Calf & Shin: Revolver: Straight Through

The ball went through clean enough, but it dragged a plug of filthy trouser wool the whole way, and three days on the exit weeps gray and smells sweet as spoiled meat. The doctor says gangrene like a swear and lays the bone saw where you can see it, whiskey, chloroform, and a choice no man wants.

• Leg below the knee is cold, mottled, and dead to the touch, bedbound until the fever breaks, 2-3 days
• Sweating fever and laudanum dreams; no riding, no standing, no revenge through day 5
• If the leg is saved, you keep both bullet scars and a deep-carved trench where the doctor cut the rot away
• /me lies gray-faced on the cot, the sweet-rotten smell rising from the soaked bandage.

Recovery 5-7 days abed with a surgeon fighting for the leg; without one, the rot decides.·Doctor, urgently

On its way out the ball kissed the great cord above your heel, and now the foot won't answer proper. Every step is a flat-footed slap, and the doctor stitches silk into a tendon by candlelight, praying it holds.

• No push-off in that foot, walk with a dragging slap, no running, no stirrup on that side for 5 days
• Splinted from knee to toes to keep the tendon slack; sleep with the leg propped
• /me drags the boot flat across the boards, wincing at every slap of leather.

Recovery 6 days splinted under a doctor's silk, near two weeks of hobbling if you let it knit crooked alone.·Doctor required

The ball grazed the shinbone on its way through and left a crack you can feel grinding when you stand. The channel itself is honest work, it's the bone that turns your stomach when weight comes down.

• No weight on the leg without a crutch for 4-5 days; the grind of the crack sickens you
• Calf splinted board-straight; the boot won't go on over the wrapping
• Both bullet holes scab dark, front and back, a matched set of scars

Recovery 5 days splinted with a doctor watching the bone, 7 and a crooked ache if you walk on it early.·Doctor required

The ball tore something open deep in the muscle and both holes ran like taps until your ears sang and the world went the color of dishwater. Somebody's belt cinched around your knee is the only reason you're hearing this now.

• Weak as a newborn foal for 2 days, standing up fast puts sparks in your eyes
• Wound packed and bound tight; blood seeps through by evening and wants rewrapping
• No riding faster than a walk for 3 days; the jarring starts the bleeding again

Recovery 4 days of red meat, liver, and rest under a doctor, 6 pale days on your own.·Doctor required

Fired close, the ball hauled burnt powder and a twist of cloth clean through your calf, and the whole channel has to be flushed with carbolic until it runs clear. The scrubbing hurts worse than the shot did.

• Channel flushed twice daily for 3 days, gritted teeth, a bitten strap, and language your mother would hate
• Heavy limp for 3 days; no sprinting or jumping through day 5
• Entry hole tattooed with powder specks that never quite wash out

Recovery 4 days with carbolic and clean linen, 6 hot-wound days without.·Doctor required

The entry is a neat blue hole you could cork with a finger, but the soft ball spread as it traveled and the exit is a torn silver-dollar mess of meat. That's the one that needs packing, stitching, and a doctor who doesn't flinch.

• Exit wound packed with lint and stitched, no boot over it, trouser leg slit for 4 days
• Limp heavy for 3 days, walk-never-run through day 5
• /me peels the dressing back gingerly, hissing at the ragged mouth of the exit wound.

Recovery 4 days stitched and dressed, 7 slow-weeping days if it heals open.·Doctor required

Straight through the thickest part of the calf, missing bone by the grace of somebody's prayers. The muscle seizes around the channel like a fist and won't be argued with, standing on tiptoe is out of the question for a while.

• Calf cramps hard and sudden, dropping you mid-stride, worst the first 2 days
• Can't rise on the ball of that foot for 4 days, mounting a horse means the off side
• Two puckered scars, in and out, that you'll show off in bathhouses for years

Recovery 3 days rested and bound with a doctor's liniment, 5 knotted days without.·Doctor required

In the front, out the back, and both mouths bleeding stubborn and steady. You've been stuffing kerchiefs in one and pressing your hat against the other, and neither of them cares to quit before a professional gets involved.

• Both wounds bound in one tight wrap, it loosens with walking and wants resetting every few hours the first day
• A trail of blood spots follows you across any clean floor for the first day
• Limp for 3 days; no double-time and no dancing through day 5

Recovery 3-4 days once a doctor closes both holes, 6 if you keep leaking through kerchiefs.·Doctor required

Clean through the outer meat of the calf, touching nothing that God labeled important. It burns like a brand and bleeds enough to ruin the sock, but you've had toothaches with more ambition.

• Solid limp for 2 days; no running through day 3
• Wound wants washing with whiskey or carbolic each night, hissing optional but traditional
• /me limps to the bar, one boot sloshing faintly, and orders two, one for the leg.

