Chapter 2

Ma Jenkins agreed to keep Annie/Jack's secret once the facts were explained to her. Annie stayed with Ma Jenkins for three weeks until she could function. Annie assumed the Jack Highsmith persona and moved into the local hotel for another two weeks. Jack became a regular around town as he recuperated and gathered what information he could about Jake Blade/John Horner. Jack didn't learn much, but he did learn that the livery stable operator had seen Jake head East as he left town.

As soon as Jack could ride comfortably, he left to follow Jake Blade. Jack's left arm and side were still a little stiff, but not enough to keep him off a horse and off the trail. Jack did stay in hotels each night, since he was just not up to the rigors of camping out every night. Even after paying Ma Jenkins for her medical aid, Jack still had enough money for that luxury.

Jack pushed on after Jake Blade, hoping to keep a steady pressure on the man, even if he had still not caught up to the murderer. Jack definitely was getting closer, he felt, but there was still too much space to be made up. Then there were other considerations.

One day, about mid-afternoon, Jack was riding toward the town of Pinto when he was passed by the stage coach running hell for leather for the same town. Jack had seen the relay station a few miles back, but he must have gone by before the stage arrived. Anyway, Jack moved to the side of the road as the stage rushed passed him and exchanged a friendly wave with the shotgun guard.

Not long after that, Jack heard gunshots in front of him, so he picked up speed to see what was the cause of the ruckus. He came around a bend and saw ahead of him that the stage was stopped and four men on horseback were gathered at the front of the coach. Jack could see the driver in the seat with his hands in the air, but there was no sign of the shotgun guard. Suddenly, there was the roar of both barrels of a 10-gauge shotgun going off, and one of the men and his horse fell to the ground. Another man screamed and jumped as if he had been hit by shot from the gun.

The other two men began shooting wildly at the driver and the guard who had been hiding out of sight in the lower part of the driver's box. The two unhurt bandits emptied their guns at the men in the driver's box and paused to reload. This was the opportunity that Jack had been waiting for. He drew his own gun and rode as fast as he could toward the two bandits.

He did not start shooting until he was quite close to the bandits, but they were so busy reloading their Colts that they did not notice the approaching rider until it was too late. One of the bandits still had the ejector rod extended into the cylinder of his gun when Jack started shooting, and he panicked in his confusion. Jack shot him in the torso and he fell from his horse, but the other bandit was ready to shoot by the time Jack turned his attention to him.

The last bandit got off one shot which tore a gaping hole in Jack's hat, but Jack's bullet tore a gaping hole in the bandit's chest. It was a fine example of what a .45 caliber bullet could do under ideal conditions. So much energy was transferred into tearing up flesh and organs that the bullet did not exit through the bandit's back.

The second bandit wounded by the guard had died by now, so none of the bandits were of any concern. Jack had been so excited by the thrill of the encounter that he did not have time to get nervous until the fight was over. That was when he sat in the saddle and shook as his nerves rearranged themselves into their normal placid state.

When he was calm, Jack checked on the passengers and found that there were none, so he climbed into the driver's box to assess the damage there. Both men were dead, too full of lead to keep life and body together. Jack contemplated the situation for a full five minutes before he came to a workable plan. There was no way that Jack was able to drive the team of six mules, but he couldn't just leave them in all good conscience. He realized that the mules were used to being led into place when the teams were changed at the relay station, so he could simply lead them into town, which was reputed to be less than 10 miles away.

Jack used his horse as motive power to drag the four bandit corpses into the empty coach, after he had stripped them of anything valuable. He managed to find $37 in coin, plus a plethora of guns that he could sell. He tied the horses on behind the coach and used one of the reins as a lead rope to lead the team, etc. into town to the stage office.

Jack collected a $25 reward from the stage coach line for each of the dead bandits, and he was able to sell what he had recovered (looted) from the dead men. In total, Jack came up with $211 for about 90 minutes of work, so he was well pleased with himself. He discounted the fact that he could have been killed.

Jake Blade was not in this town, either, so Jack continued to ride east in the hope of finding Blade in the next town. And the next. And the next. The one thing accomplished was that all stiffness and soreness were gone from Jack's left side, and he had full and free movement, again. Furthermore, Ma Jenkins had done such a good job that there was no scaring.

Jack traveled clear across Texas without finding Jake Blade; in fact, there was now no trace of him in anyone's memory. Jack was forced to the conclusion that Jake Blade had turned off somewhere. The only way to find him was to back track and see what new route Blade had taken.

Finally, Jack found where he had gone wrong. About two-thirds of the way across Texas, Blade had turned north, apparently headed in the general direction of Dallas or Fort Worth. Jack turned north, hoping that he would have better luck this time. Eventually, Jack found himself in Austin, again, so he dropped by to see Alice.

Alice had never expected to see her daughter, again, but was overjoyed to see her. The trouble was, this was not the naïve girl who had left home months ago—this was a sophisticated man-hunter on the prowl. Annie was tickled to be able to return the $20 that her mother had given her when she departed, and it was even more fun to add $50 to that. The surprise on her mother's face was worth even more, but Annie did have to conserve her resources.

Annie told her mother everything that had happened, even the scary and bloody parts. Alice was appalled, anguished, astonished, and proud of all her daughter had already accomplished, but she was worried that Annie was following a path that would eventually lead to an untimely death. Alice tried to talk Annie into stopping her quixotic quest, but Annie would have none of that. Annie was determined to get revenge on Jake Blade, even if it took the rest of her life!

Annie spent three days in Austin with her mother before Jack resumed the hunt. He headed north and visited several towns before he found a clue in the little town of Sage. Sage was so small that it only had one saloon! It hardly qualified as a wide place in the road, much less a town. To make ends meet, the owner of the general store was also the town barber and undertaker. As it turned out, he provided the information that Jack needed.

It happened that a man calling himself John Horner and answering to the description of Jake Blade, shot a man while he was getting a shave. The gunshot was fatal, and John Horner had lit out toward the north as fast as he could collect his horse. He even left an unpaid hotel and livery stable bill. All of this had happened three weeks ago, less two days. Jack found this out while he was getting his hair cut—he didn't need a shave.

Immediately upon paying for the haircut, Jack took off after the murderer. The third town where he stopped, he learned that a man calling himself Bill Smith had been involved in a fight in the saloon and had killed another man with a knife. Every witness insisted that it was a fair fight, so the marshal only locked up Smith long enough for him to sleep off a mighty drunk. Everybody agreed that if the dead man had not been just as drunk, the fight might well have ended the other way. Anyhow, the swamper who had to clean up the mess remembered the fight in considerable detail and his description of Bill Smith fit Jake Blade to a "T."