Ghost Valley by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online

time.”
    â€œI’ll tell him, Mr. Morgan. You can take a seat over there by those windows.”
    The nurse disappeared down a dark hallway. Somewhere in the back of the building, Frank could hear bubbling water and soft splashing sounds, no doubt the hot mineral baths this place was known for, a spring coming from deep in the earth and filled with healing, or so some folks said.
    â€œThis place is damn near empty,” he muttered.
    The woman returned a moment later. She halted in front of Frank and glanced down at his gunbelt. “Doc says it’s okay, but he asked if you was carryin’ a gun.”
    â€œI’ll leave it here on your desk,” Frank replied, drawing his Colt, placing it on her desk top with a heavy thud. He still had a belly-gun hidden inside his shirt—not that he figured he’d be needing it.
    â€œCome this way, Mr. Morgan,” the nurse said, leading him down the hallway. “Doc said you could only stay a minute or two. He’s feelin’ real poorly now.”
    â€œI understand, ma’am,” Frank told her as she opened a door into a small private room.
    A frail, emaciated young man lay on a narrow bed below the room’s only window, covered by a thin sheet and wool blanket to keep out the morning chill.
    The woman closed the door behind Frank.
    â€œDoc Holliday?” he asked softly. The man on the bed would scarcely weigh a hundred pounds. His cheeks and eyes were so deeply sunken into his face that he could have been dead, had he not spoken just then.
    â€œThat’s me,” Holliday replied. “You can take that chair in the corner. I’ve heard of you, Morgan. You have a reputation as a man with an intemperate disposition.”
    Frank grinned weakly and eased over to the wooden chair. “I’ve heard much the same about you, Doc.”
    Holliday tried for a laugh that ended in a series of wet coughs. With a slender-fingered hand he wiped blood from his mouth with a blood-soaked rag. “What brings you to me, Morgan? Nurse Miller said it was important.”
    â€œNed Pine and Victor Vanbergen. I need to know where they are.”
    â€œA nasty pair. Cowards, both of them. However, they’ll shoot a man in the back and he’ll be just as dead as if they’d faced him.”
    â€œI know. I almost had them a few weeks back in the south part of the territory. They were holding my son for ransom to get at me. I got my boy back, but Pine and Vanbergen got away clean.”
    â€œA damn shame. They need to take the dirt nap. What makes you so sure they’re here?”
    â€œI picked up their trail. They’ve still got a few gunslicks with ‘em. One of ’em tried to jump me here in Glenwood Springs last night while I was down by the old cemetery. He came at me with a shotgun. It only makes sense that it was one of Pine’s or Vanbergen’s shooters. The only thing that troubles me is how they knew I was here—not that it matters, since I’m gonna kill ’em all anyway if I get the chance.”
    â€œYou’re not worried about the odds?”
    â€œI never worry about the odds. I lost their trail south of here by a few miles. I figured they’d come here for whiskey and supplies.”
    â€œThey did. That was a couple of weeks ago.”
    â€œSome old man in town told me to look for ’em in a place called Ghost Valley. It doesn’t show on the map I’ve got with me.”
    â€œIt won’t,” Holliday replied. “But that’s where you’ll find them, most likely. There are remnants of an old mining town in a deep valley to the north. They hole up in a cabin on the west edge of the town. Nobody lives there now.”
    â€œHow do I find it?”
    Doc broke into another fit of bloody coughing. Frank waited for him to clean his mouth and chin.
    â€œThere’s a two-rut wagon road that angles northwest of town into the mountains. It’s a