Chapter 6

“Cry all you want to, Mary. My friend and I are here to help you. We will find you some clothes and take you home as soon as you feel like it. Oh, my name is Helen, and my friend’s name is Josh. We will protect you, so you do not need to worry about anybody bothering you again.”

“Oh, thank you, Helen. Those men hurt me something awful. I cannot wait to get home.”

That’s when Josh came in, and I said to him, “Josh, please find Mary’s clothes. She is about ready to leave. Mary, can you ride a horse, or do you need to ride on my saddle in front of me?”

“My kitty is so sore that I do not think that I can ride without some help. I am sorry to put you to so much trouble.”

“It is no trouble at all, Honey. We just want to get you home as quickly as possible without hurting you more. We will use one of those pillows for you to sit on, and that should take the pressure off your pussy ... er kitty. We will take it slow so that you do not get bounced around.”

Josh said, “I found Mary’s nightdress, but I do not see anything else.”

“That is okay, Mr. Josh. The only thing I was wearing when those men showed up was that nightdress. I can get by with it.”

“Helen, I am feeling a lot better now, so I can put the nightdress on and leave with y’all.”

“Honey, let us get you cleaned up a little bit before we leave. We want to wash off your kitty so nobody can tell how those men treated you. Just be sure not to tell anybody what they did to you, not even your family. You will understand why later. If your mother asks why your cherry is broken, just tell her it happened when you were riding on a horse to get here. Now, do not forget that story and stick to it for the rest of your life. It is very important!”

“Okay, Helen, if you say so. I am not supposed to tell anybody that I was raped.”

“Yes, it will make a lot of difference when you start looking for a husband. I know you cannot do it, but try your best to forget that all of this ever happened. You can tell people that the men hurt you, but let them think that they just hit you and did nothing else. I guarantee that things will work out better that way. Josh, I’ll leave it to you to see if any of the galoots are on wanted posters and kill the fire in the stove. We can drag them outside and let the scavengers have them if we can’t get any bounty from them.”

I helped Mary wash the dried blood and semen from her crotch. At least, none of the bastards tried to rape her in the ass. We got her ready to travel by the time Josh was finished. None of the bastards were on our posters, so he just took all of the valuable things they had and left them beside the outhouse.

We took their horses with us by means of a lead rope, and we got back to Willow Run a little before dark. All three of us had eaten jerky while we were on the road, so we were all very hungry by the time supper time came around.

We left Mary with her parents and Josh told Mr. Wilson that we would see him tomorrow about the $500 he owed us. From there, we went for supper. We were both so tired that we went after that to our hotel room and to bed. I had gotten out of the habit of taking a bath every night before sleeping, and I didn’t even care. I was good as long as Josh could stand me.

The next morning we collected our $500 for the rescue of Mary, and we were starting to have more gold and silver than we wanted to carry around. We decided to deposit $1,000 with Parson County Financial Company because they were paying 1% annual compound interest, and that was more than you could get at most banks. Besides, we liked the people who ran the company. It operated very much like a 21^st Century credit union, and I was familiar with that.

We had gotten almost $60 for the horses, tack, and guns that had belonged to the kidnappers, so we were fixed for a while. We goofed off for a couple of weeks before we got a tip from one of the brothels in town. I was surprised at how much Johns like to brag about how important they were to the whore they were fucking, but I didn’t mind getting the tips on where they were operating.

In this case, it was another road agent working the road between Willow Run and the county seat. That was always the obvious road to operate on because it was the most commonly used. In this case, the bandit was a hard-case who claimed to have a big reward on his head and further claimed that he had a partner. Well, that last bit was not surprising, but we had Ajax to counter that threat, so we were not really worried.

Winter was coming on, so we hoped to make a big strike with this pair of road agents. Once the bad weather got here, traffic would drop off and so would the road agents; therefore, we had to get our money now or wait until next spring.

We left early enough in the morning to make sure that we got to the county seat by noon. That would let us return to Willow Run for supper. We were over half way to the county seat when Ajax went into his signaling routine. This time, the road agent was on our right side, so I moved over to the left. A little farther on, we were surprised when two men rode out of the trees and brush.

