Weird West 04 - The Doctor and the Dinosaurs Read Free Page A

began walking to the door, followed by Edison. Once they were out in the street, the procedure was reversed and Holliday followed the inventor to the brand-new Delaware Hotel, which boasted the most luxurious wood-paneled rooms in town, each with its own indoor plumbing. They stopped at the front desk long enough for Hollidayto rent a room, then climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked to the end of the long corridor, where Edison pulled out a key and unlocked the door. The parlor had Oriental rugs, dark furniture, and the windows were framed by tasseled drapes. Portraits of Victorian ladies and gentlemen, none of whom Holliday recognized, hung on the walls.
    “Back already?” said a familiar voice.
    “Yes,” answered Edison. “And I've brought company.”
    Ned Buntline, portly and mustached, with thick, flowing sideburns, emerged from one of the two bedrooms, took one look at his visitor, and walked over to greet him with arms spread wide.
    “Careful,” warned Holliday. “I'm not that healthy.”
    “At least you're up and around,” said Buntline, settling for shaking his hand. “I don't know if Tom has told you, but I've written some of our—well, your —adventures up in a play.”
    “I hope you get Lillie Langtree to play me.”
    “Lillie Langtree?” repeated Buntline, surprised.
    Holliday shrugged. “She's the only actor whose name I know.”
    Buntline chuckled. “Tell you what: if she's in New York when we're casting, I'll ask her—but don't hold your breath.”
    “It's been twenty years since I could hold my breath,” said Holliday.
    “Well, have a seat, Doc!” said Buntline, indicating a tufted leather chair.
    “I'll take this one, if you don't mind,” said Holliday, carrying an elegantly crafted wooden chair over from a large dining table. “I have a feeling I'd never get out of that leather one.”
    “Guess what this is all about, Ned?” said Edison enthusiastically.
    “I don't believe in miracle cures,” said Buntline. “I think our Apache friend probably had something to do with it.”
    Edison nodded. “It's his half of a quid pro quo .”
    “And Doc's half?”
    “Ned, it's got to do with Cope and Marsh!”
    “You mean they haven't killed each other yet?” asked Buntline with a smile.
    “Who the hell are they?” demanded Holliday irritably.
    “The two leading paleontologists in the United States!” said Edison.
    Holliday stared at his two companions and frowned. “I've had both a classical and a scientific education—at least as pertains to medicine, dentistry, and literature—but I'll be damned if I ever heard that word before.”
    “No reason why you should,” answered Edison. “I don't think the science had existed for more than ten or fifteen years before you graduated, and it truly wasn't worth the bother to learn about it until these two gentlemen came along.”
    “They're partners, are they?” asked Holliday, and Buntline laughed aloud.
    “They're partners the way the Earps and the Clantons were partners,” said Edison. “I doubt that there are two men anywhere in the world who hate each other more.”
    “Get back to paleo…paleowhatever.”
    “It's the study and science of dinosaurs.”
    “Okay,” said Holliday. “What are dinosaurs?”
    “Creatures, many of them huge beyond imagining, that walked the Earth long before Man arrived on the scene.”
    “Doesn't Mr. Darwin say that the fittest survive?” asked Holliday. “Seems to me something as big as this hotel is a lot fitter than a consumptive dentist.”
    “That's part of the science,” said Buntline. “Learning everything we can about them, including why we're here and they're not.”
    “And there really were dinosaurs here?” asked Holliday dubiously.
    “Yes.”
    “Why haven't we all heard about it before now? Hell, I not only never heard of the science, I never heard the word dinosaur .”
    “It's a very young field of study,” answered Edison. “And it was going nowhere in