Read Online The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick - Free Book Online

inimical can get within a quarter mile of the house without my
     knowing it—on land or in the air. Pull your gun and take a shot at the window in question.”
    Roosevelt frowned. “Shoot at the window?” he repeated.
    “That's right.”
    “Stand back, Bat,” said Edison. “Just in case.”
    Masterson got up and walked to the center of the room as Rooseveltpulled his pistol out of its holster, took aim at the window, and fired. The bullet
     flattened against the window and careened off very near to where Masterson had been
     sitting.
    “Well, I'll be…” said Roosevelt, obviously impressed. “That's truly remarkable, Thomas.”
    “I developed it about two years ago,” answered Edison. “The problem is, I haven't
     found an inexpensive way to make it. It's effective, but it's exorbitant. I use the
     glass only on the house. Oh, and of course on Ned's next door.”
    Roosevelt leaned back on his chair. “Well, that assuages one worry.”
    “Just one?”
    “You've been out here for three years. I've never seen a manifestation of magic until
     today.”
    Edison smiled. “I view it as a different scientific system. The effects can be startling,
     even frightening, but it obeys laws, just as science does. The trick is to find out
     what those laws are and to learn how to negate or contravene them.”
    “Maybe we can get you together with Geronimo,” suggested Roosevelt, picking up a cup
     and sipping his coffee. “You're both on the same side, so perhaps he can educate you
     in his system's laws.”
    “He'll never do it,” said Holliday firmly.
    “I agree,” said Masterson, lighting up a cigar.
    “But—” began Roosevelt.
    “Trust me,” said Holliday. “I know him better than any of you. We were his enemy until
     a few months ago. We're still not his friends, just a perceived inevitability. He's
     not going to turn over any secrets to any of us, and especially not to Tom.”
    Roosevelt turned to Edison. “Do you agree with that appraisal?”
    Edison nodded his head. “Doc's summed it up. We're not hisfriends, and we're not his allies. We're an inevitable force that he's willing to
     accommodate, nothing more.”
    A burly, balding man entered the room from the enclosed passageway that joined the
     two houses together.
    “Hello, all,” said Ned Buntline. “How did the meeting with Geronimo go?”
    “The spell's still in effect,” said Roosevelt.
    “Figures,” said Buntline. “He didn't send for you just to say, ‘Here, Theodore—the
     continent's yours.’ What does he want from you?”
    “You're very perceptive,” remarked Roosevelt with a smile.
    “If he was going to lift it without something in return, it'd be gone already. And
     if he just wanted someone killed, he'd never send for you when Doc was already obligated
     to him for springing him out of that jail in Leadville.”
    “That's what I'm here to discuss,” said Roosevelt. “Ever hear of someone or something
     called War Bonnet?”
    “No,” said Buntline and Edison in unison.
    Roosevelt spent the next few minutes describing the huge apparition.
    “What can he do?” asked Edison. “Which is to say, what are his powers?”
    “I don't know,” answered Roosevelt. “In fact, I don't know for a fact that he has
     any, other than the strength that goes with that physique.”
    “Oh, he's got them, all right,” said Edison. “If physical strength was all they wanted
     to imbue it with, they could make it the king of the grizzlies, huge and invulnerable.”
     He turned to Buntline. “Right, Ned?”
    “I agree. They didn't need to make this creature just to combat you , Theodore. They've got the warriors from half a hundred tribes to do that.”
    “May I offer an idea?” said Masterson.
    “Certainly.”
    “Could this thing have been created to face an American regiment if Geronimo finds
     a way to lift the spell without their consent?”
    Edison and Buntline exchanged looks.
    “Makes sense to me,” said Buntline at