Chapter 3

Without conscious thought, Jane checked her guns to make sure that she had reloaded after her fight with Curly Johnson. Yes, she had. Reloading had finally become second nature; she wanted to be ready if she ever needed her guns on short notice.

Jane rigged up a lead rope for Curly's horse and headed toward the nearest town. She was so far away from her starting point of a few days ago that she just kept going the way she had been headed, knowing that she would eventually run across a trail leading to some town—she wasn't particularly concerned with which one it might be. Jane had never been in this part of the state before, so she was lost for all practical purposes. However, she had plenty of food and water and two horses, so she wasn't worried.

About 2 hours of riding brought her to a road, and she could hear a church bell ringing in the distance. This reminded her that it was Sunday and the evening service would be starting pretty soon. Jane and Bill had gone to all of the church services in Silver City, and she got kind of misty-eyed thinking of Bill and her feeling of loss. Neither of them had been particularly devout believers, but the social aspects of the church had been a powerful magnet for both of them. It had been a magnificent opportunity for Bill to meet potential clients and for Jane to meet the other women of her social class. She suddenly thought with disdain of how she had looked forward to the quilting bees and the travel lectures from women who had read about these strange places, but never visited them.

Jane had not given the matter much thought, since she had been consumed with the ways and means of catching up to Curly Johnson, but she now realized how ultimately boring such a life would be after the gut-wrenching excitement of facing down a loaded gun. What was she going to do with the rest of her life? Her logical prospects were limited to becoming a housewife and/or a schoolteacher, neither one of which were very attractive at this point. She certainly was not going to turn to prostitution, which was the other job for most unattached women. At 22 years old, Jane's prospects for a fulfilling life were slim to none, mostly the latter.

She now, for the first time, came to the realization that the happiest moments in her life had been while she was either man hunting or fighting. She had loved Bill, but she hated the thought of returning to that kind of life. It came to her over the 30 minutes or so it took her to ride into Nugget that her best bet was to remain a bounty hunter. She had to keep up her disguise as a man, but she had become used to that by now, so that would be no hardship. She decided to become Jim Austin on a permanent basis to the outside world. With that in mind, Jane decided to visit the nearest court house to restock her cache of wanted posters.

The next morning, she got instructions on how to find the nearest courthouse and left for it at a brisk pace and with a lighter heart. Upon arrival, she found the county clerk's office and explained that she was looking for the latest wanted posters. The clerk commented, "Boy, ya shore do look young fer a bounty hunter."

"Yeah, it's a big help. I kin look like a harmless kid when I need ta. I've been told that I could even look like a woman ifen I tried."

"Naw, ya'd never manage ta look like a woman. But that would be a good joke ta pull on some galoot what was lookin' fer a good time."

"Well, I ain't wanted ta look like a woman, yet, but the situation might come up. Thanks fer the posters. Be seein' ya."

Jane took the posters to the nearest saloon, it was time for a beer. She was sitting at a table sipping her beer and looking through the stack of posters when she heard a loud voice proclaim, "Well, would y'all look at that! That there kid must think that he's a ferocious bounty hunter the way he's staring at all them wanted posters. He don't look so tough ta me. I think that I'll he'p his looks soz he looks more like a mean hombre."

Another voice said, "Oh, come on, Jack. The kid ain't doin' no harm. We all know how tough ya are, ya don't have ta prove it by cuttin' up a kid."

"Shuddup! I'm gona have a little fun!" With that, the mean one pulled out his bowie knife and half walked, half staggered over toward where Jane was sitting.

She saw him coming and stood up. "Come on, Mister. There ain't no need ta start an uproar. Let me buy ya a beer soz we kin be friends."

"I ain't gonna be friends with no smart ass kid! Ya better stand still soz this won't hurt as much."

Jane looked grim and said, "OK, ya better back off, ifen ya don't wanna be dead real quick. This is the only warnin' I'm givin' ya."

"Ha, jus' fer that, ya pipsqueak, I'm gonna cut ya real good. An' I'll finish it off by cuttin' yer balls off!"

The man held his knife up in front of Jane's face and moved in closer. It was obvious that Jane had to defend herself, so she whipped up her shotgun, poked it in the man's belly, and fired off one barrel. Blood, guts, and shit flew all over the place as the buckshot passed clear through the man's body, cutting his spine in the process. He was dead before he hit the floor, barely in one piece, considering the size of the hole in his back.

Jane moved her finger to the other trigger and asked, "Anybody wanna make sumpthin' more of this?"

The voice of reason at the bar said, "No, sir. Jack's had that comin' ta him fer a long time. Looks ta me like ya didn't have no choice. Let me buy ya a fresh beer, cuz it looks like there's blood in yers."

Jane reloaded and ambled over to the bar where she had a fresh beer with the voice of reason and his friends. The voice of reason put out his hand as said, "Howdy, I'm Ed Hopper. What's yer name?"

"Pleased ta meet ya, Ed. I'm Jim Austin. Much obliged fer the beer. Sorry I had ta shoot yer friend."

"Don't pay it no mind, Jim. Jack weren't no friend of mine. I jus' knew the bastard from my visits ta saloons. He wuz a bully what's been askin' fer a takin' down fer years. Looks like he picked on the wrong fellow this time."

About that time, the town marshal walked in. "I hear some public spirited citizen finally rid us of Jack Smally. Where is he, I'd like ta shake his hand?"

Ed Hopper said, "Here he is, Marshal Jones. Meet Jim Austin. He's the public spirited citizen ya're lookin' fer."

The marshal shook hands and thanked Jane for doing such a good job. He then turned to the bartender and said, "I've seen all I need. Git yer swamper ta fetch the undertaker, ifen ya please."

Jane finished her beer and talked to the various people at the bar while the details were being dealt with. Ed asked, "Jim, I awful hungry. It's late fer lunch, but the restaurant in the hotel is still open. Ya want to join me?"

Jane gathered up her posters, making a point to carry them under her left arm so that her right hand was free to reach for her gun, if necessary. They had lunch, 50 cents with coffee, and the food was reasonably good, so Jane decided to stay the night in the hotel. She took a room and put her stuff in it; since she was staying the night, she took her horse to a livery stable so it could rest out of the hot sun.

Ed had taken a liking to her, though he still thought that she was a man. He had followed her while she took care of her room and her horse, then they started making the rounds of the saloons. They had plenty of time to talk, and Jane found out that Ed, too, was a bounty hunter. He had been in the business since he was 20 years old, 5 years ago. Ed was a real quick draw artist and carried two pistols, .45 caliber Schofields, in the cross draw fashion from a specially built shoulder harness. He was ambidextrous, and was equally fast and accurate with either hand. This had proved helpful on several occasions. Jane had no hope of ever matching his speed at drawing, but she had proved that she could take care of herself with her shotgun.

Ed was tall for the times, a little over 6 feet, more than that with his riding boot heels. He was slim and had a ruggedly handsome face and his full share of coal-black hair. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle and caught Jane's attention. She shook the feeling off, Ed was just a friend! They spent the evening after a shared supper trading war stories, and Jane gave Ed the story of her final battle with Curly Johnson. He was suitably impressed and sympathized that there had been no bounty to collect on Curly; oh, well, win a few, lose a few.