Chapter 4

Eddy had one point on his side: the first time he fired his shotgun, people would come running. He just had to hope that they would get there soon enough to do him some good. He figured that he was hidden well enough in the dim light that the thugs would have a hard time spotting him.

Eddy had a problem that he didn't see any way around: he couldn't shoot just because he didn't like their looks. They had to make the first move. Maybe they would try something illegal so he could shoot, because he really needed to get off the first shot to have a good chance against 7 armed men. Eddy was stewing with indecision when one of the thugs said, "Where is that deputy? The boss said that he was sure to be here."

"I don't know, but we can start the fire if he ain't here."

That was all Eddy needed to hear. Now he knew who he was facing; there was no doubt that these were members of the "protection" gang. All he had to do was let them get a little closer. His sawed off shotgun didn't have much of a killing range, so he wanted his enemy within 50 feet before he shot. "Shit! Why did they stop?" he wondered as they came to a halt just out of what he could be sure of as a killing range. "Three on one side, four on the other side, why couldn't they get close together right in front of me?"

"JIM! THERE HE IS! BEHIND THOSE BARRELS!"

Eddy couldn't wait any longer, he fired both barrels into the group of four; they were the nearest to him. Three fell as Eddy popped open the shotgun and reloaded. "I sure as hell hope I got enough shells! At least, I only have to fight four men, now."

He fired one shell at the remaining thug out of the group of four, but he had dropped flat on the ground and Eddy missed. He fired the other barrel at the three other men who were at the extreme of the killing range. "Damn it! They're too far away. I only hit one and he's just lightly wounded."

Eddy reloaded and fired one barrel, again, at the lone man to his left. This time, Eddy fired directly at the man's head and saw blood fly, along with the sand kicked up by the shot that missed.

So far, strangely, Eddy had been the only one to shoot. Finally, one of the trio on the right had his pistol out and was firing at Eddy. As predicted, the bullets were being trapped by the sand and Eddy had nothing to worry about unless there was an extremely lucky shot right into one of the loopholes. The lone man on the left was no longer moving, so Eddy concentrated on the men on the right.

He knew that he would have to be extremely lucky to kill any of them, but he kept shooting on the assumption that help would be along, soon. By now, all three men were lying down on the alley dirt, firing their pistols at him. He was as much out of their effective range as they were out of his. Like his enemy, Eddy was shooting and hoping. At least, as long as he was shooting, they might be too afraid to get up and run away.

Help, at last! Eddy spotted Bill running toward him from the right and yelled, "BILL, LOOK OUT! DON'T KILL THEM! LET'S CAPTURE THEM IF WE CAN!"

Bill waved and stopped running. He was still out of range, but his shotgun had a longer barrel and, as a result, had a little more range than Eddy. Eddy shouted to the thugs, "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! THROW DOWN YOUR GUNS AND WE WON'T KILL YOU! DO IT NOW!"

There was a moment of indecision and then the thugs threw away their pistols. They scrambled to their feet and held up their hands. Eddy ran out from behind his fort and yelled to Bill, "COVER THESE GALOOTS WHILE I CHECK ON THE OTHERS!" Bill nodded and Eddy went to see what needed to be done with the four on his left. All four were now dead, so he walked to the other three, all of whom were wounded, but none seriously.

"OK, Bill, thanks. I'll keep these covered. Please go get Mike and tell him we need the undertaker. There's at least four corpses, and there may be more." Bill grinned and trotted off.

Eddy turned to the three crooks and said, "None of you are hurt bad, so we'll just wait here. Sit down and nobody will get shot. Now, who's going to tell me what this was all about?"

"Fuck you, copper!" was the mildest of the replies Eddy got to that.

"You do know that I could shoot all of you bastards right now and claim that you were trying to escape, don't you?"

"Please don't do that!" was the mildest of the replies Eddy got to that.

One of the thugs said, "We don't know who the boss is, but he said that he would kill anybody what turned against the gang."

"OK, why were you trying to kill me?"

"All we know is that the boss said that we should kill you if we saw you. He never tells us the 'why' of anything."

"What were you going to do if you didn't find me?"

"We were supposed to start a fire and burn down that store."

"You know that a fire like that could burn down the whole block, maybe the whole city."

"So?"

"Oh, forget it! Let's just sit quietly until the marshal gets here."

About half an hour later, the marshal arrived with Bill and the undertaker on the buckboard. They tossed the bodies in the buckboard and the undertaker drove off. The marshal said, "We can talk as we take these galoots to the jail."

They picked up the guns tossed away by the crooks and marched them to the jail where they put them in a cell. On the way, the marshal asked, "How many more crooks do you plan to shoot, Eddy?"

"I don't know, Mike. I guess it depends on how many shoot at me."

"Good answer. Stick to it! Were there any who got away?"

"Nope, this is the lot. Four dead and three walking wounded. They told me that their main job was to kill me, but they were supposed to burn down the block if they couldn't find me."

"Shit! Their boss must be crazy! That could have burned down the whole town!"

"That's what I said and their answer was 'So?'."

"Oh, Shit! OK, take the rest of the night off. Go home. Come back tomorrow evening at your regular time."

"Thanks, Mike."

Eddy went home and almost scared Martha to death when he stripped off his clothes and slid into bed with her. She certainly wasn't expecting him, but recovered quickly and wrapped her arms around him. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure? You haven't been fired, have you?"

"No, nothing like that. We just had a big dust up and Mike sent me home early to rest up. I'm awfully sleepy, I'll talk tomorrow." With that, Eddy went to sleep. Martha grinned and hugged him even tighter.

The next morning, at breakfast, Eddy related what had happened the night before. He played down the personal danger, but they all knew how he might have been killed. He kept telling how he had been hidden behind those barrels and crates of sand and how the bullets couldn't reach him. Nevertheless, Martha thought, "OK, but..."

After breakfast, the boys left for hauling jobs and Mary went to visit Aaron, so Eddy and Martha were left alone. The couple returned to the bedroom and did what Eddy had been too sleepy for the night before. As they were dressing, Martha said, "This deputy marshal job has gotten a whole lot more dangerous in the last few weeks. Will you be all right? I worry for the baby if something should happen to you."

"Please don't worry about me, honey. I am very careful. Just ask Mike or Bill. We should get this gang thing cleaned up pretty soon and everything will get back to normal. Besides, if something should happen to me, you now have the freight business to take care of you and the baby. You really don't have anything to worry about."

"Well... OK. But I want you to be especially careful until you can get rid of this gang business."

"Let's change the subject." They talked about other things for a time and then Eddy left to wander around town to see what kind of hauling business he could find.

Eddy was lolling against a tree, looking at the river, when a man walked up and asked, "Say, ain't you the man with the new heavy hauling business?"

Eddy answered, "Yes I am, I'm Eddy Johnson," and stuck out his hand.

The other man shook Eddy's hand and said, "I'm Silas Warren and I've got a long term hauling job you might be interested in. I've got the contract to provide the building stone for the new capitol building under construction and I need a way to get the stone from the dock to the building site. I am prepared to offer a one year, renewable, contract to haul the stone. The actual job will last as long as it takes to finish the stone part of the building. My guess is 5 years, but it could be longer.