Chapter 8

I carried Mr. Waters to his bed and helped Barbara get his clothes off and make him as comfortable as possible. They did have some laudanum, so it was possible to relieve his discomfort. We all had to be careful that he did not take too much, since he did not want to become addicted to opium.

Tony showed me around the ranch. I was only eight years older than Barbara's brother, but I felt like I was 20 years older than him. Barbara had told him that I had shot all but two of the men who were shooting at them. I agreed that the statement was true, so he asked me if I could teach him to shoot. I told him that I would give it a try and asked what sort of gun he had.

"I don't have a gun. Dad an' Barbara think that I am too young to shoot a gun."

I pulled out my .22 and handed it to him. He obviously had no idea of proper gun safety, since he immediately slid his finger through the trigger guard so that he could have pulled the trigger by accident.

"Tony, never put your finger on the trigger unless you plan to shoot it right then." I took the gun from him and went through a full explanation of how to handle a gun safely.

He looked pretty down after my talk, and I asked, "Tony, what's the matter?"

"The way I jus' screwed up, you'll never want ta teach me, now."

"Don't think that. Everybody has to learn. You are bound to make mistakes until somebody shows you the proper way to do anything. If you make the same mistake now that I have shown you the proper thing to do, then I may have to change my mind about teaching you. In the meantime, I will talk to your father and your sister about getting you a proper gun and teaching you how to use it."

"Gee, that would be great! I hope that ya kin do it."

We continued with the tour of the buildings around the ranch house and were standing in the stable when the dinner gong was rung. We hurried to wash up and go in to eat. Barbara had already taken a plate to her father, so she was ready for us to sit at the table. She brought in the food and we had an excellent supper; that woman was a first class cook!

After supper, she showed me to my room, and I got my stuff from my saddle bags. It still was pretty early, so I went in to see Mr. Waters. He was lying on his bed, obviously worried about something. He said, "Mr. Bartholomew, I want ta apologize fer not thanking ya sooner fer rescuing us this afternoon an' fer settin' my leg. Barbara told me all 'bout what ya did, an' I'm very grateful. She also said that ya would stay around a while ta help out 'til I'm back on my feet. I need ta tell ya now that I can't pay ya nothin'. All our cattle are gone an' I'm plumb stretched all the way at the bank."

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Waters. I have enough money, so you don't need to worry about paying me. Just putting me up in your lovely home and letting me associate with your family is enough pay. And please call me Jeremiah, Mr. Bartholomew reminds me of my late father, and I rather not dwell on that."

"Shore thing, Jeremiah. We're glad ta have ya stay with us. Ya seem like a nice man and, Lord knows, we need the help. And please call me Elias."

"Certainly, Elias. There is something I want to discuss with you. Tony asked me to teach him to shoot. I used to run a school in Amarillo to teach shooting, so I believe that I am qualified to do that. But Tony said that you did not want him to handle a gun, so I need your permission before I undertake the task. May I do it?"

"Shore, go ahead. I ain't no good with a hand gun, so I was afraid ta try ta teach Tony. Kin ya teach me, too? An' Barbara, ifen she wants ta learn?"

"Absolutely, but I think that we better let you recover from your broken leg before we work on your shooting. Do you have a gun for Tony to learn to use?"

"That is a problem. All we got around here are old cap-and-ball guns that are pretty well worn out. He'll have ta wait 'til I kin afford ta buy him a decent hand gun."

"I have a .22 caliber pistol in excellent condition that he can learn with. Once he has mastered that, he should be able to master any other pistol he wishes.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I will go talk to Barbara about joining our shooting class."

I went in search of Barbara and found her on the front veranda sitting in a swing build for three adults. As I walked out, she invited me to join her in the swing. I sat down and said, "Miss Waters, I have just had an interesting discussion with your father. He has asked me to teach all three of you to shoot a hand gun. I used to run a school in Amarillo where I taught shooting. Are you interested in taking part?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Bartholomew! But the class will have ta wait 'til we kin buy a decent gun. We ain't got nothin' suitable. Oh, please call me Barbara; Miss Waters sounds so formal and stand-offish."

"A gun is no problem. I have a .22 caliber pistol in excellent condition that we can use for learning. Once you have learned with that, you can use any pistol after only a short familiarization. Oh, please call me Jeremiah."

"That sounds wonderful. I can hardly wait ta start."

After that, we talked about various things, including my recent visit to New York City. We were just about to return to the house when there was a pounding of horses hooves, and 6 men rode past the house, shooting their pistols in our direction. It's difficult to fire aimed shots at night because the muzzle flash ruins your night vision, so I was more concerned about them hitting us by accident than by intention.

I pushed Barbara to the floor and drew my pistol. I did not really expect to hit anybody, but I did start shooting in their direction. I'm sure my first shot hit one of the riders, but I cannot be sure about the other four shots. In any case, the riders did not come back.

Once I was certain that it was safe, I helped her to her feet and sent her to tell her father that none of us were hurt. I did the same for Tony. I also told him that shooting lessons would start tomorrow.

Tony was disappointed at first because the first thing we did was build our shooting range. This wasn't prime adobe mud by any means, but Barbara, Tony, and I built an adobe backstop for the targets. Tony was mollified, somewhat, because what 9-year-old kid doesn't like to play in the mud. Barbara was initially horrified at the thought of messing around in mud, but she quickly got into the spirit of things and helped get the backstop built.

Of course, building the backstop took several days, so I took the time we had to run through the rules of gun safety and maintenance. We also spent some time dry-firing the .22 pistol. There wasn't much standing around while we waited for the mud to dry, we all had the usual chores of a working ranch to do. I simply took over the jobs that Elias had done before he broke his leg.

Finally, the mud bricks were dry and we were able to finish the construction work. Neither of the siblings had ever heard of using both hands to steady a pistol while one was shooting, but it did not take long for them to realize how much more sure their aim was doing it that way. Fortunately, I had plenty of .22 caliber ammunition, since we went through a lot of it. Judging from what I saw those first few days, neither one was going to be as accurate as me with a pistol, but I could teach them to be better than most shooters.

By the second week, we had progressed to holding the pistol with only one hand and both of them were doing adequately well at 40 feet. Once they had pretty well mastered that distance, they were flabbergasted at how well they did at 20 feet, which was the range so often encountered in the real world.

Both of them were skeptical at first, but they were amazed at what they could do with a shoulder holster. It was essential for Barbara if she wore a dress, but Tony found that he liked it better than the conventional hip or thigh placement of the holster. It was less likely to get in his way when he did his chores. These were important considerations, since I felt that for their own safety, they should always be armed. Temporarily, they were using the .44-40 Colts that I had taken from the raiders that had shot at them the first day we met, but these guns were just too big for either one to get comfortable with. We needed to visit a gunsmith to see what they might use that fit them better.