Blister rolled into the picture. “Dawg-gone my hide if I ever see anything to b-beat that. He was q-quick as c-chain lightnin’, the boy was. Johnny on the spot. Jumped the critter s-slick as a whistle.” His fat hand slapped Bob’s shoulder. “The boy was sure there with both hands and feet.”
“What about June?” demanded Mollie. “Seems to me she wasn’t more’n a mile away while you men-folks were skedaddlin’ for cover.”
The fat man’s body shook with laughter. “The boys didn’t s-stop to make any farewell speeches, tha’s a fact. I traveled some my own self, but I hadn’t hardly got started before Houck was outa sight, an’ him claimin’ he was lookin’ for trouble too.”
“Not that kind of trouble,” grinned Mike the bartender. He could afford to laugh, for since he had been busy inside he had not been one of the vanishing heroes. “Don’t blame him a mite either. If it comes to that I’m givin’ the right of way to a mad dog every time.”
“Hmp!” snorted Mollie. “What would ’a’ happened to little Maggie Wiggins if Dillon here had felt that way?”
Bob touched Blister on the arm and whispered in his ear. “Get me to the doc. I gotta have a bite cauterized.”
It was hardly more than a scratch, but while the doctor was making his preparations the puncher went pale as service-berry blossoms. He sat down, grown suddenly faint. The bite of a mad dog held sinister possibilities.
Blister fussed around cheerfully until the doctor had finished. “Every silver l-lining has got its cloud, don’t you r-reckon? Here’s Jake Houck now, all s-set for a massacree. He’s a wolf, an’ it’s his night to howl. Don’t care who knows it, by gum. Hands still red from one killin’. A rip-snortin’ he-wolf from the bad lands! Along comes Mr. Mad Dog, an’ Jake he hunts his hole with his tail hangin’. Kinda takes the tuck outa him. Bear Cat wouldn’t hardly stand for him gunnin’ you now, Bob. Not after you tacklin’ that crazy bull terrier to save the kids. He’ll have to postpone that settlement he was promisin’ you so big.”
The puncher voiced the fear in his mind. “Do folks always go mad when they’re bit by a mad dog, doctor?”
“Not a chance hardly,” Dr. Tuckerman reassured. “First place, the dog probably wasn’t mad. Second place, ’t wa’n’t but a scratch and we got at it right away. No, sir. You don’t need to worry a-tall.”