"Well, I reckon I'll be moving on," said Hardin. "It's been a pleasure talking with you, Doc, and I'm glad it didn't come down to a gunfight."

"My sentiments exactly," said Holliday, getting to his feet. "Come on, I'll walk you to your horse."

Hardin made a circular route to the door, pa.s.sing by Roosevelt's table. "Nice shooting-or whatever the h.e.l.l you did to him."

"Thank you," said Roosevelt.

"Maybe we all ought to wear specs," said Hardin with a chuckle. He joined Holliday at the door and the two men walked out to the street, where Hardin's sorrel mare was tied to a hitching post.

Suddenly Holliday was aware that they weren't alone. Four Indians, none of them young, stood between them and Hardin's mare.

"You men are blocking my way," said Hardin ominously.

"You are going nowhere, John Wesley Hardin," said the nearest of them.

"Get out of my way," growled Hardin. "I won't ask you again."

"You made a bargain. You are not leaving until you keep it."

"You want me to shoot him?" he said, jerking his thumb at Holliday.

"That is correct."

"Okay," said Hardin. "But let me make sure my gun is working first."

He drew his gun and fired four quick shots at the Indians. The bullets turned to dust and floated to the ground before they reached their targets.

"Would I be correct in a.s.suming that you're Dull Knife, Spotted Elk, Tall Wolf, and Cougar Slayer?" asked Holliday as the Oriental emptied out into the street at the sound of the gunshots.

"We do not speak to dead men," answered the closest one, "and you are all but dead, Holliday."

"I hope you're not trying to frighten me," replied Holliday. "h.e.l.l, I've been all but dead for years."

The Indian turned to Hardin. "If you wish to live, you know what you must do."

"No one gives me orders!" growled Hardin, emptying his second gun into the Indians. Again, the bullets turned to dust as they left his six-gun.

Holliday knew his gun wouldn't work against the medicine men either, but he couldn't think of what else to do, so he pulled it and fired off three quick shots to no effect.

"You are not the fastest learner I ever met," said a familiar voice from behind him. He turned and saw Roosevelt, the black lenses clipped onto his gla.s.ses but raised so he could see, the battery slung over his back, carrying Edison's two weapons, one in each arm, both attached to the battery. "Here," he said, thrusting the deafener into Holliday's hands. "And understand: if you use it, they're going to die, but so will every man and animal within a mile or more."

Holliday took the deafener, handling it very gently, while Roosevelt pointed the blinder at the four medicine men.

"Now, you gentlemen are going to let Mr. Hardin leave right now, aren't you?"

"He must kill the man Holliday first," said the one who wore the insignia of the Cheyenne and who Roosevelt knew must be Dull Knife.

"Why don't you try to do it yourself," said Holliday, pointing the deafener at him.

"You will not use that," said Dull Knife. "We know and you know what it did to War Bonnet. If you fire it, it will kill everyone in the city."

"What the h.e.l.l do I care?" replied Holliday. "I'm already a walking dead man. As for Tombstone, ten years from now no one will even know there was a city here."

Spotted Elk, the Lakota, faced Roosevelt. "Tell him: he will be the murderer of an entire town."

"Doc, if you fire that you'll be the murderer of an entire town." Roosevelt grinned at Spotted Elk. "Is there anything else I can do for you before I blind you for the rest of your very brief life?"

"He will kill you too!" yelled Spotted Elk.

"If he doesn't, you will," answered Roosevelt.

"This is not finished," said Dull Knife. "We will be back."

"You're not going anywhere until it is finished," said Holliday.

"I agree," said Roosevelt. "If you leave before this is concluded, my friend and I will hunt you down and kill not only you but every member of your tribe. You've seen what I did to War Bonnet. You know this is not a bluff."

The four medicine men glared at Roosevelt and Holliday. Then, almost in unison, their posture changed from one of aggression to one of defeat.

"We must speak to Geronimo," said another, whose outfit identified him as Cougar Slayer of the Arapaho.

Holliday smiled. "There's a hawk perched atop the church steeple who's been watching all this very intently. I suspect Geronimo is closer than you think."

And with that, the hawk swooped down and landed in front of the medicine men, and instantly morphed into the Apache. He spread his arms, and suddenly a transparent dome covered the five of them. They spoke for less than a minute, their words unheard by any of the combatants or observers. Then the dome vanished, and so did the four medicine men.

