Chapter 3

Josh fell back into his routine of riding to each danger point ahead of the stagecoach and watching until it had passed. He went about four weeks before anything interesting happened. He felt that his arm had healed and he was back in the condition he had enjoyed prior to the accident. It was less than a month until his wedding, but he resolved not to make the mistake of day-dreaming about that. He had bought a wedding ring for the ceremony and had arranged to borrow a suit from John Randall; all of his preparations were complete.

He was riding toward DP3 when he saw a riderless horse off to his left, toward the road. He immediately, but cautiously, swung toward the animal to investigate. When he got close, he noticed blood on the saddle, so he became even more cautious. The horse had wandered some, but he was able to follow its tracks to a corpse lying next to the road.

It was the body of a man and he had been shot very recently, from the looks of the blood. From the apparent condition of the body, it had been robbed after the man was dead. The man's gun and gun belt were missing and his pockets were turned inside-out. There were boot tracks around the body, but they were indistinct in the sand.

Josh bent over to examine them more closely just as a shot rang out. The bullet clipped his hat as it sped by. Josh jumped to one side and rolled against some brush, pulling a pistol as he did so. He looked around and thought he saw some smoke to his right. After worming his way farther into the brush, Josh looked more carefully at the tracks he had been examining and saw a faint trail leading in the direction of the smoke.

Josh had a choice: he could run or he could stalk. Josh was the type who never ran from anything if he could avoid it, so he began to stalk his attacker. He crept toward the attacker's assumed location, using his elbows and toes to drag himself along. He wanted to present as small a target as possible while he was moving, so he never rose to his hands and knees. Progress was slower this way, but it was less likely to get him shot.

As Josh approached his prey, he kept a sharp lookout for any sign of color. A colorful shirt or neckerchief would be a sure sign of a human, who had to be his enemy. Josh never wore any but drab colors just for this reason, but many men had the need to exhibit themselves in colorful clothes.

It turned out to be the flash of sunlight off a spur that gave his opponent away. Josh caught a glimpse of the flash as the other man moved, possibly from nervousness. Whatever the cause, the man was located, now. Josh moved in for the kill.

Josh wished he had his carbine, but the range was short enough that the Schofield revolver was accurate enough for this job. The other man was only about 10 yards away and well on his way to shaking hands with the devil. Using both hands to steady his aim, Josh lined up on the man's chest and squeezed the trigger. The smoke hid the man from Josh's sight momentarily, but not long enough to make any real difference. The .45 slug plowed into the man's ribcage and through his lung and heart, coming to rest in the other lung.

Though he was certain that his enemy was dead, Josh didn't take any chances. He approached, ever alert for a trick, and he had to be aware of a possible partner for the dead man. Josh kept shifting his gaze from side to side, just in case there was another villain lying in wait for him. He reached the new corpse and poked it with his gun barrel, even though experience told him that the man was as dead as anyone ever gets.

Now satisfied that the man was dead, Josh rolled him over to make it easier to check his pockets. Just a few coins, mostly Mexican, and nothing else. The man didn't look Mexican, but many Anglos spent a lot of time in Mexico, particularly if they were wanted by the law. He gathered up the two horses and tied the two bodies across the horse belonging to the first dead man.

Mounting his own horse, Josh began to search for the remaining horse; he could not bring himself to abandon a horse that could be tied to a tree and not able to leave for food or water. After only a short search, Josh found the other horse tied to a tree. He moved the second dead man to this horse to equalize the load between the two horses, and turned back toward Smithville.

Josh stopped off at the marshal's office when he got back to town and told the marshal what had happened. The marshal didn't recognize the second dead man, but he thought that the first corpse was a bounty hunter he had seen around town from time to time. This was enough to make the marshal curious and he promised to look through the stack of wanted posters to see if he could match any with the dead man.

At the marshal's request, Josh dropped the two bodies off at the mortician's place of business and took the two horses to one of the town's livery stables. There he sold the horses and tack and then stopped by the stage line's office to check in with his boss, John Randall. He told his story, again, and left for his boarding house.

Alice, his future wife, met him with a big hug and kiss as he rode up to the boarding house. "Only 18 days until our wedding! I can hardly wait!" she exclaimed as she held onto Josh.

Josh told her of his little adventure that day and her only reaction, other than to say that she was happy that he was not hurt, was to comment that a perfectly good hat had been damaged. He agreed that it was a shame, but what could he do?

