In fact, the only thing that seemed real to Caleb just then was the stench of the cell and the constant thumping of the guards’ feet as they walked back and forth to check on him before thumping back to a nearby desk. Caleb sat upon his cot, which was actually an old, broken door covered in a horse blanket. One leg was stretched out in front of him, while the other dangled off the edge to rest upon the floor. His back was propped against the wall, and his eyes remained partially open as they had for the entire night.
He hadn’t said a word since he’d been tossed into that cell, which had done a world of good for his jaw. Having only been able to sleep for a couple hours, he’d spent the remainder of his time behind bars flicking at his stitches with the tip of his tongue. The little jabs of pain gave him something to focus on instead of the constant noise coming from his neighbor.
Dr. Holliday was in the cell next door, and when he hadn’t been talking to Caleb over the last ten hours, his coughing fits had filled the air with a wet, hacking sound that was impossible to ignore. More recently, Holliday hadn’t uttered a word. His coughs had died down and were soon replaced by another sound that was just as bad for Caleb’s nerves: snoring.
As Holliday’s snoring continued, it started to feel like a dull saw being dragged across Caleb’s eardrums. Part of that irritation came from the situation, while another part came from jealousy, since Caleb would have traded a few of his own fingers to get a couple hours of such restful sleep.
Just thinking about it made Caleb clench his eyes shut so he could try to will himself into oblivion. His back ached, his eyes were burning, and every bone in his body was crying for mercy. Every breath was a hardship, and Caleb knew for a fact that he couldn’t have gotten up from his cot without a whole lot of strenuous work. Even with all of that, sleep would not come.
Holliday kept snoring like a well-fed mutt, while Caleb was forced to watch the sunlight grow brighter against a wall as his eyelids slowly pasted themselves into haggard slits. Caleb opened and closed his mouth, only to wince at the pain those simple motions caused.
The same set of boots thumped against the floor, just as they had every half hour or so since the arrival of the fresh-faced guard at dawn. The guard couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet but walked as if he was punishing the floor. More than a little of that confidence surely came from the gun at his hip and the stout club in his hand.
Strutting past Caleb’s cell, the guard looked in through the bars with a scowl on his face. He nodded approvingly when Caleb stayed in his place and kept on walking for a few more paces. Straightening up to his full five feet eleven inches, the guard took hold of the bars of the neighboring cell and rattled the door noisily.
There was so little space in the cramped hallway connecting the cells that Caleb could still see half of the skinny guard’s frame from where he was sitting.
“Rise and shine, Holliday,” the guard said.
The snoring was interrupted for a moment as Caleb heard the sound of something shifting upon a board similar to the broken door beneath his own smelly blanket.
The guard fidgeted with a ring of keys hanging from his belt, and when he looked up from that, he started smacking the bars impatiently with his club. “Come on! I said get up!”
Hearing the guard’s overeager voice echo through his aching head, Caleb pinched his eyelids together and let out a groan.
“I won’t hear nothing from you,” the guard said as he leaned a bit to one side so he could peer in at Caleb.
“What the hell?” Holliday croaked.
After finding the key he’d been looking for, the guard fit it into the cell door’s lock and turned it. “Get on out of there. Ben says you can go.”
Caleb only had to tilt his head to one side and press his ear to the wall for him to hear the dentist struggling to get up in the cell next to him. Holliday’s movements sounded as if they were coming from one of the oafs who passed out nightly at the Busted Flush. There was a lot of scraping of limbs against the cot’s edges, followed by the drop of heavy feet against the floor.
“That was the best sleep Ah’ve had in weeks,” Holliday said in a voice that barely seemed human. His words were still thick with his southern drawl but now were rougher than tree bark and punctuated with a rasping cough that hurt just to hear it.
The guard winced at the sound of Holliday’s desperate hacking. That expression changed considerably after the dentist spat a juicy wad onto the floor. “Jesus Christ, are you all right?”
“Ah’m fine and dandy,” Holliday replied in a drawl that was thicker than ever. “Now what time is it?”
“Just past ten in the morning.”
“And you’re here to tuhn me loose?”
The guard nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“And why is that?”
“Ben talked to some folks at that saloon who said you were defending yourself when that other fellow tried to shoot you.”
“You mean Virgil?”
Shrugging, the guard replied, “I don’t recall the name, but he was a known card cheat, and there were witnesses who said you were justified in that shooting. Since Dr. Seegar spoke up for you as well, Ben said there was no harm in letting you out. Just be sure to stay around so’s we can find you if we need to ask anything else about the shooting.”
Holliday’s feet shuffled against the floor, and he pulled in a few tired breaths. “What about my friend in the next cell?” he asked. “When is he to be released?”
His eyes nervously twitching in Caleb’s direction, the guard shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t say. That’s Ben’s call.”
Caleb felt a groan work its way up into the back of his throat, but he was too tired to push it any farther than that. His eyes had come open a bit more, which allowed him to get a good look at Holliday the moment the dentist stepped into view.
Wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, Holliday looked into Caleb’s cell just long enough to meet the other man’s wary stare. No matter how badly Caleb had been feeling before, he felt better when he got a look at Holliday’s waxy, blood-smeared face.
The dentist’s blond hair was a tussled mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes, which were still an odd mix of gray and blue. Of course, that could have simply been the sunlight reflecting from his pale skin. Looking away from Caleb, Holliday pulled himself upright and choked back another series of coughs that threatened to overtake him.
Turning to face the guard once more, Holliday leaned against the bars of Caleb’s cell for support. In that instant, from his spot behind the dentist, Caleb thought he was going to see the dentist keel over completely. Despite the pain in his own body, Caleb jumped to his feet and reached out to slip an arm through the bars and hold Doc upright before he crumpled to the floor.
To Caleb’s surprise, Holliday wasn’t about to let himself drop. He also wasn’t about to accept any help from anyone else. Twisting away from the support Caleb offered, Holliday took a few steps down the hall. Unfortunately, that allowed the guard a real good look at Caleb reaching out from his cell.
“Get away from there!” the guard shouted as he swung at Caleb’s arm. “I said you’re not to be released, and I meant it!”
The guard’s club slammed against the bars, crushing Caleb’s elbow in the process. Even as Caleb pulled his arm back in, the guard was reaching for the gun holstered at his hip. In the same instant the young man’s hand found the pistol’s grip, he realized that he couldn’t move his arm enough to get that weapon out of its leather resting place.
Even though Caleb had been right there the whole time, he hadn’t spotted Holliday’s movement as the gaunt dentist had reached out and slapped his hand down on top of the guard’s to trap the lawman’s gun before it could clear leather.