Colorado Sam by Jim Woolard

didn’t change your mind.”
    Â Â  “I wouldn’t put such a thing past him,” Alana Birdsong confessed with a shudder. She stroked Nathan’s arm and rose to her feet. “You’d better get some sleep now. I promised Ellie Langston we wouldn’t tire you and our lady doctor will stop by to check your wound before the days out.”
    Â Â   Nathan made no protest. He was exhausted and could hardly keep his eyes open. Alana Birdsong paused at the door. “Sam will keep watch over you day and night until you’re up and around. Nephew, you have no idea how proud Seth would be of you. Your uncle was a very shrewd cowman, but he couldn’t have handled the situation at Eldon Payne’s office a whit better.”
    Â Â  Nathan’s big grin as the door closed behind Alana Birdsong didn’t hurt his swollen temple even a tiny bit. 

Twelve
    Â 
   The giant dog came charging from the dark as he had in Nathan’s dreams so many nights of late. Nathan thought it peculiar the beast never barked. He prepared to run for his life as usual. Then he noticed the dog’s gaze was locked on something other than him for a change. The charging dog’s path altered and he hurtled past, shoulder brushing Nathan’s thigh. 
    Â Â  The contact jolted Nathan awake. To his amazement, he was sitting up in his hotel bed, grasping the bristly hair of Sam’s neck. The giant dog, paws resting on the edge of the mattress, was staring at Nathan, black nose twitching and snuffling. Nathan’s heart threatened to stop as horrid memories of the mastiff chewing on his leg, red blood soaking his trousers, and the torturous suturing of the wounds afterwards filled him with dread. 
    Â Â  He was afraid to squirm away for fear of inviting an attack. With the deliberate care of a jeweler placing a chisel to cut a rare gem, Nathan relinquished his hold on Sam’s neck. The dog paid no heed and leaned ever closer. Nathan felt hot breath on his cheek and cringed. But instead of attacking, Sam emitted what equated to a human sigh, dropped to the floor, and went padding back to his station at the foot of the bed. 
    Â Â  Nathan fell back on the bed. He was still shaking, head throbbing worse than ever, when a set of knuckles tattooed the door of his room. Before he could respond, the door swept open and a female scarecrow flew into the room. He honestly looked for the broomstick she had to be riding. 
    Â Â  His hustling female visitor lacked shoulders, hips, and breasts. Her percale shirtwaist, six-button vest, and pleated skirt hung on her narrow frame limp as wet wash on a clothesline. The only thing that kept her from being the ultimate scarecrow was the absence of straggly hair. Even at that, her hair was drawn into a bun so severe it threatened to pull the skin from her face.  
    Â Â  The scary creature plopped a black satchel at the bottom of Nathan’s bed. Small rimless glasses perched precariously on the bridge of a nose the width of a knife blade. Owl-sized brown eyes peered at Nathan. “I’m Dr. Ellie Langston.”
    Â Â  Nathan couldn’t decide whether to nod or run. Since flight meant exposing his unclad nether parts, he nodded slowly, very slowly, while trying to wrap more of the threadbare comforter about his nakedness. Dr. Ellie Langston cracked a short-lived grin. “You needn’t get timid on me, Mr. Tanner. I’m interested in your injury. I’ll leave the balance of you to the Chinaman.”
    Â Â  Nathan blushed. “You’ll have to excuse me, Doctor. I’m not accustomed to greeting ladies from bed in a state of undress.”
    Â Â  Ellie Langston’s laugh was as fleeting as her grin, but amusement put a twinkle in her owlish eyes all the same. “Trust me, Mr. Tanner, after five years of doctoring in Alamosa and the surrounding countryside there ain’t much about a man