Chapter 168: Convalescence
Valentine Clinic.
Doctor Ben Calloway was forced to work overtime.
In the United States, doctors held relatively high social standing. Outside of business hours, even if someone were on the verge of death, they wouldn’t treat them and would instead tell them to come back during regular hours the next day.
Of course, that rule mainly applied to ordinary people. The wealthy were an exception.
And Davey was clearly one of those exceptions. So no matter how unwilling Doctor Ben Calloway was, he still had to get out of bed and treat Arthur.
Arthur’s most serious injury was a gunshot wound to his left shoulder, with the bullet still lodged inside his body.
Doctor Ben Calloway was very experienced with this kind of wound—or rather, doctors in the West were all skilled at dealing with gunshot injuries. Cowboys getting shot was practically routine.
In the game’s original storyline, Arthur treated himself. He forcibly dug out the bullet with a file, then cauterized the wound with a candle flame. The method was crude but effective, an emergency measure at best.
As for whether it would get infected, that was entirely up to luck.
That incident was also what triggered Arthur’s tuberculosis, causing him to start dreaming of wolves or deer.
In truth, Arthur’s body was extremely tough. Even though he became infected with tuberculosis because of Downes, it didn’t necessarily mean the disease had to break out.
Not everyone infected with tuberculosis bacteria develops the illness. During the latent stage, if the immune system is strong enough, there’s a chance of self-recovery, or the infection may remain dormant for life.
It was the damage to Arthur’s physical condition that ultimately caused the tuberculosis to flare up.
But this time, thanks to Davey’s intervention, Arthur had not contracted tuberculosis. This injury only required normal recovery.
Once the bullet was removed, the rest depended on his body healing itself. By the late 19th century, medical standards in the United States had already entered the realm of modern medicine. Both surgical and internal treatments were possible, and with proper medication, Arthur’s condition steadily improved.
As they say, broken bones take time to heal. A gunshot wound was no exception. As a result, Arthur wouldn’t be able to move freely for at least four to five weeks.
Especially during the first one to two weeks, he could only stay in bed and rest.
...
Land Farm, Davey’s mansion.
Arthur was already asleep. Davey had originally planned to assign a maid to take care of him, but Abigail volunteered to do it herself.
Arthur and Abigail had once shared a relationship, something that could be seen in Arthur’s diary.
In it, Arthur wrote about regretting that he hadn’t married Abigail, largely because of Mary.
That showed that both John and Arthur had once developed feelings for Abigail. Arthur clearly had the advantage, but in the end, he voluntarily stepped aside, allowing John and Abigail to be together.
Although Abigail had a troubled past, after she got together with John, she never did anything disloyal again.
Of course, with Arthur so badly injured, there was no other possibility anyway.
...
In the mansion’s main hall.
Uncle and Davey walked out of Arthur’s room.
“Oh, poor Arthur. This time he really got hurt bad. I can’t even remember the last time he was injured like this,” Uncle said with a sigh.
“Davey, what exactly happened?”
After speaking, he lifted his flask and took a swig.
Compared to roughing it at camp, Davey’s place clearly offered far better conditions for both treatment and recovery.
Davey replied, “It was Colm’s trap. He used peace talks as bait to meet with Dutch, but his real target was Arthur.”
“Our people discovered information about O’Driscoll Gang activity. I took men to go after Colm, and that’s how we managed to save Arthur.”
“If we’d been even a few days later, Arthur would’ve been ruined even if he didn’t die. A gunshot wound getting infected would’ve left lasting damage no matter what.”
“He’s a lucky boy,” Uncle said. “Good thing you got there in time, Davey.”
“Dutch does stupid things sometimes. He killed Colm’s brother—how could there possibly be any peace talks?”
“Anyone with half a brain could tell it was a trap, yet he still went. And in the end, Arthur paid the price.”
“He’s too full of himself, thinks he’s a king. He even talks about knighting people. Ever since he got obsessed with those books, problems like this keep happening.”
Don’t be fooled by Uncle’s drunken appearance, like nothing in the world mattered to him. In reality, he had noticed Dutch’s issues—and the gang’s future—long ago.
That was why, when he saw Davey establish himself, Uncle chose to leave the gang and come work for Davey instead.
As someone who had survived the peak era of the Western cowboys, Uncle had his own way of living—and his own hard-earned wisdom.
Davey didn’t choose to go deeper into a discussion about Dutch with him. After all, he knew far more than Uncle did—about the gang, and about this era as a whole.
For now, with Arthur recovering under his roof, there were many more things Davey could influence.
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