Ezra found a telephone and got the operator to connect him to the 8T8. Juanita answered on the first ring. Ezra wondered if she had slept at all. He heard the anxiety in her voice and tried to sound as calm as he could as he told her that the surgery was done and Eli was resting.

“Listen, Juanita, I fixed it so he’s got a private room. They’re going to put a cot in a little room next to where he is, so somebody can stay with him. I thought it might be better if you come in to the hospital here and look after Eli. If anything was to go wrong, all I could do is holler for help. I expect the girls can take care of the house for a week or so.”

“Yes, I would like that. The children are home from the Ewing place, so I have explained to them what happened. They are worried, but they know how strong their father is. They believe he will be all right.”

“Well, send one of the boys over to fetch Ben and ask him to drive you into town first thing tomorrow. I’ll try to get some shut-eye here tonight and see you in the morning.”

Ezra didn’t sleep much that night. Mostly, he listened to Eli’s ragged breathing. They were giving Eli morphine for the pain and he was still unconscious, but he moaned every time he moved. At four o’clock in the morning, the hour he normally rose, Ezra got up and went down to the hospital restaurant for some breakfast and sat there looking at the newspaper and thinking about all the twists in the road that had brought them to this place. He wondered how he would handle things if Eli didn’t make it. Eli always kept so much of his business to himself that even Ezra didn’t know how things stood, although he knew they weren’t good. Eli was a lot better at juggling all of it than he was, which was why Ezra stuck to his little Appaloosa outfit. Raise a few horses, break them, sell a few, buy now and then. It was about as much as he cared to manage, but without Eli, the 8T8 would be Ezra’s by default, the whole shebang. A hundred thousand acres and six children to raise.

“You better pull through, big brother,” Ezra said aloud. “I don’t want no part of running that outfit.”

The waitress, a plump young woman with a wad of bubble gum stuffed in her jaw, turned her head. “Was there something you needed, mister?”

Ezra shook his head, embarrassed. “No, ma’am. I’m sorry. I was just thinkin out loud.”

“That’s all right. We get a lot of that in here.”

“I expect you do.”