Chapter 5

Caleb felt that he had left Susan in good hands the next morning as the Three Musketeers left for Trinity to pick up the last two members of the gang of carpetbaggers. Both men lived in the hotel, so they would be easy to find, assuming they had not left in a dead run. The three lawmen stopped at the front desk and asked for the two crooks. The report was that they had checked out the previous night, and their current whereabouts were unknown. Both men had only one carpetbag when they checked in, but they both had two carpetbags when they checked out; presumably one of each was filled with cash.

Jake and Sam left to check the livery stables, while Caleb went to the stage depot. He learned that both men had left for Laredo on the early stage and should arrive in Laredo in mid-afternoon. Caleb rushed to find Jake and Sam. They held a quick discussion and decided to ride directly to Laredo; they couldn't hope to catch the stage, but they might get to Laredo before the two men left town. They rented remounts at a livery stable and left to follow the stage as fast as their horses could carry them.

They had gone only about 15 miles, just a few miles before they would reach the first stage relay station, when they came upon the stage stopped in the middle of the road. The driver and shotgun guard were dead up on the driver's seat, and the three passengers were lying dead near the open door of the stage. It was obvious that the passengers had been robbed, because their pockets were turned inside out. The express box had been ripped open by a wrecking bar and whatever was in there was taken. The stagecoach boot had been opened and the contents dumped out and opened. A leather valise and two carpetbags were lying on the ground, their contents spilled unceremoniously onto the road. But two other carpetbags were conspicuous by their absence.

Well, the search for the two remaining members of Peevy's gang was over, but a big chunk of Parson County's money had been stolen. Since the Three Musketeers were the only law around, it looked like it was up to them to try to catch the bandits and recover the money. Jake and Caleb took off on the trail of the bandits while Sam rode to the stage relay station to tell them what happened. Once he had delivered the message, San followed after his two friends.

All three men had swapped horses while they were stopped at the coach, so they were all on fresh horses and made good time on their various errands. Sam caught up to the other two men when they had to slow down to find out were the 4 bandits had exited a stream they had ridden into to hide their trail. Caleb rode upstream and Sam and Jake rode downstream to find the exit point. Jake spotted the exit point, so they quickly rode back to inform Caleb of their discovery and to resume the chase.

The three men dashed off in pursuit and came upon the bandits much more quickly than they had expected. The bandits were ambling along in no particular hurry, apparently sure that they were not being chased. There was one further surprise in store for the lawmen when they got close enough to see it—a woman was riding in the saddle in front of one of the bandits. They saw that her hands were tied in front of her and she was using them to hang on to the saddle horn; she was in some danger of falling if the horse moved too fast because she had no place to put her feet. The man in the saddle with her was using the stirrups, but he had one arm wrapped around the woman with his hand holding on to her breast.

The three lawmen followed the bandits while they tried to figure out what to do. They didn't want to do anything to endanger the woman captive, but they also didn't want the bandits to escape. They were in a real quandary when the impasse was broken for them. One of the lawmen's horses snorted, and that was enough to alert a nervous bandit. He turned in time to catch sight of the lawmen and shouted to his friends. All of the bandits turned to look at what had spooked the first bandit, and, when they did, the woman acted.

She jammed her elbow into the gut of the man she was riding with. When he reacted with pain and surprise, she bumped him out of the saddle and kicked the horse with her heels. Even though she was not wearing spurs, the horse reacted as if she were and began to run. Fortunately for the woman, she was able to get her feet into the stirrups and grab the reins, even though her hands were still tied. Her horse continued on its way and she let it run until she was clear of her captors; this was when she tried to bring the horse back under control. The horse had been ridden hard that day, so it was ready to slow down. The woman had little trouble regaining control of her horse; she pulled it to a halt and watched the events taking place behind her.

The lawmen drew their pistols and began shooting at the bandits as soon as the woman had cleared the group. The bandits dashed into some nearby trees and dismounted. They all had Spencer carbines, so this looked like it could turn into a serious fight. The bandit that had fallen off his horse had been shot as soon as he tried to stand up, so there were only 3 bandits to be concerned about. The three lawmen also dashed for some trees and pulled their Henry rifles as they dismounted. The woman was safely out of the way, so now the situation settled into a serious 3-on-3 confrontation.

Initially, both sides fired their rifles at each other, but there were no hits on either side. Each side was too well protected by the trees. The difference in the tactics soon surfaced, the bandits were on the defensive and the lawmen were on the offense. The bandits huddled together for mutual support, while the lawmen spread out to put as much pressure as possible on the bandits.

The battle had started with the two sides separated by about 75 yards, and that was one of the reasons why neither side could get a good shot at the other. Caleb sent Jake and Sam around to each side as flankers, while he concentrated on keeping the bandits occupied by maintaining a constant measured fire in their direction. At first, the bandits thought that all of the lawmen were bunched just as they were, but it was obvious when he had to stop to reload his Henry, that Caleb was alone and the other two lawmen had disappeared into the trees.

Now the 3 bandits were really worried; they were on the verge of panic. They had no idea where the other two lawmen might be and were jerking their gaze around trying to spot them. Since neither man had yet fired his rifle, there was no tell-tale smoke to give his position away. Meanwhile, Caleb had finished reloading his rifle and pistol and was creeping closer to the bandits in hopes of getting a better shot at them.

Caleb had managed to close to within 50 yards and opened up on the bandits from his new position. Again, he fired in a regular, measured manner so that his rifle would not get so hot that it would become useless while he was forced to wait for it to cool. Caleb had a better firing position than did the bandits, so he was able to keep shooting while they were forced to keep their heads down and hope that none of his bullets would hit any of them.

When Caleb had to stop shooting to reload, the bandits rather foolishly raised themselves out of hiding and began to shoot at Caleb's position. This was the exposure that Sam and Jake needed. They had found shooting positions only 30-40 yards from the bandits and were just waiting for the bandits to expose themselves enough for a shot. Both men began shooting as fast at they could lever in a round, aim, and squeeze the trigger. All three bandits were dead before either lawman had emptied his rifle! They took the time to reload before walking in to examine their dead foes.

The three lawmen made sure that the bandits were all dead before doing anything else. They found the loot from the stagecoach robbery still in the original carpetbags and the contents of the strongbox in a cloth gunny sack.

While Jake and Sam were looting the bodies of valuables, Caleb stepped out to where the woman could see him and called out, "MA'AM! WE'RE LAWMEN, FEDERAL MARSHALLS! PLEASE COME IN SO THAT WE CAN TALK!"