Chapter 4

I was jerked out of a deep sleep and smacked across the face. “Wha...” was all I got out before I was smacked again.

“Wake up, kid. We know you got money. Make it a lot easier on all of us and give it up.” They were big men, middleaged with bulging guts. It was pretty plain they didn’t like workin’ for a livin’. One held a pistol on me while the other smacked me a third time.

“Wise up boy. It’s just money and it ain’t worth gettin’ killed over!”

He was right, so I slid the belt out of my bedding. They grabbed it and the one without the pistoil went through it. There was a little less than twenty dollars in it.

“Where’s the rest?”

“There ain’t no rest. Just because I got a money belt don’t mean I got money to fill it. Look at me, I’m just a kid. What makes you think I got more?”

He popped me in the eye. I was probably going to have a pretty good shiner come morning and that didn’t improve my attitude any. Luc, hearin’ the commotion, started getting restless, snorting and thumping the stall walls. They shoved me to the edge. “Best shut that animal up if you want him to stay alive.”

I took the shove and rolled with it, doing a pretty good job of acting, windmilling my arms like I was trying to get my balance, before falling the ten feet.

I was lucky in that I missed most of the stuff I’d hidden under the straw, and the first thing I found was the Army Colt. I didn’t carry it because it was the military model with the eight inch barrel and was unweildy as hell. I lay still, rubbing Luc’s leg to keep him quiet. I could hear them as they peered down.

“Reckon he’s dead?”

“More likely knocked out. His saddle bags are on the back wall. Let’s grab them and get the hell out of here before that animal starts raising a ruckus.”

I heard them coming down the ladder and sensed Luc tensing up when they crept into the stall. Suddenly he let out a bellow and lashed out with both back feet, catching one in the chest and crushing his rib cage. The other swung his pistol up and was about to shoot when he heard the triple click of the Colts’ hammer going back. He immediately started running and I let him get to the door of the barn to make sure I didn’t hit any animals. When I fired he let out a squall that would wake the dead and dropped the money belt, but he kept running.

The shot woke everyone on that side of town up and pretty soon there was a crowd in the stable. The Sherriff showed up, looking pissed to be up this early, and asked me what happened. I was tellin’ him when they loaded the man Luc had kicked on a makeshift stretcher. The Sheriff stopped them and asked the man where his brother-in-law was. He just groaned and they carried him off. He looked at me.

“That animal has a hell of a kick, boy. I bet there ain’t a whole rib in his body. Jasper ain’t never gonna be right again. Why did you shoot the other one? He was runnin’ away and we’d have caught up to him pretty quick.” He walked over and picked up my moneybelt. “Yours?”

“It is. They were robbin’ me, then beat me until I fell off the loft. I was just lucky I landed in my mule’s stall. He don’t like people he don’t know comin’ up behind him.”

“It was just luck you had that big pistol in the stall?”

“Not luck. Planning. I’m a kid travelin’ alone and looked like easy pickin’s so I hedge my bets when I can. And I admit he was runnin’ away Sheriff, but he was running with my moneybelt in his hand and he’d already threatened to kill me. You’ll excuse me if I don’t have much sympathy for him.”

I was the talk of the town. The Curcuit Judge just happened to be there holding regular court and he presided over the investigation. The other man was found when he finally showed up at the Doc’s and I hear he didn’t use a lot of pain medicine when he pulled the bullet out of his ass. Doc says he’ll probably have a limp for the rest of his life. The Doc looked me over, told me I’d be fine, and told me to keep something cold on my eye to keep the swelling down.

I had to stay an extra day to meet with the Judge and Sheriff. They laid out what was going to happen. “You can press charges. It’s a done deal and they’ll be found guilty pretty damn fast. If you press charges, it could take a week or two before it comes to trial because my plate is pretty full right now. It’s up to you.”