Chapter 5

Well, it looked like we were going to get credit for killing six of the seven bandits at $35 each plus what we could get for the bounty on any of them. There were no passengers in this part of the stagecoach’s run, so the crew helped us to tie the bodies to the horses. We were going to haul in the one killed by the shotgun-guard just in case he was worth a reward from the state. If so, we would give that to him because he had certainly earned it. We hauled the tree limb out of the way so that the stagecoach could continue on its way.

We got as far as the relay station and picked up receipts for six bandits to be turned in at the line’s regional office in the county seat. We’d pick up our rewards, if any, from the state at the same time. We took the bodies of the seven bandits to the marshal’s office in Willow Run to get any receipts coming to us. Four of the bandits were wanted with rewards totaling $95, $20 of which was due to the shotgun-guard. He was also going to get $7.13 that the bandit had in his pocket. We were going to keep the money we got for loot from the dead men.

That made this a very profitable day, and we spent the rest of it playing poker. Josh was having as much fun as I was at the poker table, and his skill was improving steadily. I didn’t know if he would ever reach my level of skill simply because he would never be able to catch up to me in the total number of games played. Oh, well, as long as he was happy, I was not going to rain on his parade.

We did take time to visit all of the saloons in town to hear if there were any bounty prospects we should look into, but we came up empty on that score. We weren’t worried because we had enough money to carry us for the rest of the year if it came to that.

The next morning we headed to the county seat to redeem our bounty receipts. Josh and I went in together this time, and the clerk was much more polite to me than he had been previously. I couldn’t help wondering if he were intimidated by Josh. We received our money and picked up a couple of new reward posters. One was a replacement for an old one we had in which the bounty was raised by $10. That was nice to see, but the other one was a new poster for a man called Abner Hawkins, and listed him as being worth $120.

It seams that he had just recently murdered a state judge and a prosecutor, and the reward was so large because of the two crimes. He was certainly somebody we would look out for, but we didn’t expect to encounter him in the guise of a road agent. Hawkins’ specialty was bank robbery. Nevertheless, I planned to show his picture to all of the whores I encountered.

That brought up a point that we had not previously considered. Josh visited the two brothels in town to ask the whores to be on the lookout for galoots that might be on wanted posters. Josh talked to the madams in each brothel and got them to agree to our plan. That was not too difficult when he said that he would pay the madam $2.50 (a quarter-eagle) for any lead that we were able to cash in on. He also told the whores that we would pay them 10% of the bounty we collected.

He promised to pick up a stack of wanted posters for each establishment upon our next trip to the courthouse. The women were all excited by the prospect of the extra money, and I hoped that we would find somebody for them to brag about pretty soon.

We went a week without encountering any more road agents, but that was not surprising. Sure, there were a lot of men who could not find jobs in the depressed economy, but Texas was a large state, so they were scattered out mostly beyond our reach.

Finally, we got lucky on an excursion south of town. I had made a habit of thumbing through our stack of posters to help me remember what the current crop of fugitives looked like, so when we stopped off at one of those combination joints that consisted of a saloon-restaurant-hotel-livery stable to check in with the bartender, I spotted a face from the posters.

The galoot was not worth any more than $15, but a reward was a reward, so I pointed him out to Josh. We decided to wait until we had finished our Mexican beer before capturing him, so we relaxed with our beers. It was well we waited. Just as we were about to approach the galoot, he was joined at the bar by two more men who looked to be the same kind of hard-case that he was.

We figured that these new additions must be worth something, too, so we decided to go after all three. Another man walked in shortly thereafter, but did not appear to be associated with the three we were interested in, so we kind of ignored him. However, he was standing where I could easily see him as well as the three we were immediately interested in.

We had a routine worked out whereby, under these circumstances, Josh would approach the galoot of interest, and I would remain where I was to back him up. This technique had worked well before, so we had adopted the practice. Part of the reason, of course, was that the bad guy might not take a woman seriously, but he would always pay attention to a man.

Anyway, once he had finished his beer, Josh got up and approached the trio standing at the bar. Josh drew his pistol and said, “Gentlemen, I am a bounty hunter, and I am arresting y’all. If you come quietly, nobody will get hurt.” All three men raised their hands to surrender, but I happened to see that fourth man draw his revolver and start to point it at Josh. He had moved slowly as he drew, probably so that he would not attract Josh’s attention, but I saw him start to thumb back the hammer.