Recovery 2-3 days with a proper cleaning and wrap, 4-5 if you just tie a rag on it.·Doctor advised

Through and through, low in the calf, and mostly what it's left you is a limp and a temper. The holes are small and honest, but every step gathers all the pain up and hands it to you at once.

• Pronounced limp for 2 days, stairs, ladders, and stirrups all cost you a grunt
• Leg stiffens when you sit longer than an hour; the first ten steps after are theater
• No hauling, sprinting, or kneeling through day 3

Recovery 3 days if it's kept clean, 5 if it sours and swells.·Doctor advised

The ball passed through and left the whole muscle feeling packed with hot coals. Nothing's broken and nothing's torn that won't mend, but tonight you'll learn every board in the floor that creaks and every hour on the clock.

• Burning ache keeps sleep shallow the first 2 nights without laudanum drops
• Limp for 2 days; can't hold a crouch or a squat through day 3
• /me shifts weight off the leg every minute or so, jaw working like he's chewing the pain.

Recovery 3 days with laudanum and rest, 4-5 grinding it out sober.·Doctor advised

It bled, it burned, you wrapped it, you slept, and come morning the leg has set up like mortar. The through-holes are clean, but the calf has opinions about bending before noon.

• First hour of each morning is a peg-legged shuffle, for 3 days
• Walks fine by afternoon but no running or jumping through day 3
• Twin scabs front and back that itch like sin as they knit

Recovery 3 days loosening a little each morning, 4 if you don't keep it moving and clean.·Doctor advised

Textbook, if the frontier had textbooks: small entry, modest exit, bone and cords all missed. Wash it, plug it, and count yourself among the luckiest men ever to be shot.

• Light limp for 2 days; no footraces through day 3
• Bandage wraps front and back, changing it alone takes contortions worth watching

Recovery 2 days with carbolic and a wrap, 4 if it's ignored and angry.·Doctor advised

The ball clipped through the outer rim of the calf, more hem than garment. Two small holes a hand-width apart, a bloody sock, and a story that'll grow an inch every time you tell it.

• Tender edge of the calf, you sit sideways in chairs for 2 days
• Slight hitch in your walk for a day or two, worse on stairs

Recovery 2 days with a clean wrap, 3 without troubling anyone about it.·No doctor needed

It went in and out through skin and fat, tunneling just under the hide like a mole through a garden. You can lay a pencil in the groove between the holes and feel it move, a party trick nobody asks for twice.

• Stings sharp when the trouser rubs it; you walk a touch bowlegged for a day
• The tunnel bruises a rich plum color along its whole length by tomorrow

Recovery 1-2 days either way, it's more insult than injury.·No doctor needed

The ball took a finger's width of muscle off the side of the calf on its way past, through more than into. It bleeds with enthusiasm for ten minutes and then settles into a sulk you can walk on.

• Shallow gouge bound with a strip of shirt; wants a real wash by nightfall
• Twinges on tiptoe and ladder rungs for 2 days

Recovery 2 days kept clean, 3 if dirt gets a vote.·No doctor needed

Both holes are barely deeper than the skin, but between them they've painted your boot red to the heel. Anyone watching you walk in swears you're half dead; anyone watching you walk out wants their sympathy back.

• Dramatic bloodstained trouser leg and boot, free drinks if you play it right, for one evening
• Mild limp today, gone by tomorrow night

Recovery A day, two at the outside, soap and a bandage do the whole job.·No doctor needed

You must have been mid-stride, calf loose, because the ball passed through the slack pinch of muscle without biting anything that pulls. Two stinging dots and a bruise, the leg works like it never heard the shot.

• Faint sting when you flex hard; a tight wrap quiets it by morning
• Two small puckered marks a thumb apart, a lifetime of folks guessing wrong about them

Recovery A day of tenderness, treated or not.·No doctor needed

The ball spent most of its manners on your trouser leg and only sliced through the last stretch of skin over the calf. There's a burn-line you could cover with two fingers and a hole in the wool you'll never get patched to match.

• Raw stripe that hates bathwater for a day or two
• /me pokes a finger through the trouser hole and wiggles it at the table.

Recovery A day. The trousers are the real casualty.·No doctor needed

The doctor probes both holes twice and starts laughing: the ball threaded the gap between your two leg bones, through slack muscle, touching neither bone nor cord nor vessel worth the name. He says he'd charge admission to see it done again; you walk to the saloon under your own power to start the legend.

• Walking by suppertime with barely a hitch; a wise man still skips footraces for a day
• Two neat scars in a perfect line that doctors will ask to look at for the rest of your life
• /me stands, tests the leg, and gives a slow disbelieving grin before pocketing the story.

Recovery A day of stiffness, and the tale is yours forever.·No doctor needed