(Story copyright E.N. Boyd)

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Forums » Fan-Fic » The Adventures of Doc Strong Chapter IV

The Adventures of Doc Strong Chapter V.

"Doc! Doc Strong! Rulah!", Irving Talon heard someone yell out at the entrance of the mine. "Blasted!", he thought. Someone was here just as his lava men were about to drown Doc Strong and Rulah in the tailing pond. "My lava men, stop. Leave the humans alone, we must leave at once. Go to your home below." The subterranean rocky figures stopped pushing on the sleeping forms of Doc Strong and Rulah, having only begun seconds ago, the water not having had time to enter their lungs, and they still remained inert as Talon's grip on their unconscious forms was still present.

The three rocky forms lumbered away from the pond onto a path which winded down into the cavernous deep, soon disappearing out of view. Talon heard the voice getting closer. He looked at Doc Strong and Rulah and then back at the direction of the voice. He knew he had a decision to make. He couldn't risk firing his weapon now, his only course of action was to leave the area and let the pair figure out on their own what had happened. He knew he'd find another opportunity to rid himself of their intrusion. Long as they didn't know he nor his lava men were present, he would be able to find a way to remove them from the mine before they could return to Tombstone to announce what they'd find.

So Talon had to let go of his mental grip on the pair, he had already strained his mental powers this day controlling the lava men and then these two, he knew he wouldn't be able to simultaneously affect this other man as he entered the cave. So he set off on another path he'd used often which let out to an area hidden outside which served as his own personal entryway. In his haste, however, he stumbled on the rocky path, and fell forward, his arms spread out before him, his hands scraping against the craggy soil. He felt something cut his palm, but wasn't sure what it was. He didn't have time to look, he just had time to get up and run up the path. up and out of the mine as he cradled his now bleeding hand.

..........

Doc Strong and Rulah thrashed about in the water as the man's voice came closer, eventually meeting up with the pair as dazed, they paddled to the edge of the pool and out of the water. The man ran to their side, asking, "Doc, Rulah, what happened? Why were you in the water? Are you OK?". Doc looked over at his wife, who was taking off her hat and squeezing water out of her long curly hair, tilting her head to one side as she brushed out some debris as well. She didn't say anything but here eyes said it all to Doc. "What the?" they seemed to say. Doc had the same feeling as went to her side, holding her hand as she leaned against him while she straightened out her clothing.

"I don't rightly know Paulie. Last thing I knew, we had entered the cave to cool our heels for a bit from the desert sun, next thing, we are in this pond and here you are yelling for us!" He bent down, looking at the path they stood on, seeing now for the first time a set of large foot and boot prints. "Well I'll be.", Doc said, pointing to the ground. "Someone was just here. They must be the ones who took us here. Evidently someone or some...thing...was trying to kill us!".

Paulie, along with Rulah, looked at the path and in fact, knelt down to look at the foot prints as they were all over the place, leading down a separate path and a set of boot prints leading onto a path going up out of the area. Doc looked at the boot prints, and followed them. "Where you going Doc?", Paulie asked. "Well Paulie, I do believe I see these boot prints might hold the answer to our questions concerning what the heck just happened. In fact, " Doc stopped, knelt down and picked up something shiny, while running his fingers in the dirt, "I think this spur which came off my boot may also be helpful to identifying our mystery man."

Rulah came to Doc's side and looked at the spur. It is your spur, all right, and it has some blood on it.", Rulah said. Doc replied, " Whomever ran off must have tripped on it. Rather bad I would say, because I can see quite a bit of blood. It is still wet. I think we'd best follow this trail and get...." "Oh no!", Rulah interrupted, "we are doing no such thing. If someone was trying to kill us why didn't he just shoot us? Why this elaborate ploy of trying to drown us? How did we become unconscious for that matter? I don't feel any bumps on my head. We can't risk our lives to find this culprit. We need to protect ourselves, not go off half-cocked right now. Besides, Paulie is with us now. Speaking of which, Paulie, why are you here?"

"Um, well Mrs. Strong, y'all forgot some equipment back at the ranch. I knew you had me tie all the equipment down and everything but I forgot to include the most important things." "What did you forget, Paulie? I think we have everything here." Paulie shuffled a bit and then said, "Well I forgot to pack up your tins of food. So I packed them up and followed your trail here. They're all outside on my horse. I am truly sorry about that. I am not usually that forgetful and all..." "Ha! No worries, Paulie!", Doc interrupted. "It is obviously a good thing you forgot, otherwise you'd never have found us. So thanks for both bringing our food and evidently interrupting whomever or whatever was down here. Did you see anything by the way when you came down here?" "Not really, I thought I saw what looked your silhouettes when I made my way down here but when I came closer they disappeared. Couldn't really see them but I saw you when you were waking up in the water."

"OK. Well let's get our bearings and decide what we're going to do next." Doc Strong said as he looked at the boot spur, thumbing the spinner as he put it in his shirt pocket.

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To be continued