Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography Page: 85
xii, 180 p. ; 21 cm.View a full description of this book.
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a horse's hoofs. Someone was riding at a dead gallop through
the night. Closer and closer the rider came and, giving a wildly
excited command, drew up outside the door. Hastily I drew on
trousers and shirt. By this time, on the advice of Mrs. Koon and
other Bonanza pioneers, I was carrying a Colt .38, to protect my-
self against wandering toughs and thugs as I made my rounds.
Amid a great flurry of knocking on the door, with the winded
horse panting and snorting outside the window, I came out of
my room as Mrs. Koon, holding a lamp, let the caller in. Mrs.
Koon had lived in Bonanza forty years, and did not scare
easily. The visitor proved to be hardly more than a boy. He had
on patched pants and calico shirt, his blond hair fell about his
face. "My wife," he said, in gasps and squeaks, "I think she's
going to have a baby. Right soon. Will you come, Doc?"
"Sit down a minute," I told him. "I'll be right with you."
He did not hear me. "Man, oh, man," he apostrophized.
"She sure is making an awful fuss!" And, turning to Mrs. Koon,
he said: "Ma'am, you think she'll die?"
"No," said Mrs. Koon. "I don't." But her asperity was lost.
I warned the young about-to-be father-he was only seventeen
-that he could ride as he wished, but that I could not keep up
with him. The road where he was leading me was hardly
wagon-wide, but he was so eager he kept riding on ahead, after
which he had to wait for me to catch him up. Presently a rift
in the cloud cover opened and a bright, hard moon, nearly full,
came flooding through, silvering the land and deepening the
shadows. I saw the boy up ahead. He had halted his horse and
was standing up in the stirrups. Coming to him at the bend I
saw a light in a little cabin, his beyond a doubt. But he was not
looking at that.
In the road was a shapeless black something. It was moving
with a strangely convulsive motion. The boy let out a strangled
cry of alarm. "Good Lord, Doc," he cried, "that's Martha!
What we going to do?"
"Clement!" I said sharply, "let me take care of this!"
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Atkinson, Donald Taylor. Texas Surgeon: an Autobiography, book, 1958; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143566/m1/97/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.