooden floor. One end of the room was furnished with an upholstered sofa and matching chair. A mahogany desk and chair stood near one of the windows, and a small bookcase rested against the same wall.

In the adjacent space was a large four-poster bed, covered with a green, rust, and cream counterpane. Beside the bed was a bedside table, and a step away was a mahogany dresser. A small fireplace was in one wall, already supplied with kindling and logs.

“This is wonderful, Mrs. Sparks,” said the young physician. “I couldn’t ask for anything nicer than this.”

“I’m glad you’re happy with it.”

“I sure am. And Dr. Fraser told me you have a place where I can keep my horse.”

“Sure do. Right out back. I keep hay and grain in the barn and there’s no extra charge. There’s a water tank too.”

Dane smiled and shook his head. “Great!”

“Breakfast is between six and eight each morning, and dinner is at six-thirty. Of course with your erratic schedule, Doctor, I’ll be happy to keep a plate of dinner in the warming oven, and you can feel free to eat whenever you come home. The dining room is on the first floor, just down the hall from the office.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Sparks. Well, I’m ready to move in!”

Lucinda Moran and Kathryn Tully were pulling into Fort Collins to purchase groceries and supplies.

Lucinda guided the team to a hitching post in front of Decker’s Clothing Store, a short distance down the street from the general store. When they climbed out of the wagon, they saw a small group of people on the boardwalk, gathered around a man who was holding a newspaper up for them to see the front page.

They heard a woman in the group say happily, “Oh, I’m so glad to know that Moran gang is behind bars!”

Lucinda and Kathryn looked at each other, eyes wide. They stepped up to the newspaper rack in front of the clothing store, which was stuffed with copies of the day’s edition of the
Fort Collins Gazette
. The bold headlines announced: TAG MORAN GANG APPREHENDED IN WYOMING!

Lucinda quickly paid the attendant for a paper, and they moved down the boardwalk to look at it. Lucinda held the paper so they could both read it at the same time.

Their hearts pounded as they read the story of how the gang had recently held up the banks in Vernal, Utah, and in Evanston and Green River, Wyoming. The article was careful to point out that in Vernal, Tag Moran had shot and killed a bank employee, and that he had also shot and killed a bank customer during the robbery in Evanston.

The article went on to tell how on Tuesday, October 12, Chief U.S. Marshal John Brockman of Denver and three of his deputies—with the help of Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Randall and his three deputies—got the drop on the Moran gang when they entered the Rock Springs bank to rob it. On page three, there were photographs of all five gang members.

Continuing on page three, the article explained that the gang
was being held in the Carbon County jail in Rawlins. Their trial was set for Thursday, October 21, over which federal judge George Yeager would preside. The article speculated that Tag Moran would hang for murder and that the rest of the gang would receive life sentences in the Wyoming Territorial Prison at Rawlins because they were in on robberies when people were killed.

Kathryn and Lucinda looked at each other, their faces pale.

With dry mouth, Lucinda said, “Kathryn, there’s nothing we can do. I’m sure glad we have plenty of money at the cabin.”

Misty-eyed, Kathryn nodded. “With Bart and Gib in prison for the rest of their lives, all we can do is visit them as much as possible.”

“Yes. That’s all we can do.”

With heavy hearts, the two women bought groceries and supplies and headed back to the cabin.

On that same afternoon, Buck Cummons pulled the stagecoach to a halt in front of the Wells Fargo office in Casper, Wyoming. When he and Doke Veatch entered the office, the Fargo agent showed them the day’s edition of the
Casper Daily Sentinel
, which had the same headlines and the same articles as the other newspapers in Wyoming, Colorado, and western Nebraska.

As agent, driver, and shotgunner talked about the gang’s capture and fate, Doke swallowed hard. “I … I know what Tag did was wrong. He shouldn’t have killed those men, and he shouldn’t have been an outlaw in the first place. But I still owe him for saving my life.”

Both agent and driver looked at Doke in amazement.

Doke went on. “I’ll watch the news close, and if Tag really is sentenced to hang, I will have to ask for enough time off so I can go to the prison and see him before they hang him. I owe him that much.”

Buck chuckled. “Doke, ol’ pal, you really are a true friend.”