Chapter 9

Finally, the construction of the railroad spur across Circle J property was finished. The construction camp moved on and so did the lowlifes with it. I heaved a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed: both Helen and Martha could see the change in me. They both pestered me enough so that I gave in and told them what had worried me. To my surprise, they both jumped me with hugs and kisses. They both were really glad to hear how much I cared for them!

Well, that was a relief. Now all I had to worry about was Helen's pregnancy. I had no idea that I could fret over something so hard when I had no control over it. Helen was torn between concern for me and pleasure that I was so concerned for her. Martha kept me informed, and I tried to show Helen every day how much I cared for her. Eventually, we got through the pregnancy, and it was time to call in the midwife.

Naturally, Helen's water broke in the middle of the night, so I had to hitch up the buggy and dash off for the midwife during the darkest part of the night. At least, I had the good sense to hitch the mule to the carriage: mules are a lot smarter than horses, and I had the mule to keep me from doing something stupid.

I had to wake up the midwife and help her to get ready to come to our house. She had a bag packed with her clothes so that she could stay several days and another bag packed with the tools of her trade. It seemed like forever to me, but we actually left for my house within 30 minutes of arriving at her house. She kept laughing and telling me to slow down. She insisted that it would be hours before the baby arrived, especially since it was Helen's first. The midwife never convinced me, but I did slow down when the mule began to tire.

Of course, I did not believe the midwife that it would take so long for the baby to be born. I was sure that we would be too late to do Helen any good, but, naturally, I was wrong. It took 22 hours from the time Helen's water broke until the baby was delivered, and the midwife insisted that it was actually quicker than she had expected. Oh, well, what did I know: I was just a man?

The baby was a boy, and that delighted Helen no end. She named the baby Jim Walters, Jr. Since Helen persisted in calling me Dearest or Dearest Husband, there was no problem or confusion with calling the baby Jim. Helen was very proud of herself, and I agreed with her. I insisted that I loved the baby, and was proud of what she had done, etc., etc. I laid my praise on pretty thick, but I meant every word, and I am sure that Helen could see that I meant it.

Martha basked in reflected glory, too, when I praised her for producing such a perfect daughter! I supposed that I had to grant that some other men could be as proud of their wife and son as I was, but I had to strain to do so. Anyway, I walked on clouds for at least a month. After that, the nighttime feedings of Jim did get to be a pain. I never said anything to Helen or to Martha, but they could see that I was having some trouble with the necessary routine. Therefore, they sent me out to look for bad guys just so all of us could get some peace!

It was pretty damned windy, but the rains had not started yet, when I left for Arbuckle to pick up a fresh batch of wanted posters. My feelings were relieved when I met a road agent a few hours after leaving home. The fool did not realize how much trouble he was in when he confronted me. I spotted him as his horse stuck his head out of the tall brush, and I jerked up my shotgun and blasted him with one shot before he fully faced me. He was so close that the buckshot all missed his horse, and he caught most of it in his chest.

The force of the 12 buckshot all hitting him in the body was enough to lift him out of the saddle and throw him to the ground. Coinciding with that was a pistol shot aimed at me from the bush. I do not know why the bullet missed me, but it whistled by me awfully damned close. Almost by reflex, I fired my shotgun at the muzzle flash, and I heard a scream of pain.

I reloaded as quickly as possible and rode into the brush where I was sure that the shot had come from. A man was lying on the ground with his right arm completely blown away. I do not know how many buckshot had hit the man in the arm and shoulder, but it looked like some monster had bitten the arm off just to the torso side of the shoulder joint.

The man was lying there on the ground spouting bright red arterial blood, so I knew that he was not going to live for very long. Even had I been a doctor, there was no way that I could have staunched the flow of all that blood. Frankly, I had no interest in trying to save the man, so I just let him bleed out.

Neither man was on any of the posters that I had, but it was possible that they would be on more recent ones, so I decided to take them in on speculation. They certainly were not going anywhere, and I was taking their horses with me in any case. I did check both men over, and they must have been very successful because I found a total of $350 in their money belts and they had some loose change in their pockets. I took what was valuable and tied them to their horses. The horses were not happy with the smell of blood, but I did not give them the option of arguing with me. When I turned them in to the marshal, we found them on the latest batch of posters. One was wanted for train robbery and the other was wanted for kidnapping. Together, they were worth $135. Yes, that was a profitable pause in my journey!

I picked up the new batch of posters and left Arbuckle right after a lunch of beef and beans in the hotel restaurant. This time, I headed south. I had a feeling that I had used up my luck toward Brandy and beyond, so I headed in the general direction of Laredo, though I never expected to travel that far.

I had been on the road a week before anything useful showed up from talking to bartenders. I ran across a rumor that Jess Wainwright was wandering around the neighborhood. He was a notorious train robber and had a price of $800 on his head. It was the Texas Central RR that was offering the reward. He had not done anything to justify that the state post a reward on him. There were legal technicalities that caused that distinction, but they made no difference to me. I could earn that $800 if I could capture Wainwright, and that was all that I cared about. I stopped by the train station and picked up a Wainwright poster so that I would have his picture.

I did not know if I would run across Wainwright, but I had his picture if I did. I had stopped in a town for lunch when a train came puffing into the station. Suddenly, the town was in an uproar: Jess Wainwright had just robbed this train about 10 miles east of here. It must of been half the town that quickly mounted up and rode out after him. I saw no point in me joining the rush: this reminded me of the chaos after the bank robbery in Brandy.

I finished my dinner and had another beer while I waited for my meal to settle. I waited for about an hour for the mob to get well ahead of me before I rode out to look for Jess Wainwright. I stopped off to buy a pack mule and some supplies before I left town. I just followed the railroad track to the site of the holdup. The word was that a large strongbox had been lifted from the baggage car, and the bandits were burdened with that.

Okay, that should make it easier for me to follow them. I did hope that most of the townsfolk in the impromptu posse would give up and go home before I got there. By the time I got to the holdup site, most of the posse had left, but there were still a few men around trying to pick up the trail. Word had it that there had been seven bandits to hit the train, so I was going to have to play it quietly to survive the hunt and to capture Wainwright.