The next 17 days were uneventful and the big day was upon him. Josh bathed and dressed in the borrowed suit and went to the local church. The wedding had been scheduled for Sunday afternoon, since that was the only day of the week that Josh was not working. Alice had made herself a new dress for the wedding and was there with Mrs. James, who would substitute for her family. John Randall was the best man and the wedding went off without a hitch before the entire congregation, who waited around to congratulate the couple and wish them well.

Mrs. James had arranged to move them into a larger bedroom which she had fixed up for two people. They would continue to live at the boarding house and Alice would continue to work there, at least for the present. They spent the night in their new bedroom, since Josh had to be at work the next morning.

No robberies were attempted during the next week, so Josh had a relatively easy time while on patrol. This was really appreciated by Josh, since he wasn't getting much sleep at night. It was a good thing that Mrs. James had found them a relatively noiseless bed; otherwise, the other residents of the boarding house would not have gotten much sleep, either. Josh did hope that Alice's enthusiasm would wind down a little pretty soon, because she was wearing him out.

Josh had reached DP3 and was waiting for the stagecoach when he saw some activity on the far side of the road. Four men were dragging a tree limb into the road where there was no room for the coach to get around it. The coach would be forced to stop and the road would have to be cleared before it could continue.

Josh drew his Henry from its boot and rode to a location near the presumed ambush. The four men saw him coming and started shooting at him well before he was in effective range of their pistols. Nevertheless, a flying bullet is potentially lethal, no matter how inaccurately it is directed, so Josh was forced to take cover. He rode to some rocks and jumped behind them while levering the first round into his Henry.

The four bandits had the good sense to take cover, themselves, and there was an exchange of fire lasting about 5 minutes. Both sides were too well protected for the other side to take effective aim, so the situation was at a stalemate.

The stagecoach arrived at this time and was forced to stop by the barricade. Sam, the guard, fired his shotgun at the bandits and this got their immediate attention. Joe, the driver, used his Winchester, too. This was enough to discourage the bandits who started pulling out. Joe got a clear shot at one of the bandits and hit him in the back. The man fell and did not get up, though there was no way to tell whether or not he was dead. Sam had reloaded his shotgun by this time, so he fired a shot into the prone bandit; he was dead now, for sure!

The remaining bandits ran to their horses, mounted, and rode away. Josh threw a lasso around the tree limb and used his horse to pull it out of the way. Joe and Sam waved as they drove off and Josh went to find the dead man's horse and to take care of the corpse.

Josh delivered the corpse to the relay station and got his receipt. He realized that he still had time to get to DP5 before the coach, so he went there. He didn't expect any trouble there, but he was paid to cover it, so he went.

Damn! There was a barricade and three bandits waiting. Josh rode into the brush and looped around to get behind the bandits. He rode as close as he thought was safe and dismounted. Moving quickly, he got close to the bandits and started shooting with his pistols. The range was only about 15 yards and the bandits had no idea he was there. Even though they had their pistols in their hands, they didn't get off a shot at Josh before he cut them down. He was as good a shot with his left hand as he was with his right, so that, by the time he had emptied both pistols, 10 shots, the three bandits were dead.

Josh reloaded and pulled the limb out of the way just as the coach was coming up to him. He waved the coach on through and proceeded to gather up the horses and the corpses. The nearest relay station was toward Smithville, so he rode toward that one and got his receipts for the three corpses. The office was closed by the time he got to Smithville, so he just went home to Alice.

At the rate he was collecting bandit bounties, they might actually have enough money for their own home pretty soon; they could get a very nice adobe house and furnish it for $500. That night, Josh and Alice discussed the possibility of them buying their own home and Alice was ecstatic. Josh didn't get any rest that night, either!

The next day, Josh wound up in Smithville before the office closed, so he was able to claim his bounty for the four bandits. When the stagecoach arrived and the excitement this always caused had died down, he gave Joe and Sam the $50 bounty for the bandit they had killed. They were impressed and thanked Josh profusely, since they had not expected him to do that.

Things were quiet for the next two weeks, and then Josh had his first Indian trouble. Custer's defeat at The Little Big Horn had stirred up the Indians all over the western half of the continent, so Josh had been expecting some sort of Indian trouble, he just didn't know when or where. He had approached DP3 from the DP2 side and was attacked by a band of 10 or 12 Indians just as he started toward his usual observation post.

There was a lot of loud whooping along with the shooting as the Indians started chasing Josh back toward DP2. Josh knew that the only way he would get shot is by pure bad luck as long as everybody was riding as fast as they could. He also knew that his chance of hitting an Indian was no better, so the only sure way of escape was to lead the Indians into one of the quicksand pits he had spotted.