Chapter 1

Jed Snodgrass was pretty much your average sort of teen aged boy of the late 1870s in Texas. He was 15 years old and had been on his own for the last four years. His parents had kicked him out to make room for the new baby on the way. He hadn't lost much from that, since the hardscrabble farm really didn't produce enough for a decent living, and his parents drank up all of the corn whiskey they could buy with their spare cash. Jed's father had stopped beating him when Jed was 10 and tough enough to win the "fights." It was definitely NOT a loving home life that Jed left.

Jed had been able to get a job on a nearby ranch as a gofer, and that was where he learned to ride, rope, and shoot. The older hands took a liking to Jed and tried to teach him all that they knew. Jed was a quick learner and truly appreciative of the loving attention he got from the older men who treated him like the son they never would have. By the time he was 13, Jed was a top hand and promoted to the job of assistant to the foreman. That didn't mean that he gave orders, but he did relay the foreman's orders to men who were away from the ranch. All the hands knew that he was just the mailman for the foreman, so they did not take offense at receiving orders from a boy.

By this time, Jed was 5-feet, 10-inches tall and weighed 160 pounds, all of it muscle. His dark, almost black, hair and his brown eyes didn't make him a lady killer, but that went with his pleasant face to make him nice to be around.

One of the hands on the Circle S Ranch was something of a gun fancier, and had saved every pistol that he had ever owned. This was a lot, since the cowboy used every spare penny to buy the latest pistol that the gunsmith in Coyote Flats could find for him. At the moment Homer was sporting a new Smith & Wesson top-break .45 caliber of the Schofield design. Since Jed had no gun of his own, and really needed one to do his job, Homer had loaned to Jed one of his older .45 caliber Colts. This was a dream gun for a 15-year-old boy, because of the noise, the recoil, and the damage it could do. Jed loved the gun and practically worshiped Homer for lending it to him.

Every spare moment and every spare penny that Jed could scrape up was spent on practice with the gun. Homer had convinced Jed to use the cross draw shoulder holster technique, since it was easier to manage on horseback. Jed had no particular goal in mind while he practiced, he just wanted to be as good as he could possibly get with all of his tools, whether it was his horse, his rope, his knife, or his gun. All of his friends admired the way Jed would spend so much time striving to get better at using all of his tools, and encouraged him to keep it up, though no one could really figure out what he could do with these skills, beyond what he was doing, already.

One day, Homer went to town with Jed on some sort of errand, and, while they were there, Homer wanted to drop in on the gunsmith to see what he might have that was new. Glory Be! The gunsmith had found a double-action pistol for Homer to try out. Homer was hooked! He bought the pistol on the spot and swapped out his S&W for the new one. Jed agreed to carry it for him, and stuck it in his waist band.

They left the gunsmith's firing range with Homer convinced that he knew everything he needed to know about the new pistol. To celebrate Homer's new toy, they stopped off at a saloon for a beer. Unfortunately, Homer celebrated a bit too much and was pretty drunk by the time they left the saloon. As Homer stepped out the door onto the sidewalk, Jake Simmons, the town bully, bumped into him. It was obvious that Homer was having trouble walking, but he did have enough command of himself to offer an apology to Simmons. Simmons, the perpetual bully, would not accept the apology and challenged Homer to a duel of honor. Homer was too drunk to realize that he was being set up, so he accepted the challenge. They stepped into the street and chased away the few bystanders so that they would not accidentally catch a bullet.

Jed tried to get Homer to back down, but his honor was in jeopardy, so he would not hear of it. Jake just laughed. They stepped off the agreed upon distance and drew their pistols. Homer actually got his gun out first, but it jammed somehow, so that he was not able to get off a shot. Jake saw this and took advantage of the situation by carefully lining up his pistol and putting a bullet in Homer's gut, knowing that it could take hours for the man to die, the whole time in considerable pain.

Jed screamed at this and drew his gun, even though Jake already had his gun drawn. In one smooth motion, Jed drew his Colt and fired, hitting Jake in the chest and drilling him right through the heart. He turned to his friend and saw that Homer was dying; this was when Jed cried for the first time since he was a baby.

Homer was lucky, Jakes bullet had nicked an artery, so he died in only a few minutes. The whole thing was over by the time the marshal ran up to investigate. He got statements from a few eyewitnesses and spat a stream of tobacco juice in Jake's face. "Well, son, ya did the town of Coyote Flats a big favor, but I 'spect that ya're in a heap of trouble from the Simmons family. Ifen I wuz ya, I'd git on my hoss and lite out fer parts unknown. We'll take care of yer friend, but ya'd best git yer ass out of here. Go on! GIT!"

Jed mounted and rode back to the ranch to tell them what had happened to Homer. Everybody was pretty upset about the whole thing, but agreed with the marshal that Jed would have to watch his back if he stayed were he was. Life would be easier for everybody if he just rode away. The foreman told him to keep the horse and tack, he had earned it. Jed was paid for the whole month, even though he had not worked but two weeks of it, and he was told to keep the guns that Homer had given him, since Homer would want that. That was all the send off that Jed got, but everyone wished him well.

Jed was riding through a section of woods when a shot rang out and a bullet creased his right side and deflected off a rib. No fool, Jed pushed his horse off the trail in among the trees. The only weapons he had were the two pistols that he had inherited from his friend Homer. One was in the shoulder holster and the other stuck in his waist band. He dismounted and drew the Schofield .45 from his waist band.

Based on the way he had been facing, it was obvious where the shot had come from, besides, there was some powder smoke still hanging in the air. Jed ducked as low as he could to get some shielding from the undergrowth as he made his way toward the assassin. He had gone about 30 yards when he saw some movement among the trees. Jed didn't want to give himself away, prematurely, so he moved toward the motion without firing a shot.

He found his man and slipped up close behind him. When he was about 10 feet away from the man, Jed asked, "Why fer did ya shoot at me?"

"Cuz ya killed my cousin, ya bastard!"

"Ya related ta Jake Simmons? Cuz that's the only man I ever killed."

"I shore am, an' I'M GONNA KILL YA, NOW!" With that shouted challenge, the man started to swing his rifle around to point it at Jed. This was stupidity, personified, since he could not possibly get the rifle to bear on Jed before Jed pulled the trigger of his pistol. In line with what was to become Jed's usual practice, he aimed for the man's breast bone, and his bullet hit it squarely, killing the man on the spot. Since Jed had shot in self defense, he figured that any of the man's former possessions now belonged to him.

Jed found a money belt with $33. He took that and the man's pistol, rifle, knife, horse, and tack. Leaving the man's body lying in the bushes, he rode toward Brier Crossing. Reaching town, he sold everything but the rifle and its ammunition. Jed debated with himself about keeping the Henry rifle, but it was .45 caliber and could use the shorter Colt .45 ammunition, so he decided to keep it to complement his other weapons. However, considering the miss made on him earlier in the day, he did plan to spend some time on sighting it in so that he would not have that trouble.