“I liked Doc,” the boy said simply. “He showed me lots of things. He was kinda high-handed with anybody he didn’t like. But he was darned good to me. Doc was a white man.”
“No chance of him being mixed up in anything underhanded?”
Charlie Shaw snorted disdainfully, which was explicit enough answer for Rock.
“Go on, tell me about Alice Snell and Doc—and Buck Walters,” he prompted.
“Buck’s the fly in the ointment.” Charlie frowned. “As I said, I don’t blame Doc for playin’ up to Alice. She’s a mighty sweet-lookin’ girl. Only——”
“I gathered somehow,” Rock filled in the pause, “that the late Doc was pretty sweet on Nona Parke. So much so, that he was jealous of any man that paid her much attention, and that he got himself in wrong with Elmer Duffy over that.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But Nona don’t want nothin’ of a man except that he be a good stock hand around her outfit. Sure, Doc thought a heap of her. So do I. But not the way he did. Even if he got to consolin’ hisself with Alice, I expect he still felt like protectin’ Nona from fellers like Duffy. Elmer ain’t such a much. I’d be inclined to horn off fellers like Duffy, myself. An’ I’m not stuck on Nona. Me ’n’ Doc worked for her two years, off ’n’ on. She’s been like a sister to me. She’s game as they make ’em. Darned few girls would have the nerve to run this one-horse show the way she’s done. I’d rather have her for a boss than anybody I know.”
There was a sincerity in this stumbling, embarrassed declaration that Rock admired. But he was still on the trail of the unknown, and he quizzed Shaw further.
“This Snell girl’s of age. She’s rich. I guess she’s been spoiled. Always had her own way about anythin’. She come up here last summer, first time. Come back again this spring. Took a dickens of a shine to Doc and didn’t hide it much. Everybody in the country knows it, except Nona. She ain’t got eyes nor ears for anything but her ranch and her cattle. An’ Buck Walters is crazy about this Snell girl, himself, though she has no use for him. She told Doc once that she’d can Buck off the Maltese Cross if her dad hadn’t made him an administrator of his will. I don’t know if there was anythin’ definite between Doc an’ Alice. I do know Buck has turned to hatin’ you—Doc I mean—like poison, lately. His eyes burn whenever your name comes up. That’s why I said he aims to get you—get Doc. Darn it, I keep gettin’ you all mixed up.”
“Better go on thinkin’ of me as Doc Martin,” Rock suggested, “until something breaks. I’m interested in this. Listen, now, Charlie: Do you remember where the Maltese Cross was a week ago yesterday—the day Doc was shot? Were they in easy reach of the Marias? Do you recollect if Buck Walters was missing that afternoon?”