Chapter 22

The women marched to the carriage full of righteous indignation. We men went to our horses, glad that the women were on our side!

That experience set the tone for our group from then on. We men always exited the theater first and scanned the vicinity before the women came outside. Furthermore, we came out with guns in hand. Never again were we going to allow ourselves to be caught by surprise the way we were that time.

Our shows settled into a delightful routine, and Carly became more and more integrated into the family. She and Jack became inseparable, and we were all just waiting for the word on the wedding. Elizabeth and Jed were quite happy with the match, so they cooperated with the two lovers, stopping just short of letting them use the same bedroom.

It became official about two months after the great confrontation, and the wedding took place six weeks later. The wedding was pretty much the same as the one that Mary and I had, except that the bride's parents were nowhere to be seen. Carly didn't mind, so it made no difference to the rest of us.

There was still plenty of room on the Hawkins property, so Jed had another house built for Jack and Carly. There was still room enough for Jim to have a house on the property if he wanted it when he was ready.

Jack was more attuned to show business and Jim was, at heart, a banker, so there was no conflict between the brothers as to which one would be president of the bank when Jed eventually decided to retire. Even before the wedding was done, Jack and Carly were after me to come up with something that they could do together in the show. I worked up a comedy routine for them in which there was a mock contest to prove which one was the best shot. Jack showed his true love for Carly by not being the least bit jealous when the resolution of the act was for her to outshoot him.

Mary turned up pregnant again, but there was no need to shut down the show for her "confinement." We now had enough people available that we were able to keep the show going when one, or even two, of the performers was unable to work that night. When Mary finally had to stop active performing, Carly simply took her place during the finale. We all knew each other's parts so well that we could step in as substitute at almost any point in the show; the only limitation being the gender of the performer—some things were just more spectacular when a woman did them.

Mary "breezed" through this pregnancy even easier than last time and produced a boy she named Jedidiah Hawkins Bartholomew. Jeddy was 13 months younger than Jerry. I thought that this was a fine name for a boy, so I had no comment other than to agree with her choice. Her father was thrilled.

We now had three children, and I was in hog heaven! I confess that I could hardly wait for them to get old enough for me to teach them to shoot and incorporate them into the show. I already had several ideas for acts. One idea was impossible, and I regretted it, but I would have liked for Mary to come on stage with Betty in a papoose cradle on her back and have both of them shoot. I was certain that would sell a hell of a lot of tickets! Unfortunately, at three years old, Betty's hands were still too small to hold a pistol. I sure did get a funny look from Mary when I told her of my idea.

One night, three idiots tried to rob the box office. I had just come offstage from my first set when one of the sweepers came running up to me to tell me of the incident. To my surprise, the robbers were still at the box office when the sweeper found me. I never go for more than a few seconds with an empty chamber in my gun, so both of my stage pistols were fully loaded. They were only .22s, but a gun is a gun in the right hands.