Uh-oh, what did this mean. Did it mean that there were three bandits with one of them hiding in the woods, or did it mean that both men were all there were in the “gang”? Hopefully, Ajax would tell us that pretty damned soon. If there were a third man, we could be in trouble.

There was the usual, “Stop where you are and give us all of your money before we lose our patience and start shooting.” Both men were holding cocked pistols, so we had to expect a quick reaction from them if we resisted, and we sure were going to do that. I immediately went into my simpering woman act, and Josh acted as if he were distracted by me. That caused the spokesman of the road agents to say, “Stop fooling around and give us your money. If you do not act in about 10 seconds, we will start shooting!”

Okay, that was an ultimatum that we could not ignore. Josh said, “All I have with me are some double-eagles. You can have them, but please do not shoot us.”

“Okay, hand them here. I will start shooting if you drop them on the ground.” Oops, there went that distraction possibility.

Josh handed two double-eagles to the man and said, “I have more in my other pocket. Just wait a minute for me to get them.” The man dropped the two gold coins that Josh had given him into his pocket and stuck out his hand for the rest of them.

I was going to have to act damned soon or wind up being shot. I knew there was no way the two bandits were going to let us live. We had seen their faces and could give good descriptions to the authorities. I very carefully and slowly drew my pistol with my right hand, but held it so that the robber couldn’t see it. As soon as Josh leaned over to give the last double-eagle to the robber, I fired at the other man and then fired at the spokesman. As usual, at such a close range, I was able to hit each man in the chest.

The double-action of the Starr DA made that possible. My aim was not influenced by having to move my thumb to cock the revolver. Dammit, though, some of the powder set Josh’s coat on fire! Fortunately, that distraction made no real difference as both robbers were dead and lying on the ground at this point. That was when Ajax finally showed up. It was obvious that he had not found anybody hiding in the woods, but he had also not been around to help us.

I grabbed my canteen and dumped some water on Josh’s jacket. That put out the fire, and Josh was not hurt, though the jacket would show the marks of the burn forever after. We dismounted and I searched the two galoots while Josh petted Ajax and told him that he was not to blame for what had happened. It was obvious that Ajax was embarrassed over the events, but Josh finally convinced him that we did not blame him for anything.

Anyway, both men were on wanted posters at $15 each, so I guess you could say that we met expenses. We were going to do better than that when we sold what we could loot from the two, but we were not making as much money as we had hoped for. Hell, as far as I was concerned, we came out ahead by living through the episode! Upon reflection, Josh agreed. I’m not sure what Ajax thought.

We did come out ahead in another respect. When I examined the saddle bag of one of the men, I found a .44 caliber Starr DA. We wondered why it was in the bag and not being used, but a detailed examination of the gun revealed that the firing pin was broken. Normally, that is an easy repair for a good gunsmith, so I was going to have it repaired. Josh had been looking for a second Starr DA so that he could have two like I did, but we had not been able to find one. They were no longer manufactured, so we had to look for a used one. This was a lucky find if the gun could be repaired, and we hoped that it could.

The wind came up and the temperature dropped, so we headed back to Willow Run. Neither of these robbers were the one we had been tipped off about, so we didn’t owe the whore anything. Maybe we would spot him later.

The next day was a little bit warmer, and we were back on the road looking for that road agent we had been tipped off about. We got all the way to the county seat without meeting any road agents, so we cashed in our receipts with the county clerk and picked up three new wanted posters. After lunch, we headed back toward Willow Run.

We had almost reached Willow Run when Ajax started his warning routine. This time, he said that the road agent was on our right, so I moved to Josh’s left as Ajax headed into the brush. This time, we were stopped by a man on his feet and holding a sawed-off shotgun. It was easy to see that both hammers were cocked. Dammit, this was a more ticklish situation than usual because of the spread of a sawed-off shotgun versus the single bullet of a pistol. Still, we had some hope because the robber had to use both hands to point the heavy shotgun at us.

“Both of you, raise your hands or I will shoot.” There was nothing else for us to do but comply. We raised our hands, and the man said, “Now, Ma’am, please dismount.”

That was a break! I was close to Josh’s right side, so I had to move my horse away from him because the convention was to mount and dismount on the left side of the horse. I made a production out of doing this, and the robber’s eyes followed me as I prepared to dismount. He also swung the shotgun more in my direction, probably unconsciously.