Chapter 11

Well, it looked like Annie's guess was right: the foreman of the Circle M, Hank Bufford, was the one behind all of the trouble.

Josh still needed to talk to Jim Mangrove, owner of the Lazy J, so they tied Bufford's body to his horse and took it with them as all three rode to visit Jim Mangrove. Josh introduced Jack and Bill as friends, then had a private talk with Mangrove about having him put in a good word at the bank. Mangrove promised to visit the bank on Monday and straighten matters out. Josh thanked him and the three friends rode to the Circle M to deliver Bufford to John Miller.

At the Circle M, John Miller was flabbergasted at the sight of the dead foreman and the story the three friends had to tell. Miller apologized to Josh for all of the trouble caused by Bufford and promised to do what he could to help Josh to get his ranch back in good operating condition.

Josh, Jack, and Bill rode back to town and had lunch. After lunch, Jack and Bill rode with Josh to visit his fiancée. They only stayed half an hour because Josh obviously had things to say and do which did not call for an audience. They spent the rest of the afternoon visiting various saloons and stopped by the train station to make sure that the train to Amarillo would be coming through tomorrow morning.

The next day they took the train into Amarillo and found that they could buy a ticket all the way to Austin. They would not even have to change trains, though the trip was going to take damned near 60 hours. Well, it did beat riding a horse for over 500 miles, and it sure as hell beat the pounding their bodies would take if they made the trip by stage.

They did the necessary things like finding a hotel room for the night, and Annie bought a bunch of women's clothes. She swore that she was going to return to her mother in style, except that she still insisted on wearing those boots instead of button shoes. They sent Alice a telegram telling her that they were on their way and when to expect them. That night they had a rousing "going home" celebration with sex and talk and sex until the wee hours of the morning. In fact, they woke up with barely time to eat breakfast and make it to the train station on time. The train left at 6:42 AM, only 15 minutes late, which was early for that train, if the truth be told.

Annie had compromised on her gun situation. She found that she felt absolutely naked without one gun in her reticule and her Derringer with the shotgun load in her boot. As it turned out, everybody was happy that she was so well armed because some men tried to hold up the train about an hour out of Amarillo.

Bill had made a short trip to the restroom to empty his bladder just a moment before the bandits showed up. The restroom was at the opposite end of the car from where they had been sitting, so Annie was in the seat by herself when the bandits showed up. They entered the car at the end where she was sitting and gave her a cursory glance, then dismissed her as being a mere woman and of no concern.

One bandit took up a position not five feet away from her and shouted for everybody's attention. He announced that a robbery was in progress, and his partner would be walking down the aisle collecting money, watches, and jewelry from the passengers. They ignored Annie, who had started crying. Probably, they expected to rob her on their way out the door.

Through her tears, she kept a close watch for Bill for when he stepped out of the restroom door. By now, she had palmed her Derringer and cocked it, but kept it hidden from the bandit near her. She had been sitting next to the window, but slipped over into the aisle seat to get closer to the bandit. The bandit was facing away from her and completely ignoring her existence. Her tears had done a good job of convincing him that she was no threat.

Bill eventually stepped out of the restroom and Annie saw him immediately. He obviously knew nothing of the robbery in progress, so Annie knew that she had to warn him before he got shot. She leaned over toward the bandit and stuck her Derringer in the small of his back over his backbone and pulled the trigger. There was quite an explosion when that shotgun shell went off, and Bill recognized the sound immediately.

He had been looking at Annie as she suddenly lurched into action and shot the nearer bandit. Bill pulled his own gun and shot the bandit in the aisle collecting from the passengers. Both bandits fell to the floor, completely out of action. The conductor happened to be coming through the door behind Annie and saw her action, so he, too, knew that a robbery had been in progress.

All of this activity had taken place in the passenger car nearest the baggage car where the conductor had been. He pulled his own gun and ran to the other end of the car to see what was happening in the next car in line. He looked through the windows in the doors and saw that a pair of bandits was also operating in there.

Bill stopped him and said, "Let my wife an' me handle this. We're experienced bounty hunters, an' we might be able ta keep passengers from bein' hurt."

The conductor had a grateful look on his face and bowed to Bill's request. Bill called out, "HONEY, ARE YA GAME TA TACKLE THE REST OF THE BANDITS?"

"I SHORE AM. JUS' A MINUTE 'TIL I KIN RELOAD MY DERRINGER!" Annie took a shotgun shell from her reticule and reloaded. "OK, I'M READY!"

It's a tough job to move from car to car, even when there are enclosed vestibules, so it was not at all unusual that a man would help a woman make the transition from car to car. They opened the door to the next car and saw the two bandits. As soon as the two entered the car, one of the bandits ordered them to take a seat and pointed his gun at Bill.

This diversion of his attention away from Annie was all she needed to pull her .45 from her reticule and blast a hole in the bandit's chest. He was so surprised that he looked down to see the gaping wound and toppled over onto his face. Annie had not been distracted, so she fired at the other bandit before the first one hit the floor. She only wounded him in the belly, but it was enough to make him drop his gun and fall to the floor.