"It is settled," announced Geronimo. "Tomorrow the spell will be lifted, and the White Eyes and their armies may cross the great river." He turned to Hardin. "Ride on!" he ordered him.

Hardin stared at him for just a second, then tipped his hat, climbed onto his mare, uttered a yell of triumph, and galloped off in the general direction of El Paso.

"Maybe we should have had it out after all," said Holliday. "He's going to kill a lot more men."

"He is not," answered Geronimo. "He will work as a lawyer, and less than a month later he will be shot in the back and killed."

"You know how everyone's going to die, do you?" asked Luke Sloan, who was standing in front of the Oriental's swinging doors.

Geronimo stared at him as one might stare at an insect, and did not deign to answer him.

"You will leave now," he said to Roosevelt.

"After I return the weapons to Edison and Buntline."

Geronimo nodded.

"Thank you," said Roosevelt, extending his hand, and the old medicine man took it. "I hope someday we will meet again."

"As I told you, we will," answered Geronimo. "Many years and many weeks' march from here."

Roosevelt took the smaller weapon from Holliday, climbed aboard Manitou, and headed off to Edison's house, trying without success to figure out what Geronimo had meant by his final sentence.

HOLLIDAY WAITED FOR THE LENS ABOVE THE DOOR to identify him and allow the portal to swing open, then he walked into Edison's living room, where the inventor and Ned Buntline were waiting for him.

"We got your message," said Edison.

"I just wanted to stop by to thank you for what you did for Theodore," said Holliday. "h.e.l.l, for the whole d.a.m.ned country."

"Which is going to be a much bigger country now," said Buntline with a satisfied air.

"I wish I could stick around to see it."

"Why don't you?" asked Buntline.

"No," replied Holliday. "It's time to go to Leadville and die."

"My G.o.d, that's a morbid way to put it!" said Edison.

"If it was my choice, I'd live another twenty or thirty years and see what young Roosevelt can accomplish with his new nation. h.e.l.l, if I could lift a sixth of a coffin, I'd mosey down to El Paso and be a pallbearer when Hardin finally gets backshot-he's too good for anyone except maybe me to take him in a fair fight. But I'm not going to live twenty years, and I can't lift a sixth of a coffin, and I'm running out of handkerchiefs, so it's time to go back to Leadville."

"We have an office up there," said Edison. "Maybe we will see you again."

"I won't be much to look at," said Holliday. Suddenly he grinned. "But then, I never was."

"Can I get you anything before you leave?" asked Buntline.

"I've already drunk my breakfast, but if you've got something wet before lunch..."

Buntline shook his head. "Neither of us drink whiskey."

"If you're not careful, you just might live to be a hundred." Holliday walked across the room and shook hands with each of them. "Thanks, again. You are the only two men I've ever been able to count on."

Then he was gone, and a few minutes later he was riding north in one of the Bunt Line's horseless coaches. He leaned back, sighed, pulled a flask out of his lapel pocket, uncapped it, and took a drink-and was suddenly aware that he wasn't alone any longer.

"I know, I know," he said. "This stuff'll kill me."

"You are dying anyway, so drink what you want," said Geronimo.

"You magicked yourself here just to tell me that?"

"And to tell you that no matter what others say, you are a good man." He paused. "Roosevelt will get the credit."

"He's welcome to it," said Holliday. "It's not going to do me any good where I'm going."

"You are dying," repeated Geronimo. "But you are not dead yet."

And with that he was gone.

Holliday stared out the window, shading his eyes and trying to imagine the Mississippi some two thousand miles distant. They'd start crossing it in the coming weeks and months-settlers, farmers, soldiers, everyone. There would be a mad rush to the West.

And, unknown to him, there would be two brilliant and half-crazed millionaires, one from Philadelphia and one from New Haven, who would rewrite the history of American science as their lives intertwined with his.

THERE HAS BEEN QUITE A LOT written about Doc Holliday, Theodore Roosevelt, Geronimo, John Wesley Hardin, and the so-called Wild West. Surprisingly, a large amount takes place in an alternate reality in which (hard as this is to believe) the United States did not stop at the Mississippi River, but crossed the continent from one ocean to the other.

