Chapter 14

The closer they got to Sedalia, the more "civilized" the country seemed to be. It got more and more difficult to pick their way through and around the many small farms they encountered. Most of the locals were easy to get along with, but a few responded best to a forceful argument. Andy had to draw twice on disagreeable farmers who wanted to make unreasonable demands, such as charging for watering the cattle at a local river.

Andy finished his scouting for the day and was headed back toward the herd when he happened to pass close to a large farm house. He figured that this was a good opportunity to have a chat with the residents and find out if there was some special local information he needed to hear. As he rode toward the house, he noticed that three horses were tied to the hitching post near the front door. He pulled into the yard and was about to dismount when he heard a woman scream; the cry seemed to come from an open upstairs window.

This cry had the sound of pure terror, so Andy jumped from his horse and ran to the front door. Li Sun, who was accompanying him that day, jumped down and followed close behind. When he got close, he saw that the door had been smashed open and the latch shattered. He ran into a hall and saw a set of stairs leading from the hall to the upstairs rooms. Trying not to make a lot of noise, he hurried up the stairs and to a bedroom with an open door. Through the door, he heard the sound of men laughing and a woman crying.

Andy drew his pistol as he rushed to the door. A woman was lying on the bed with her skirt flipped up to cover her face. A man was kneeling between her legs with his pants down and his cock inserted in her pussy. He was busy pumping back and forth as two other men held the woman's arms above her head. The woman was kicking and twisting as she tried to escape her rapist, but to no avail; the man was simply too big for her, even if the other two men had not been holding her arms. She was crying as the two men holding her were laughing and encouraging the rapist to hurry so that they could have their turn.

Andy was always somewhat impetuous when he saw someone in trouble, so he didn't hesitate to shoot the three men who were standing around the bed. When the men fell, Li Sun ran to the woman to try to comfort her. The woman had fainted at the sound of the gunshots, so Li Sun pulled the woman's dress back so that it covered her after Andy dragged the rapist out of the way.

There was a pitcher of water on the side table, so Li Sun wet a cloth and wiped the woman's face. This caused the woman to regain consciousness. She groaned and said, "Oh my God! They will kill us all, now!" She lapsed into a fit of weeping, and Li Sun tried to calm her down.

Andy asked, "Who is going to kill who?"

"The Glover gang! Those three men were part of the gang. The rest will be along in a few minutes. Please help us. My sister is tied up in the next bedroom. They were going to rape her when they got tired of me."

"Stay here, Li Sun! I'll check on the other woman." Andy ran into the next room where he heard a woman crying hysterically and found a naked young woman tied, spread eagle, to the bed posts. He could tell that he could not get through to her, so he ran back to send Li Sun to talk to the woman and cut her loose.

Li Sun rushed in to talk to the second woman while Andy tried to get some answers from the first woman. He said, "Please, Ma'am. I need ta hear some details. What happened here?"

"Them three men kilt my pa an' 3 brothers where they wuz workin' in the barn. They came in the house an' kilt ma in the kitchen. Me an' my sister wuz upstairs doin' some cleanin' when all this happened. They ran up the stairs an' grabbed my sister. I wuz tryin' ta hide in the closet 'til they left. I heard 'em tear off my sister's clothes an' tie her to the bed. I was tremblin' so much that I knocked sumpthin' off the shelf an' they heard me. I wuz caught an' they wuz jus' started on me when y'all came in."

"What wuz that 'bout the 'Glover gang?'"

"Them three men said that they wuz part of the Glover gang, an' the rest of the gang would be along directly. One said that there wuz 11 more in the gang, an' they wuz all gonna fuck the both of us. He said that they wuz gonna fuck us ta death!"

Andy had never heard of the Glover gang, but 11 men were too many to fight with only Li Sun, who was inexperienced, and 2 women who were too frightened to do much of anything as his only help. The best solution for all of them was to get back to the trail herd where they would have some more help, and they needed to do that as soon as possible.

Li Sun came in and told Andy that the other woman was too petrified to move; she didn't know what to do. Andy replied that Li Sun should help this woman put on some trousers so that she could ride one of the outlaw's horses. He would see what he could do with the other woman. He went into the other bedroom, and the woman was still lying on the bed, stretched out, even though she was no longer tied. She began to scream as soon as she saw Andy, but she never moved beyond that.

Andy ignored her as best he could as he looked through her clothes to try to find something for her to wear while sitting astride a horse. He couldn't find a damned thing suitable, but Li Sun ran in with some trousers she had taken from one of the men's bedrooms. The two wrestled with the hysterical woman and got her more or less dressed. Andy couldn't get her to stand up, so he picked her up and threw her across his shoulder. He carried her downstairs to the horses where the other woman was waiting.

The hysterical woman kept fighting and trying to dismount, so, in desperation, Andy tied her feet together with a rope running under the horse's belly. He left it loose enough for her to use the stirrups, but there was no way she could get off the horse without help. Finally, they were ready to leave. The older of the two women took the reins of her sister's horse and the two followed Li Sun as they raced toward the herd. Andy took up the rear to defend against attacks from that direction.

They had hardly left the house when the rest of the Glover gang rode up. The gang was surprised to see only one horse belonging to a gang member in front of the house. They looked around and saw that the front door had been broken open, so they trooped into the house to investigate. They found the dead woman in the kitchen just as they heard a shout from upstairs. Three of the gang members had gone up the stairs to check out the bedrooms, and one of them had found the three dead men. Glover, himself, ran upstairs and looked over the situation. He had some idea of what had happened from what he saw and what he knew of the three dead men. He ordered his men to remount; they needed to find whoever had done this.

Much of the success of the Glover gang was due to the intimidation factor over their victims. They could not afford to let word of this debacle get out or they would start meeting opposition instead of cowering when they showed their faces. They had to find and kill the people who had successfully opposed them before the word could get out.

It was easy to find the trail of the fleeing riders: running horses leave strong and distinctive trails. They started out after Andy and the three women as fast as their horses could carry them. Fortunately for Andy's group, the gangs' horses had been ridden hard all day and were not as fresh as they needed to be for a vigorous chase. On the other hand, the horses of Andy's group had a short rest back at the house, so were able to keep to a running pace with greater ease. Therefore, they were able to stay ahead of the gang, and actually gain some more separation from them, for the first mile or so.