Chapter 18

Supper proceeded normally that evening, so I had to assume that Mary had not said anything to her mother about our adventure that afternoon. However, after supper, Mrs. Hawkins asked me to join her for a few private words. Uh oh! I'm about to be fired!

We went out onto the front veranda and sat in the swing. I had hardly sat down before Mrs. Hawkins began to laugh. "Mary told me what happened at the picnic this afternoon. I must tell you that Mary is somewhat annoyed that you were such a gentleman; she expected you to take advantage of her and was very disappointed that you didn't.

"On the other hand, I must say that I am pleased that you reacted the way you did, which was exactly what my husband and I expected of you. Yes, he knows and was not surprised at the way either one of you reacted. As far as we are concerned, nothing has changed, except that we are even more impressed with you than we were before!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Hawkins. I expected to have to resign after we got home this afternoon, but I am glad to hear that neither you nor Mr. Hawkins are upset with me. Truthfully, I still don't know what I want to do yet about marrying Mary. I don't love her at this point, but this afternoon showed me that I would be a fool to walk away before I gave more consideration to the matter. She is going to be a beautiful woman, and I have no doubt that she is infatuated with me, but I was so torn up when my first wife and child died, that I cannot commit without a lot of thought. I hope you understand, and I hope that Mary will forgive me."

"Oh, don't worry about that. You know our feelings and rest assured that Mary is not annoyed with you—she is annoyed with herself! I can tell that she is very disappointed that she failed in her plan, but she is also afraid that she had driven you away from her. She will feel much better if you can find some way to show her that you don't hold her actions today against her."

"Do you think a gift of flowers would be the way to go? I don't want to say too much, but I want to say enough."

"Yes, I think that flowers would be appropriate. Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"I would like to continue the rides with Mary, but would you suggest to her that she wear trousers from now on. After today, I will be very uncomfortable to go riding with her while she was wearing a dress."

Mrs. Hawkins laughed again and agreed to speak to Mary about wearing trousers while riding with me. We talked about several other things, and I felt better after I told her about the time Barbara and I went to the pecan grove just before we were married. I told her about some other things that had happened to me, but I made a point of skipping any mention of Madam Anna.

The next few months were interesting and amusing as I continued to dodge Mary's efforts to seduce and/or entrap me. Then things turned serious one afternoon as we were riding through the backside of nowhere. I have no idea where they came from, but we were set upon by six men whom I assume were bandits and we were targets of opportunity.

We were being chased and our horses were too tired to run far enough to take us to complete safety. We were on our way home after a long ride, it was late in the day, and we were all tired. Our pursuers were gaining on us when I spotted a place where we could hole up and stand a chance of beating them off. We cut into a stand of trees that was on the side of a steep hill with an arroyo at the bottom of the hill. We raced into the arroyo and dismounted. We tied our horses to trees so that they would not wander off and grabbed our canteens and extra ammunition. Neither one of us had brought a rifle, so we were forced to make do with our pistols. Mary had her .32 and I had my .44-40s and my .22. We climbed about halfway up the hill and hid behind some large trees.

The bandits came thundering into the arroyo behind us and piled off their horses. Both Mary and I were scared nearly shitless, but for different reasons: she was worried about me, and I was worried about her. The enemy started up the hill, and the way they talked to each other, it was a certainty that neither one of us would survive this encounter if we did not kill all of our adversaries.

I was waiting until they got a bit closer before shooting, but Mary did not have my experience, so she fired sooner than I expected. I shouldn't have worried. She had wedged herself into a sitting position behind a large tree and was using the tree and the steep slope to brace herself. She was using both hands to hold her gun and she had braced her left arm against the tree. When she was ready, she fired. She put a bullet through the head of the man who was leading the pack up the hill, and he tumbled helter-skelter back down the slope until he hung on a tree trunk. Her .32 was not all that powerful, but we were using smokeless powder cartridges, so it had a little more punch than black powder would have given it. The bullet entered the man's head, but did not exit, so it must have rattled around the inside of his skull scrambling his brain.

Fortunately, the smokeless powder did not give away her location, so the attackers had no idea of exactly where the bullet had come from, and the report echoed around so much that the sound was no help to them. Only a moment or two later, I woke up to the fact that I needed to contribute to the defense, so I chose a target close enough to me and blew his head to pieces with my .44-40, a much harder hitting bullet than the .32. I, too, was using smokeless powder, so they had no better idea where to find me than they did Mary.

Mary put a bullet into another man, but only into his shoulder this time. However, the fool raised his body far enough for me to see him, so I hit him with a bullet. My bullet entered his chest, so there was no further need to concern ourselves over him at this time. It was three down and three to go.

They had really pissed me off, the way they were trying to shoot Mary, so I decided to put an end to this as quickly as possible. I told Mary to hold her position and cover me—I was going hunting. She nodded, so I slipped down the hill a short way and carefully looked around for the enemy. I had reloaded before I moved, so I had a full set of bullets ready for use. I noted that Mary had also reloaded, so I was pleased to see that she had learned that useful ploy.

I thought I saw some movement and moved in that direction. There was a man crouched behind a tree and holding on to the trunk to keep from falling backward down the hill. I slipped down and to the left a little to get a clear shot at his body. Suddenly, I started to slide, so I snapped off a shot without having time to fix my target in my mind. As a result, I missed the man's body, but hit the outstretched arm that was holding on to the tree. I hit him just above the elbow and that massive bullet struck with such force at this short range that it effectively cut his arm off just above the elbow. He left his arm still holding on to the tree while the rest of his body fell down the hill. I saw blood gush from his arm, so I was sure that he was dead even if I didn't get to put another bullet into him.

I only slid a couple of feet, but that slide probably saved my life. I heard a .45 go off too damned close for comfort and I felt a sharp pain across the top of my head. A moment later, I heard the crack of Mary's .32, and my assailant fell almost at my feet before he rolled down the hill. I was bleeding, but I knew that the wound was not serious; I shouted to Mary, "THANK YOU, HONEY! I'M OK!" Honey? Where did that come from?

We had one enemy left, and I was anxious to find him before he had a chance to put a bullet into Mary. I guess I needn't have worried too much, because I heard a crashing through the underbrush as the final bandit made a dash to escape. I picked up my heels and let myself slide down the hill as fast as I could go while still maintaining control over my trip. I got banged up a little bit as I was slapped by limbs and brush as I slid past, but I managed to get to the bottom of the hill in time to see the last man mounting his horse.