Dragons Teeth Crichton 2017 (WWT)

The Laramie Bone Deal
“It seemed,” wrote Johnson in his journal, “that many pigeons had come home to roost in Laramie.”
Most of the town was preoccupied with another figure from Johnson’s past, Broken Nose Jack
McCall. Jack had run from Deadwood and had gotten to Laramie, where he had bragged about killing
Wild Bill Hickok. The reason he spoke so freely was that a miners’ court in Deadwood had tried him
for that murder, and had acquitted him when he claimed that Wild Bill had killed his young brother
many years before, and he was just avenging that crime. In Laramie, Jack talked openly of killing
Hickok, certain that he could not be tried twice for the same crime.
But Jack didn’t realize that the Deadwood miners’ court was not legally recognized, and he was
promptly thrown into jail in Laramie and formally tried for Hickok’s murder. Since Jack had already
publicly admitted to it, the trial was short; he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, a turn of
events that “irked him mightily.”
While Jack’s trial was going on, an episode far more important to William Johnson was occurring
down the road in Sutter’s Saloon. Wyatt Earp was sitting at a table, drinking whiskey with Othniel C.
Marsh and negotiating for the sale of half Johnson’s bones.
They were both hard bargainers, and it took most of the day. For his part, Earp appeared amused.
Johnson sat with Miss Emily in the corner and watched the proceedings. “I can’t believe this is
happening,” he said.
“Why does it surprise you?” she asked.
“What were my chances of running into that professor?” He sighed. “One in a million, or less.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “Wyatt knew Professor Marsh was in the territory.”
A slow creeping sensation moved up Johnson’s spine. “He did?”
“Surely.”
“How did he know?”
“I was with him in the hotel dining room,” she said, “when he heard the rumor that there was some
college teacher in Cheyenne buying up all manner of fossils and asking about some bones in
Deadwood. The miners were all laughing about it, but Wyatt’s eyes lit up when he heard the story.”
Johnson frowned. “So he decided to help me get the bones out of Deadwood to Cheyenne?”
“Yes,” she said. “We left the day after he heard that story.”
“You mean Wyatt always intended to sell my bones to Marsh, from the beginning?”
“I believe so,” she said softly.
Johnson glared across the saloon at Earp. “And I thought he was my friend.”
“You thought he was a fool,” Emily said. “But he is your friend.”