Chapter 40

On the night of July 10, 1877 Jerl and Winona made camp south of Dodge City on the banks of the Arkansas River, where it made a big bend and caused a nice sized swimming hole to be cut out into a high banks. They made camp early in the evening, way before dark and swam and played in the water until dark. They slept easy that night in each other’s arms after a long, wild round of mating again like wild animals.

Jerl had taught Winona how to use his hand gun and his Winchester rifle. She was damn near as good as he was, he really liked this Indian girl. She sure was a looker and she liked sex more than any woman he’d ever run upon.

They made camp the next night about two miles south of Hays and were up at daylight. They came into town early on the morning of July 12, and rode along the tracks headed east. Jerl looked the tracks over good and the water tank, as well as the coal car that was parked on the spur track near the water tank. He looked back west and could see down the tracks until the two rails came together in the distance.

He looked east at the tracks and the bright red sun that looked like it was straddling the tracks and rolling right at him. They rode right on through Hays, following the tracks, riding slow.

“Jerl, what do you think, can we take some of that gold off the train, or will there be too many Marshals riding on it to even try?”

“I been thinking that if we hit the train while it’s stopped back there, they’d be more on the look out for trouble. But if we wait until the train pulls out headed east, then the train will take a long ways to even get up to the speed of a slow horse. We could ride out of that bunch of buck brush over there on the south side of the tracks and right up to the back of the train.

“The tracks are almost flat to the ground here at the rise of this hill, we could ride right up and get on the back of the last car. We’d have to make short work of the marshals in the caboose, then work our way up to the one with the gold. Your Pa said you could tell the car with a gold shipment, cause it’d be painted a plain color with no writing on the side, he said too that most times it was next to the caboose car. If it is, we’ll make it work, if we can get that lazy bunch of Slaughter’s to do as we plan.”

“Jerl, you still just gonna get two bars for me ‘n you?”

“Yep, you got that short saw I bought you back there in town the other day?”

“Yep right here in my saddle bag, I sure wish we could find a good swimmin hole for the night, don’t you Jerl?” Winona grinned at him.

“When we get them two bars sawed in half and ride back down in Indian Territory, I’ll take you swimmin and ride you til you shit down both legs, girl.”

“There’s the Slaughters camp over there to the south, see the horses. Right out in plain sight of any body riding down this trail. Winona, you stay close to me, I’d hate to kill a friend for trying to lay between my woman’s legs, you hear?”

“You needn’t worry none, ain’t no man gonna ever get between my legs ‘cept you Jerl.”

“Hello the camp. Wake up, you sorry ass cowhands,” Jerl hollered at his friends, he and Winona laughing aloud.

“Damn, looky yonder, it’s Jerl and his Indian woman,” Oren Slaughter said as he stood up to see who was hollering.

“Come riding on in and set a spell,” Joon invited the two, all the while taking in the woman with Jerl.

Winona was dressed in a buckskin shirt that laced up the front about half way, her laces were gone and her hard brown bosoms were easy to see as she stepped to the ground from her stirrups. She had on a set of buckskin britches that Jerl had to help her pull up over her butt cheeks, they were so tight. They’d both had so much fun this morning at camp, getting her britches up over her butt that Jerl jerked them back down and took her from behind before they left camp.

Jerl and Winona spoke to all three brothers and they sat down to talk out a plan to take gold from the train the next morning.

“I’m thinking that we’re not gonna have a way to haul a bunch of the gold off from that train, so Winona ‘n me are just gonna get two bricks and saw them in half then ride like hell to Indian Territory.”

“Damn Jerl, that sure don’t sound like much for all we’re gonna put into this,” Joon said.

“Well, I figure if we saw them two bricks in half, we can put the four pieces in four saddle bags and get away, if we try to get more, we’re gonna get slowed down and get caught.”

“Well, me ‘n the brothers are gonna get more for our trouble than two bars of gold, you can bet your ass on that,” Joon said.

“That’s up to the three of you, here’s what I got figured out from the ride through we did this morning. I figure if we try to hit the train while it’s stopped, the Marshals will have the drop on us before we can get close to the gold car. If we wait til it rolls on out east a ways, we can ride up behind it on our horses and be in the caboose car before they know we’re there.”

