Chapter 3

I had been hunting on the south side of the river and had just rowed my way back across, when I heard a small voice call me.

“Mr. Steve, Mr. Steve.” Little Jimmy called to me as he ran down the path toward the river.

“Whoa! Slow down Jimmy, what is the problem?”

“There are some bad guys at my dad’s inn.”

Jimmy’s dad Albert ran the Riverbend Inn where I was staying.

“Okay, Jimmy do you know how many bad guys are there?”

“Six and they are giving my Pa a hard time.”

“Okay, Jimmy I will take it from here.”

Shit! I dreaded the day that this would happen. I’m not Rambo. I never have killed a person before. I had no idea just how well these guys were armed and how good they would be in a fight. I was never in a fight, let alone a probable fight to the death. I needed to round up my deputies first. I stopped at the carpenter’s house and talked with both Richard and Randy and told them to round up the rest and put plan one into effect. The bad guys are at the Riverbend Inn.

Plan one was where four guys would be across from the Inn hidden and the other two would be next to the Inn on each side hidden. I would try and lure the bad guys out into the street. I hoped to convince them to leave peacefully. If not and the force me into a confrontation, and attacked me, then my deputies were to fire at will at them and hopefully not hit me.

I walked into the Riverbend Inn and looked over at Albert. His face looked red, like he had been slapped around. The six bandits were all sitting at one table. It looked like they were finished with their meal and were drinking the wine. The leader was a big guy and the rest look to be about average. The leader had the serving gal on his lap and he was pawing at her breast. I pulled a chair up to their table.

“What do want?” The big guy roared.

“Fellows we a peaceful town, can you let the girl go and if your done here mount your horses and leave.”

“Now who is going to make us? You squirt?”

“No, I was hoping to be able to reason with you about this situation. Could you please let the girl go?”

The leader leaped up to his feet knocking the girl to the floor, as he reached for his sword. I leaped back out of my chair and ran for the door.

“Look Big Red, he’s afraid and running away. You’re not going to let him get away?” One of the thugs laughed.

Big Red let out a roar and followed me out the door. That was my plan along to get them out of the Inn and into the street where I had some back up. I was in the middle of the street when Big Red came charging out of the Inn. He was big about a head taller than me and maybe fifty pounds heavier. He had a two-handed sword drawn as he started to walk toward me. I looked around and noticed that all my deputies were stationed where they were supposed to be.

Big Red’s cronies followed him out of the Inn and were encouraging him to get me. He advanced toward me say all kinds of nasty things about what he planned to do to me. He was trying to get me off my game plan and scare the shit out of me. Let me tell you he was doing a good job.

Suddenly he charged me yelling at the top of his voice. I pulled my backsword (it’s like a Falchion that I had special made for me). He had a two-handed sword and swung it trying to take my head off. I ducked and stabbed him in the groin area. He stopped to protect his groin and I stood up and slit his throat. He reached for his throat and toppled forward dead before the hit the ground.

I heard a loud yell and looked as his cronies started to charge me. I could hear the twang of the bows and the bad guys started to sprout arrows. Soon they were all on the ground and not moving. I walked up to each and slit their throats just to be sure.

Suddenly I got dizzy and felt sick to my stomach. I grabbed the hitching post to steady myself and then I suddenly threw up my midday meal. My stomach was wrenching, and my bowels and bladder felt like they were going to explode. I have never killed a man before. There was a bucket with some water in it and I washed my face and swirled some water in my mouth.