That was enough for me! I was holding my revolver in my right hand, but under the table so as not to warn the three men we were originally interested in. As soon as I saw that odd man start to cock his revolver, I fired at him. Unfortunately, since my gun was under the table, I could not raise the muzzle enough to shoot him in the chest. I was forced to put a shot into his belly.

That was such a surprise to everybody that the man I shot and all of the others, including Josh, dove for the floor. I jumped up and pushed my chair back. Now I had more freedom to move, and I put a bullet into the chest of the galoot that I had originally shot. That was the proper thing to do because he was trying to bring his gun around to shoot me.

That was when I heard Josh’s gun fire, and I jerked my attention back to the original target. Josh had shot the first man that we had spotted in the top of the head, and that killed him immediately, of course. He had been trying to draw his gun. The other two galoots were smart enough not to do anything so stupid when facing two drawn guns.

The bartender had ducked behind the bar for protection, and I could see his reflection in the mirror behind the bar. He was lying on the floor, and I could see both empty hands, so I was not worried about him.

Josh ordered the two living galoots to stay where they were while he stood up. I still had them covered with my guns, which I was holding, one in each hand. I’m sure that I looked very menacing, at least I hoped that I did. I kept the men covered until Josh was ready. He ordered, “Y’all slide around and sit with your backs against the bar, put your hands on your head, and stretch out your feet and legs in front of you.

One at a time, he had each of the two men take his pistol from the holster and slide it across the floor out of reach. We would have to check them later for other weapons. For sure, both had knives, and they probably had at least one more gun each.

Josh said, “Helen, please go get some rope to tie these two galoots, and bring in the stack of wanted posters so that we can check to see what we have stumbled across.”

I followed directions, and I covered each man while Josh checked to be sure we got all of the weapons away from the two men. Josh tied each man’s hands in front of him and had them sit back on the floor while we identified everybody and checked out the two dead men.

By this time, the bartender was back on his feet and watching us with interest. I guess it was well that there was nobody else in the saloon at this time.

Okay, upon checking, I found all four faces on wanted posters. The one I had spotted was John Hopkins and worth $15. The other dead man was Hank Owens and worth $30. The two live galoots were Sam Bowman and Ed Smith, worth $25 and $40, respectively. That was a week’s worth of captures, so we had well spent our time. We took all of the loose money each man had, and that came to just over $28. When we sold what we could, we should get close to $150 for our efforts.

Even with their tied hands, the two prisoners could still drag the two bodies out to their horses and help us get them tied across their saddles. The two prisoners were then seated in their saddles and their hands were tied to their saddle horns. After that, they were forced to remove their feet from the stirrups, and each man’s feet were tied together under the horse’s belly. That was a very uncomfortable way to ride, but it did make sure that the galoots would not escape. If they tried to gallop away, they would develop a case of badly pinched balls, and they knew it.

We did move rather slowly and didn’t get to Willow Run until after lunch. We got our receipts and helped the marshal put the two live galoots into a cell. We took the other two to the undertaker and paid the two-bits each to bury them. We got the horses and tack which we were able to sell.

Now, we were tired and very hungry. We went to our favorite restaurant and begged for something to eat. There was some chili left from lunch and still warm, so we ate that and a couple of sandwiches. The waitress got her usual 10¢ tip, and was as happy as we were.

During lunch, we talked about the situation we had going in Willow Run and decided to make it our base until the pickings got too slim. With that in mind, we started hunting a boarding house to move into. Dammit, there was nothing available along that line, but the price of the hotel was not too bad with two of us sharing a room, so we decided to stay where we were. Besides, we really liked eating at this restaurant. The upshot was that we decided to stay with what we had as long as we were making money.

The clerk at the hotel agreed to take messages for us if we paid him 10¢ for each message. Okay, since that was settled, we visited our contacts and told them that they could get messages to us if they would send them to our hotel. We promised to pay them 10¢ for each message they sent if we found them worthwhile. Yeah, 20¢ was a lot of money to pay for a message, but it was high enough to ensure that we would be notified if something interesting came up.