“Damn Jerl, I’d druther just take our chances while the train’s stopped, a man could get hurt jumping from a horse to a train,” Oren said.

“You dumb sumbitch, you think you’re not gonna get hurt trying to take on a dozen marshals while the train is stopped?” Winona said and laughed.

“You shut your mouth, squaw woman, we’re the ones making these plans,” Oren spat at her feet.

“Oren, you’re gonna put a split in this bunch quick, if you say another thing about my woman,” Jerl looked at Oren Slaughter with his eyes drawn down tight.

“Hold on now, let’s get our heads working together here and get a plan laid out, we’re never gonna get another chance to get this much gold again,” Joon said as he jerked his brother Oren’s shirt sleeve hard.

“I like what Jerl’s saying, we don’t have the guns to take on a dozen U. S. Marshal’s sitting still like that, but once the train gets rolling, you can bet they’ll be scattered out all the way to the engine. We’ll have a better chance then.”

“Well, I’m gonna get me at least six bars of that gold, the rest of you can do what you like,” Bill Slaughter said.

“Bill, you’ll tear you’re saddle bags out with that much gold, then you’ll lose all you worked for,” Joon tried to reason with him.

“I got two two horses and two sets of saddle bags, I’m gonna put one over my saddle and sit on it and the other I’ll put behind my saddle. You’ll see, just don’t go thinking I’m gonna split it up with you when we get away,” Bill said.

“Jerl, just say we do this your way, how we gonna get on that train from the back, you know them marshals gonna be watching out the back and sides too,” Joon asked.

“There’s a good spread of buck brush on the south side of the tracks east of town, that’s a good horse head high.

“We’ll hide there and ride out as the train goes by. I got a good plan on how to make sure the Marshals are lookin the other way, you’ll see. Me ‘n Winona has put a lot of time in going over all this, just do as I say ‘n we’ll all get some gold.”

“I reckon I’m gonna throw in with Jerl’s take on this, I sure ain’t got a better one,” Joon said.

“I’m in too then,” Oren and Bill each said.

“Joon, you ‘n your brothers ride over toward Hays just before dark sets in today. Winona ‘n me’ll meet you out near where the buck brush starts just east of town, on the south side of the tracks. We’ll hunker down out in the brush tonight and wait til morning. We don’t want nobody seeing us out there and get suspicious.”

The five riders, bedded down in the small brushy trees, woke up in their bedrolls on the morning of Friday 13th, 1877 to a light rain and dark skies that looked like there could be a downpour any minute. The clouds were low and rolling across the plains and there was thunder rumbling back in the southwest, as the sound of a train whistle screamed out across the still, wet country side.

Jerl was up and dressed and was helping Winona pull up them damned tight buckskins he bought her at the trading post back on the Colorado border. He never could reason why she wanted them this tight on her ass anyway.

The Slaughter brothers lay in their bedrolls and watched as Jerl skinned her britches up over her smooth brown butt cheeks. Damn she sure was a looker.

They broke the cold camp and moved back a ways deeper into the brush.

“Bring your horses and come with me,” Jerl said as he walked out in the open with Winona.

They walked across the tracks, and she led her horse and another saddled horse as they talked.

“You remember what we talked about don’t you?” Jerl asked.

“Yep, I’ll do my part and meet you on the other side of the tracks with the horses when it’s over,” She said and then grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him deep.

“Good, I’m just not sure about them three brothers over there, but I’m gonna throw two of the gold bars off the train. As soon as you see them hit the dirt, you jump down and start sawing. I’ll jump from the train as soon as I throw the last bar, so I won’t be far from you.”

“Be careful Jerl, you’re my man ‘n I love your stinking ass,” She kissed him again and he patted her on the butt.

“You be careful Winona, you’re my woman, I love your brown ass too.”

Winona led her two horses out into a small patch of brush on the north side of the tracks. From here she could see the train engine as it sat there on the tracks in the misty rain, hissing steam and puffing smoke like some big mean animal waiting to be turned loose to run across the prairie.

The rain came heavier and felt good to her skin, she was scared and shaking as she pulled her buckskin shirt over her head and stuffed it down in her saddlebags. She looked down and her nipples were hard and sticking out with rain drops dripping off them.