For those of you who are interested in this "alternate history," here is a bibliography of some of the more interesting books: L. F. Abbott, Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt, Doubleday, Page (1919) Alexander B. Adams, Geronimo: A Biography, Da Capo Press (1990) C. E. Banks and R. A. Armstrong, Theodore Roosevelt: A Typical American, S. Stone (1901) Stephen Melvil Barrett and Frederick W. Turner, Geronimo: His Own Story, Penguin (1996) Bob Boze Bell, The Ill.u.s.trated Life and Times of Doc Holliday, Tri Star-Boze (1995) Glenn G. Boyer, Who Was Big Nose Kate? Glenn G. Boyer (1997) H. W. Brands, T. R.-The Last Romantic, Basic Books (1997) William M. Breakenridge, h.e.l.ldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite, Houghton Mifflin (1928) E. Richard Churchill, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, & Wyatt Earp: Their Colorado Careers, Western Reflections (2001) Michael L. Collins, That d.a.m.ned Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and the American West, 18831898, Peter Lang (1989) O. Cushing, The Teddysey, Life Publishing (1907) Paul Russell Cutright, Theodore Roosevelt-The Making of a Conservationist, University of Illinois Press (1985) Jack DeMattos, Masterson and Roosevelt, Creative Publishing (1984) Mike Donovan, The Roosevelt That I Know: Ten Years of Boxing with the President, B. W. Dodge (1909) G. W. Douglas, The Many-Sided Roosevelt: An Anecdotal Biography, Dodd, Mead (1907) E. S. Ellis, From the Ranch to the White House: Life of Theodore Roosevelt, Hurst (1906) T. T. Handford, Theodore Roosevelt, the Pride of the Rough Riders, M. A. Donohue (1897) John Wesley Hardin, The Life of John Wesley Hardin, as Written by Himself, Smith & Moore (1896) Albert Bushnbell Hart and Herbert Ronald Ferleger, eds., Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia, Theodore Roosevelt a.s.sociation and Meckler Corporation (1989) Pat Jahns, The Frontier World of Doc Holliday, Hastings House (1957) Sylvia D. Lynch, Aristocracy's Outlaw-The Doc Holliday Story, Iris Press (1994) Paula Mitch.e.l.l Marks, And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight, William Morrow (1989) Leon Metz, John Wesley Hardin: Dark Angel of Texas, Mangam Books (1996) Edmond Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan (1979) Edmond Morris, Theodore Rex, Random House, 2001 John Myers Myers, Doc Holliday, Little, Brown (1955) Frederick Nolan, The Lincoln County War, Revised Edition, Sunstone Press (2009) Fred E. Pond, Life and Adventures of Ned Buntline, Camdus Book Shop (1919) Gary Roberts, Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, John Wiley & Sons (2006) Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography, MacMillan (1913) Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Putnam's (1885) Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, Century (1888) Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, Scribner's (1899) Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, Century (1900) Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, 4 vols., Putnam's, (18881894) Karen Holliday Tanner, Doc Holliday-A Family Portrait, University of Oklahoma Press (1998) Paul Trachman, The Old West: The Gunfighters, Time-Life Books (1974) Ben T. Traywick, John Henry: The Doc Holliday Story, Red Marie's (1996) Ben T. Traywick, Tombstone's Deadliest Gun: John Henry Holliday, Red Marie's (1984) R. L. Wildon, Theodore Roosevelt-Outdoorsman, Trophy Room Books (1994) IN THAT "ALTERNATE HISTORY" in which the United States extended all the way to the Pacific, there are also a number of films made about the princ.i.p.als in this book, and a number of very popular actors portrayed them. Here's a list of them: SOME MOVIE DOC HOLLIDAYS:.

Victor Mature Kirk Douglas Jason Robards Jr.

Cesar Romero Stacey Keach Dennis Quaid Val Kilmer Walter Huston Arthur Kennedy Randy Quaid (TV) Douglas Fowley (TV) Gerald Mohr (TV) SOME MOVIE THEODORE ROOSEVELTS:.

Brian Keith Tom Berenger Karl Swenson Robin Williams Frank Albertson (TV) Peter Breck (TV) Len Cariou (Broadway musical) SOME MOVIE THOMAS ALVA EDISONS:.

