The saloon was pretty quiet that night, just Doc sitting at the bar sipping a whiskey on the rocks and four card players sitting at a table near the door. They were all startled when a young man came stumbling through the swinging doors.
"What's all that racket, son?" said Slim, you're like a bull in a china shop". At that moment the young man fell face down on the floor, exposing an arrow sticking out of his back. His hitting the floor caused the horseshoe hanging above the door to fall scoring a perfect ringer around the arrow. Lefty shouted "Come here Doc, some Indian's got him and he's just hanging on by a single thread, if you don't hurry he won't be worth a plugged nickel. Hoss looked at doc and said, "Is that one of those poisoned arrows?" If it is" said Doc "that's a horse of a different color".
"Isn't that the new boy in town, I heard he was the only one at his house bringing home the bacon," said Hoss. The sheriff stood up and looked closer at the arrow. "That doesn't look like any arrow from the Indians around here, I smell a rat. If those Indians are bringing in outside agitators I'm going to go nip it in the bud."
Doc knelt down beside the boy, lifted the horseshoe from his back and carefully hung it back above the door then said "If we don't get him a shot of whiskey all that's water over the dam." Everybody knows when you're messing with those Indians", continued Doc," that you got to be sly as a fox cause you're walking on thin ice out there." Lefty looked at Doc and said "You're as slow as Christmas Doc, with you taking care of him that poor boy has gone from the flying pan into the fire". The boy stood up, reached around behind and pulled the arrow from his back then walked to the bar. "I'd like a shot of whiskey" he said. "Have a shot of Red Dog, it's been selling like hotcakes", said the bartender.
"We're glad you dropped in" ,the bartender continued, "until you got here this place was as dead as a doornail, What's your name, son?" The boy downed the shot of whiskey, sat his glass on the bar and said" My name's Mark, Mark Metafour I'm the new English teacher in town"."My father's the Irish Presbyterian preacher and my mother is from South Dakota, she's an orthodox Sioux. That kinda of puts me between a rock and a hard place with these local Indians, that's how come the arrow." Hearing that, Slim, never known for his wide acceptance of different ethnic groups, stood up and said "Boys, it's time to go, that's just what we need around here, a mixed Metafour".