‘Damn, I wish Jerl was over here, I need a fast one from behind’, she thought and grinned.

The train had pulled into Hays earlier, right on time and even before the wheels screeched to a grinding stop on the rails, there were marshals all over the ground around the train.

Sheriff William Wade rode up to the train and a tall heavy set man with a big white hat stepped down from the car next to the red caboose.

“I reckon you’d be Sheriff William Wade?” he said, as Sheriff Wade rode over to him.

“I’m William Wade,” he said and stuck his hand out from where he sat his horse, but the Marshal ignored it and looked all around the loading area. He looked over at the small depot then turned to look up at the tall water tank as a man swung the tin pipe out over the engine to take on water.

“I didn’t really think we’d have any trouble in this little town, I figured we’d be hit back there comin out of the mountains if we were gonna be hit at all,” the Marshal said with a smile.

“Marshal I got a man on the store roof over here and another one up on the hotel balcony down there,” Sheriff Wade pointed toward the middle of town.

“Well, that’s about what I expected of this town, what the hell is a man on the hotel balcony gonna do with the train out here on the tracks?”

“Well, we didn’t want to be in your way and we can cover the whole place from up high, with just a glance.”

“I’m glad you didn’t bring your men down here, we got too much else to worry about, than to look out after some greenhorn law men.”

Sheriff Wade turned his horse and rode back toward town, he waved for Cal to come down, when he turned, then looked up at Tom when he rode by.

There was at least ten men over in the coal car, throwing coal up and over into the coal car on the train, as the engine took on water. They were making a good pile fast and worked hard for the dollar apiece they were getting for this.

The man on the water spout saw the water splash out of the opening on the reservoir above the boiler and shut the water off, then swung his spout back up and over to the side.

There were three marshals standing on the south side of the train and three on the north along with the man in charge. There were three more up in the engine compartment and one standing on top of the coal car as it was being loaded.

The Marshal in charge waved his hands and the whistle blew. The men stopped loading coal and the marshals on each side of the train climbed up the steps. Three got in the red caboose and three got into an empty passenger car that was third from the rear.

The man in charge stepped up on the bottom step, swung out and waved like a conductor to the engineer that was looking out the side window of the engine.

He shoved the throttle forward and the big engine roared to life once more, shaking the ground around it.

When he released the brakes, the train started with a lurch. The marshal was standing on the bottom of the iron steps and lost his grip in the misty rain. His foot slipped and went down between the iron steps as he fell backwards. Trying to get a grip and pull himself up, the marshal slipped again and was being dragged along under the train right next to the wheels of the passenger car.

One of his men looked out the window of the passenger car and ran to the door, he managed to get his boss pulled up and onto the platform on front of the passenger car. The other men in the car came out and got him inside and stretched out on a table. He was skinned badly and bruised up and down his legs, where he’d been hanging from the steps.

They were all worrying over him when the three men in the caboose saw a young Indian girl riding a horse, chasing another horse alongside the train on the north side, she was naked from the waist up and her big brown breasts were bouncing wildly as she rode like hell to catch the run-a-way horse.

They all watched as she rode right next to the side of the caboose and looked over to grin a big grin at them. They didn’t even see the men come in the back door of the caboose. The deputy marshals were pointing at the girl and poking each other when they felt their guns being pulled from their holsters.

“What the hell? What’re you sumbitches doin on this train?” One man asked.

No one spoke as Jerl took their hand cuffs and cuffed them all together and then cuffed each of them foot to foot as they lay on the floor.

Jerl saw a big key ring on one mans belt and grabbed it off as they ran to the front door of the caboose.

He was right, the big key went right in the lock of the mail car and they were in. There was a small man leaned back against some boxes asleep. Joon slipped his gun out and his brothers grabbed his hands while he cuffed him.

Jerl took a crowbar and broke the cargo boards loose that held the gold bars that were stacked against the front end of the mail car, he grabbed one and walked over to the window and threw it right through the glass, then ran back and got another one and threw it out. He glanced out just in time to see Winona leap to the ground with her saw in her hand, her teats swinging wildly as she worked.