Spencer Tracy Mickey Rooney SOME MOVIE NED BUNTLINES:.

Lloyd Corrigan Thomas Mitch.e.l.l SOME MOVIE GERONIMOS:.

Chuck Conners Wes Studi Jay Silverheels (four times) Monte Blue SOME MOVIE JOHN WESLEY HARDINS:.

Rock Hudson John Denher Jack Elam Max Perlich Randy Quaid (TV) SOME MOVIE BAT MASTERSONS:.

Albert Dekker Randolph Scott George Montgomery Joel McCrea Tom Sizemore Gene Barry (TV) THIS IS A "WHO'S WHO" of the book's partic.i.p.ants in that fictional alternate reality where the United States extended to the West Coast.

DOC HOLLIDAY.

He was born John Henry Holliday in 1851, and grew up in Georgia. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen, and that is almost certainly where he contracted the disease. He was college-educated, with a minor in the cla.s.sics, and became a licensed dentist. Because of his disease, he went out West to drier climates. The disease cost him most of his clientele, so he supplemented his dental income by gambling, and he defended his winnings in the untamed cities of the West by becoming a gunslinger as well.

He saved Wyatt Earp when the latter was surrounded by gunmen in Dodge City, and the two became close friends. Somewhere along the way he met and had a stormy on-and-off relationship with Big Nose Kate Elder. He was involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and is generally considered to have delivered the fatal shots to both Tom and Frank McLaury. He rode with Wyatt Earp on the latter's vendetta against the Cowboys after the shootings of Virgil and Morgan Earp, then moved to Colorado. He died, in bed, of tuberculosis, in 1887. His last words were: "Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned-this is funny." No accurate records were kept in the case of most shootists; depending on which historians you believe, Doc killed anywhere from two to twenty-seven men.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City in 1858. A sickly child, suffering from extreme asthma, he worked at strengthening his body through exercise and swimming, and by the time he attended Harvard he was fit enough to become the college's lightweight boxing champion. Even prior to that he was a devoted naturalist, and was acknowledged-even as a teen-as one of America's leading ornithologists and taxidermists.

His The Naval War of 1812 was (and is) considered the definitive book on that battle. Shortly thereafter he developed an interest in politics and became the youngest-ever minority leader of the New York State a.s.sembly. His wife and mother died eight hours apart in the same house in 1884, and he quit politics, headed out to the Dakota Badlands, and bought two ranches. He signed a contract to write the four-volume The Winning of the West, became a lawman, and caught and captured three armed killers during "the Winter of the Blue Snow."

Coming back East, he married again, served as police commissioner of New York City, later was secretary of the navy, a.s.sembled the Rough Riders and took San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, became governor of New York, was elected vice president in 1900, and became president less than a year later with the a.s.sa.s.sination of President McKinley.

As president, Roosevelt fought the trusts, created the National Park System, won the n.o.bel Peace Prize, and turned the United States into a world power. When he left office in 1908 he embarked on a year-long African safari. He ran for president in 1912, was wounded by a would-be a.s.sa.s.sin, lost, and spent a year exploring and mapping the River of Doubt (later renamed the Rio Teodoro) for the Brazilian government. He was a strong advocate for our entry into World War I, and it was a.s.sumed the presidency was his for the asking in 1920, but he died a year before the election.

During his life, he wrote more than twenty books-many of them still in print-and over 150,000 letters.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON.

Born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847, Edison is considered the greatest inventor of his era. He is responsible for the electric light, the motion picture, the carbon telephone transmitter, the fluoroscope, and a host of other inventions. He died in 1931.

NED BUNTLINE.

Buntline was born Edward Z. C. Judson in 1813, and gained fame as a publisher, editor, writer (especially of dime novels about the West), and for commissioning Colt's Manufacturing Company to create the Buntline Special. He tried to bring Wild Bill Hickok back East, failed, and then discovered Buffalo Bill Cody, who did come East and perform in a play that Buntline wrote.

BAT MASTERSON.

William "Bat" Masterson was born in 1853. In his late teens, he and brothers Ed and James left their family home to go out west as buffalo hunters. He spent some time as an army scout, seeing action against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. He moved to Dodge City, Kansas, in 1877, and shortly afterward became Wyatt Earp's deputy, after which he was elected sheriff of Ford County.