Chapter 7

The man whose daughter they had rescued had made an appointment with them to meet in Flagstaff. They didn't know why, but he had insisted that they would understand and approve when they arrived for the meeting. They arrived in Flagstaff a couple of days early and spent their time in looking the town over. As with most towns of decent size, there were a multitude of saloons and Ed and Jane endeavored to visit every one—you never knew when you would meet a wanted man or get a lead to a good job.

By confining themselves to one beer, each, in the saloons, they were able to visit quite a large number without consuming too much alcohol. Too much alcohol could be deadly for a bounty hunter, so they were very careful with maintaining a safe limit. They did spot one wanted man, but, damned if another bounty hunter didn't beat them to him! Next time, they wouldn't wait to finish their beers before acting!

On the appointed day, they spiffied themselves up for their meeting with John Ellis to collect their reward. He wanted them to show up at a certain bank at 10:00 AM, so they were there exactly on time. Mr. Ellis was standing in the bank lobby waiting for them and talking to a well dressed man while he waited. Ellis introduced them to Andrew McWinters, the owner and president of the bank. McWinters ushered them into his office and Ellis began an explanation of what he had in mind.

He said that McWinters handled all of his bank business and had been doing so for 22 years. Never had Ellis had a complaint with the bank or the way his money had been managed. Therefore, he recommended that Ed and Jane deposit their reward and any other money they might consider prudent in an account in McWinters' bank. McWinters then launched into an explanation of compound interest and how he paid 0.5% interest, compounded annually.

Jane and Ed had never heard of compound interest and they were fascinated. Damn, their money could make money of its own! They liked the idea and opened an account forthwith. They deposited nearly $2,000, which represented most of their earnings for the past year. They did keep back $200, which was enough for them to live on, comfortably, for 6 months. As they left the bank, they thanked Ellis and McWinters for their courtesy and help; this had been a very useful and enlightening visit to Flagstaff.

They decided to head south for no particular reason, it was just a whim. They had traveled for 2 days and had stopped for information at every saloon they had come to without finding anything useful. They were on a particularly lonely stretch of road when they heard gunfire. This was always a sign of potential employment, so they hurried toward the site of the altercation.

They saw two wagons taking fire from both sides of a cut. One of the mules in the team drawing the lead wagon had been shot, so neither wagon had any way to escape. Several men were lying, dead, on the ground near the wagons, and the only return fire from the wagons was coming from what they assumed to be the driver in the lead wagon. From the noise and the puffs of powder smoke they saw, it looked like there were 11 attackers, and the sole remaining defender was not going to last much longer.

It didn't take much discussion for Jane and Ed to decide to intervene. Eleven bandits were a lot to face, so they decided to stay together and clear the side of the road with the 6 attackers. They rode up as near as they safely could and dismounted, each pulling the Henry rifle from its scabbard. They were almost squarely behind the bandits, so Ed took the ones on the right and Jane went after those on the left. They positioned themselves behind boulders and fired together at the bandits who were fully exposed from this side.

The bandits were so befuddled at being attacked like this that they were very slow to react. As a result, 4 were cut down immediately, and the other two were shot as they tried to run away. The bandits on the other side of the road could hear the added gunfire and realized that they were in trouble, so they cut and ran.

After checking that all of the bandits on this side of the road were dead, Ed called to the wagon, "HELLO, THE WAGON! WE'RE FRIENDS! DON'T SHOOT! WE'RE COMIN' IN!"

There was an answering shout of "COME AHEAD! I WON'T SHOOT!"

Jane and Ed walked up to the wagon and saw that their guess had been correct: the only survivor was the driver of the leading wagon. He said, "I'm much obliged to y'all. I was about outta bullets. Ya shore saved my bacon."

Ed said, "Glad ta do it. What were they after?"

They all introduced themselves and the driver, Hank Rivers, said, "These here are gold wagons. Each one holds $35,000 worth of gold bars on the way from the smelter ta the mint. We were supposed ta deliver the gold ta a special train in Hopewell, 'bout 10 miles farther down the road. Kin either one of y'all drive a mule team?"

Ed said, "I kin, ifen I ain't pushed ta make no schedule."

"Tell ya what, then. Y'all he'p me clear these traces of that there dead mule an' drive the other wagon into town, an' I'll see that ya gits a reward fer savin' the gold. It's downhill the rest of the way, so this here team, even one short, kin git me inta town. What cha say?"

"Shore, we'll he'p ya. First, let us see 'bout them bandits what we shot back in the rocks."

Ed and Jane went back to strip the bandits of valuables and salvage the horses. When they came back to the road, they put the bodies of the dead guards in the wagons and gathered up those horses. The dead mule was removed from the team and dragged from the road. Jane drove the loose horses while the two men drove the two wagons into town to the special train. Hank Rivers took care of the transactions at the train, Ed went for the town marshal, and Jane drove the bandits' horses to the livery stable to sell them and the tack.

The horses were all prime stock, so she was able to bargain the owner of the livery stable into paying $25 for each horse and associated tack. The horses were worth more than this, but Jane was in a hurry to sell and get back to Ed. So far, they had gotten $214 for their efforts, and they still had not gotten their promised reward.

When she got back to Ed, the marshal was just leaving the scene, and Hank was giving Ed a reward of $800 for rescuing the wagons. Ed asked, "What's our chance of gittin' hired ta protect the wagons on their next run?"

Hank replied, "Purtty good. All of the regular guards are dead, an' I'll put in a good word fer y'all. Come back with me ta the smelter an' y'all kin talk ta the boss."

Since it was too late in the day to return to the smelter before dark, the three ate supper together and visited several saloons that evening. Hank managed to promote several rounds of free beers by telling the story of the attempted holdup.

The next morning, they left for the smelter with a new mule in Hank's team and Ed driving the other team. Jane rode with him, partly to learn how to drive a 4-mule team. Anybody could handle 1 or 2 animals pulling a wagon, but more than that required some training to get the most out of the animals and not to hurt them in the process. Ed was a good teacher, once he had a chance to practice his own driving, so Jane was good enough at the job by the time they reached the smelter.

Hank took them in to meet the boss, Jim Vester, and explained what had happened on the trip into Hopewell. Vester was impressed and thanked them for helping Hank. Yes, he did need new guards to replace those that had been killed the day before. The pay was the princely sum of $100 per month per guard. The pay was like a retainer, since they would not be needed the whole time, but just when a gold run was scheduled. They made the run every 3 weeks, so Jane and Ed could keep up their bounty hunting between trips guarding the gold.