Lone Star Ranger : A Ranger to Ride With (9781310568404) Read Online Free

with English here in Texas.”
    “Oh. No, no I didn’t shoot him. My brother
did that… just before he got shot himself.”
    “I see.”
    “But I think I did shoot one,” Nathaniel
said. “I took my brother’s gun from his hand and pulled the
trigger. Saw one of the other men grab his arm and heard him yelp.
Then, I guess I got shot, because I don’t remember anything after
that.”
    “Nate, this is important,” Jeb said. “Which
arm?”
    “The left.”
    “Good. Once we catch up to that bunch it’ll
help identify him.”
    Jim returned, carrying his medical kit and a
canteen. The rest of the Rangers were with him.
    “Y’all can stop questionin’ this poor boy
until I fix him up,” he said, in a west Texas twang. “You keep
jawin’ at him like that and he’s liable to keel right over on
us.”
    “All right, Jim,” Bob said. To Nathaniel he
added, “Jim here’s kind of the troop doctor. He had some medical
trainin’ while fightin’ for the Confederacy. He’s as good at fixin’
broken bones, stitchin’ up cuts or knife wounds, and diggin’
bullets out of a man as any doctor I’ve ever met.”
    “And I drink a whole sight less than a lot
of those,” Jim added. “Now let me take a look at you, son. What’s
your name?”
    “It’s Nathaniel… Nate.”
    “All right, Nate. I’m gonna take a looksee
at this head of yours, then patch you up. You’re gonna be just
fine. Take a drink before I get started.”
    He opened his canteen and handed it to
Nathaniel. Nathaniel took it and drank greedily.
    “Not too much,” Jim cautioned. “Don’t want
you gettin’ a bellyache from drinkin’ too much. Course, it won’t be
as bad a bellyache as the one your brother gave that hombre lyin’
over there. Lead bellyaches are the worst kind. Reckon your brother
must’ve been a man to ride the river with. I’d wager he’d have made
a fine Ranger.” He grinned. Nathaniel managed a thin smile of his
own.
    “There, that’s better,” Jim said. He parted
Nathaniel’s hair to examine the bullet slash across his scalp. He
poured some water from his canteen onto a scrap of cloth and used
that to wash away dirt, dried blood, and bits of flesh.
    “I hate to do this to you, Nate, but you’re
gonna need a few stitches to pull your skin back together so it can
heal. You’re a real lucky kid. Fraction of an inch lower and you’d
be dead.”
    “That means he must have an even thicker
skull than you, Jim,” Jeb said, chuckling.
    “See if I take the bullet out of your hide
next time you catch a slug, Jeb,” Jim retorted. “Nate, this is
gonna hurt somethin’ fierce. You think you’ll be able to handle
it?”
    Nathaniel swallowed hard. “Do I have a
choice?”
    “I’m afraid not, son.”
    “Then I’ll have to.”
    “Good. You’re a brave lad. I reckon you’d do
to ride the river with, too.”
    Jim took a razor from his bag, along with a
scalpel, thick needle and thread, and a small flask of whiskey.
“This whiskey is strictly for medicinal purposes, Nate. I use it to
clean and sterilize my instruments.” He doused the bullet crease
with some of the whiskey, poured some more over the razor, then
shaved off a strip of Nathaniel’s hair from around the wound.
Nathaniel flinched.
    “You’re gonna scalp me like those wild
Indians I’ve heard about,” he protested.
    “No, I’m not, Nate. I promise you that. You
do need to keep still while I’m workin’ on you, though. I know it’s
not easy, but try’n not move as best you can, so I don’t
accidentally take off another chunk of your scalp. All right?”
    “All right, sir.”
    “Sir? Who’s ‘sir’? My name’s Jim. Don’t you
forget it, you hear?”
    “Yessir, sir… I mean, Jim.”
    “That’s better. I’ll get through this quick
as I can. Here, take this bandanna. There’s a knot in it. Put it in
your mouth. If the pain gets to be too much, bite down on it, hard
as you can. That’ll help some.”
    Nathaniel took the piece of