Chapter 15

As Andy and Sue Ann left that morning on their scouting duties, Andy warned her to be especially alert because of the danger from Glover. Andy was certain that he would try for revenge on Andy for the debacle the day before which resulted in the annihilation of his gang. Nevertheless, they had a job to do, so they left on schedule.

The first part of the morning was uneventful, but they were riding through some woods when a shot rang out and Andy's hat went flying. It made no difference whether or not this was Glover, the assassin had to be found and eliminated! They had a good indication of the assassin's location based on the direction the hat had taken. He had to be among the trees to their right, so they moved from tree to tree in that direction on foot, since they had dismounted at the time of the shot.

They had drawn their pistols; rifles were not very useful in a fight at close quarters, which this was likely to be. Sue Ann had been with Andy in a similar situation, so she had complete confidence in him and waited for his direction before she acted. They had seen the powder smoke, so they knew which tree the shot had come from, but Andy was certain that the assassin would have moved by now—Andy surely would have.

They found that they had pinpointed the right tree as evidenced by a spent Spencer rifle shell at the base of the tree. Just as Andy bent over to pick up the empty shell, there was another gunshot and he felt a scorching pain slice along his back over his shoulder blades. Sue Ann acted on her own this time and snapped off a shot at the powder smoke. This produced a scream of pain and a clatter as something heavy fell to the ground.

They both moved toward the sound as quickly as prudence would allow, and saw a man lying on the ground, quite dead. Sue Ann's bullet had drilled him through the windpipe and backbone; she could not have asked for a more effective shot. Andy nodded his appreciation for her shooting and looked around for signs. The first thing he noticed was that the man had used an Enfield rifled musket of the type issued to Confederate forces during the war. This was an excellent weapon for its time, but no repeater.

They heard a horse run off to the north, so they were not worried about the original shooter at this time. Sue Ann had Andy remove his shirt so that she could treat his wound. Fortunately, it was hardly more than a scratch. She cleaned the wound with a clean cloth and water from a canteen; neither one thought that it needed more treatment than that, but there was a long tear in Andy's shirt which pissed him off a bit.

They stripped the dead man of valuables, but could not find any identification, so they collected their horses and went looking for the trail of the man who had hastily ridden away. They had no trouble finding the trail and following it, something easy to do when a horse is running. They hurried after the man they assumed to be Glover, but they were also careful to watch for sign of a potential ambush—one time a day is often enough!

The trail led into an area of rugged hills and old-growth forest with no signs of human habitation. At one point, they lost the trail and had to spend some time hunting for it. Glover had slowed down and swerved to one side, so they almost lost him, but Andy was a superlative tracker, so he was able to pick up the horse's trail by swinging in an arc from one side of the trail to the other. The track led off into a small valley toward a range of taller than average hills that were covered by trees. At one point, the tracks disappeared into a stream, so, on a hunch, Andy turned upstream. Sure enough, after about 100 yards of travel in the stream, the tracks reappeared and let off to the east.

They followed the tracks for another mile until they came to a cave mouth. The cave mouth was quite large, easily big enough for several riders to enter, side-by-side. Andy and Sue Ann were not so foolish as to ride blindly into the cave, so they hitched their horses to a convenient tree and cautiously approached the cave entrance. Andy signaled Sue Ann to take the right side and he took the left.

They could hear voices coming from inside the cave, all but one pitched in the range of a woman's voice. The man's voice barked an order, and this was followed by the crack of a whip. A woman screamed in pain and several other voices shouted curses and complaints. This was followed by several more whip cracks and screams from other women, and then there was silence. Suddenly, pistol shots rang out and more screams for mercy followed.

This was too much for Andy, he could hardly contain himself at the sound of the whip. He rushed into the cave with his pistol drawn. Four naked women were lying on the floor, fatally shot, 3 in the head and one in the chest. A man was just drawing a second pistol, presumably to shoot the 2 remaining women, when Andy couldn't hold off any longer and shot the man with his pistol. The bullet hit the man in the gut and knocked him down, but didn't kill him, though the wound would eventually be fatal.

His gun went flying and Andy ran to the downed man and pulled away from his body the other three guns he had stuffed in his belt. The one he'd been holding had gone flying when he was shot, so he was disarmed, except for two bowie knives he also carried. Andy removed those and searched the man for more weapons before he turned his attention to the two naked woman who were being comforted by Sue Ann. The man was so severely wounded that he was no further threat.

The two women wore a chain from a collar to a staple fastened to the wall. The women looked to be about 18-20 years old, and they had once been beautiful. However, they were now so scarred by whip marks that their beauty was lost under their marking. Both women were crying hysterically and embracing Sue Ann as if she was a savior from heaven. When Andy walked up close enough to allow them to reach him despite the chains, he was lavished with the same attention.

Sue Ann finally got the women to calm down enough to answer some questions. Yes, the wounded man was John Glover, the leader of the outlaw gang. The six women had been sex slaves of the gang and had been raped every night. The whip scars were the remnant of punishment for not doing the things the members of the gang wanted them to do. At one time, there had been one sex slave for each gang member, but so many had been whipped to death in the past 2 months, that these women were the only ones left. The gang had been out the day before on a search for women to replenish the sex slave stable.

They didn't know why Glover had decided to kill the remaining 6 women. He had come storming into the cave in a towering rage. The first thing he had done was drink half a bottle of whiskey, practically as fast as he could swallow it. Suddenly, he had jumped up and flailed about with the whip, then, he had drawn a gun and started shooting the women. Andy guessed that Glover had gone crazy over the loss of his gang, but who could know the real reason?

There was a key ring hanging on the wall, and the keys fit the locks on the collars worn by the women. Andy released the women and they ran over to where Glover was lying. They grabbed the two bowie knives and started cutting chunks of flesh from Glover's body. Andy thought that he was probably in so much pain from the gut shot that he probably couldn't feel the women cutting on him, but Andy felt that the women needed the release of the revenge they were taking, so he left them alone. Glover lasted for nearly 45 minutes under the attentions of the women, and Andy was surprised that he had lasted that long. The man must have been as tough as old leather, but finally he died. The women continued to cut for a few more minutes before they quit. They then cried again, but not hysterically, this time.

Andy started looking around the cave to see if he could find anything worth taking. Meanwhile, Sue Ann talked earnestly with the women; interestingly, neither of the women was in a hurry to put on clothes. They talked for a long time, but Sue Ann left them to talk to Andy. She pulled him aside and said, "Andy, ya have got ta fuck those women before we can leave. Both of them are sure that no man will ever look at them again without throwing up because of all of their scars. Please prove ta them that they are still desirable. That's why neither one has put on any clothes, they are hoping that ya will be attracted ta them."