Horse With No Name Read Online Free Page A

she
caught a glimpse of it before it shot away from her touch and
bounced off the baseboard behind her. It was a tooth.

Four
    "Can you hold up your side a bit better please?"
    "I'm trying but you've got him hoisted so far
up on your side that his weight is sliding down on me. You're both
taller than me, you know," Julia said crossly, and slightly out of
breath.
    "Okay, stop then. Let's try something else."
Merrick stopped walking and shifted Hunter so that his arm wasn't
around Merrick's shoulder. "Is that better?"
    "Yes." Julia said.
    They kept walking.
     
    Hunter needed medical attention, that much
was obvious. Julia debated for a few seconds about running all the
way through town to Dr. Parker's office to get him and bring him
back to the store. She ran out into the street and, as luck would
have it, Constable Merrick was riding by. He took one look at
Julia's face and leapt off Earl, his big grey. He quickly threw the
reins over the closest hitching post and followed Julia without a
word into Hunter's store. After a quick assessment, Merrick decided
it would be better to just take Hunter to the doctor's office.
    "Stay here. I'll go get Walt."
    "Don't be ridiculous," Julia said, refusing
to be relegated to the status of frail bystander. "We shouldn't
waste time. Let's get him up into sitting position."
    When they did, the situation briefly
worsened. Hunter's vest and shirt front were liberally covered in
blood. His nose was sitting at an odd angle and was nearly as
swollen as his right eye. His left eye still remained slightly
open, but Julia expected that situation wouldn't last long. The
right arm was clearly broken. Hunter moaned loudly when they sat
him up.
    From there, as gently as they could, Julia
and Merrick got Hunter standing between them. He was conscious, but
just barely, and his feet dragged occasionally as they
pulled/carried him out of the shop.
    Dr. Parker was waiting for them when they
reached his surgery. Christopher Mitchell had been coming back from
a delivery and spotted the ragged trio inching their way along Main
Street. He’d run to the doctor to prepare him.
    "Put him on the table. Gently now."
    Julia and Merrick slowly made their way down
the hallway at the front of Parker's house. In his office, the
examination table was covered with a fresh sheet and lying
flat.
    Julia and Merrick leaned Hunter against the
table at its middle. Merrick unwound his arm from Hunter's side and
then while Julia squiggled out of the way, the doctor and Merrick
gently lifted the patient up onto the bed. Hunter groaned once and
his head flopped back dramatically as he fainted for the first time
since they'd left the store.
    "What happened?" Parker leaned over Hunter's
face as Merrick stepped out of the way.
    "I don't know," Julia answered. "I found him
like this behind the counter at his store."
    Merrick turned to Julia. "Did you see anyone
around the shop when you arrived?"
    Julia shook her head. Now that Hunter was
safely in the doctor's care, the adrenaline was leaving her body.
She cleared her throat, "No. There was no one. The shop was quiet.
I almost left because I thought he wasn't there."
    Parker turned away from the examining table
and walked to a cabinet filled with glass jars that held various
sharp and dangerous-looking instruments. He grabbed a pair of
scissors and two towels off a pile on a lower shelf.
    "Did you see any horses around when you
arrived?" Merrick continued questioning Julia. "Any wagons hitched
nearby?"
    Julia cast her mind back to the scene on the
street. She had been so preoccupied with angry thoughts about her
status as a project in the minds of the town's matchmakers that she
doubted she would have noticed a stagecoach even if it had run over
her. She shook her head.
    Dr. Parker undid the buttons on Hunter's vest
and pushed it aside. The shirt underneath was still white in the
places where the vest had protected it. Parker leaned across with
his scissors and began cutting away the