We rode into town from the east...at a slow trot.
We didn't want to raise any dust...or raise any attention.
Clyde had covered some ground...to Bisbee and back on the same day.
He could do that...and be ready to do it all over again the next day.
That Clyde is a beast.
I tied him to the hitching rail just down from the livery...a loose knot...
In case we had to leave quick.
It was growing late and we weren't staying long...not sure how long, but not overnight in this dangerous powder keg of a town.
We were looking for Doc. Needed him bad...and hoped he was still in town.
There were two of us...the only members of the James Gang this far west in the Arizona Territory...so we had to be careful.
We went by Big Nose Kate's first.
Two tables with card games, nobody looked up. Three wannabees standing at the bar.
None looked too smart, nor like they had been very close to a razor or a bar of soap in months.
"Give us two shots of your best 2 bit whiskey, and none of that rot gut you make out back."
"That'll be 8 bucks..." he said "...for each."
"Well give us two glasses of water then. And have ya' seen Doc?"
"Down the street." he said, as he filled two glasses.
"They're on the house if you don't start shootin' the place up."
We both took 'em with our left hand and downed them in one toss like they were whiskey...
They burned going down like rot gut...
I looked at the bar keep as I slammed my glass down on the bar while reaching for iron with my right.
"I only had hot water." he said, pulling his shotgun from under the bar.
So we moved to the door to look around before stepping back outside...back into the hot Arizona sun.
We went to Doc's saloon next...it was the same...
There was a cowboy at the front door. He was a might short and a bit stiff...and ugly!
Looked like he was on the loosing end of a fight with a chainsaw.
"You seen Doc?" I asked.
He just looked at me with a glassy stare from lifeless eyes and didn't say a word.
So I held his stare right back at him...but he won - he wasn't talking.
I learned long ago that you had to watch those with the crazy eyes...
So we walked on down the street, checking from store to store.
It was the same at the next, and the next...and the next...
There were a lot of strangers in town, but none had seen Doc.
We even checked the stage...but no Doc.
We checked at the court house...No one had seen Doc...they said he'd been gone for years.
The search ended for the Wild Woman at the last shop on the boardwalk.
She found what she had really came to town for...just across the street from the O.K. Corral...
"Oh come on - a Quilt Shop???" Anywhere but Tombstone!!!
"Clyde may be tied to that hitching rail longer than he expected." I thought to myself...
And since us desperadoes and outlaws have reputations to protect, I stayed outside, deep in the shade of the awning to watch our back trail...and to keep an eye out for Doc.
And finally he showed...from across the street...from Val Kilmer's Mercantile...
Interesting how you always find the thing you are looking for in the last place you search...
We should have checked here first...
"Doc...
We need to know.
What does...
'I'm your huckleberry'
really mean?"
He squinted and smiled as he reached for the corner of his mustache...
...twirling it briefly between his fingers...
"Google it." was all he said as he mounted up and rode off into the sunset...
Hmmm, I thought..
"googleberry jam..."
"googleberry wine..."
"Hi, I'm Tom Sawyer and this is my friend Googleberry Finn..."
None of it made any sense.
OK, just corral me then...
"Does anybody in Tombstone know what a google is?"
Let the adventure continue...
*Basically: "...Name the place and I'll go with you...Name the job and I will do it...or I'm your man for the job..."
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