Chapter 3

Beau was about half way between the Sabine River and Houston when he came across the stage robbery in progress. Three men in masks were holding guns on the passengers. The stage crew was lying dead in the driver's box. There were two men and a woman as passengers, and the bandits were in the process of taking personal items, such as watches, from the passengers. One of the men objected to giving up a ring, so one of the bandits simply shot him. He then took out a knife and cut off the man's finger to get the ring.

Beau had drawn his Henry and was running to a good shooting position when the second male passenger was shot. Beau never saw why. Now, the men turned their attention to the woman. It was obvious that she was about to be raped, but, by now, Beau had reached his firing position and was ready to open fire. He levered a cartridge into the chamber and drew a bead on the bandit who had done all of the shooting. The first bullet from Beau's Henry tore into the bandits neck and nearly ripped his head off as the bullet hit his spine in the back of the neck.

Blood flew everywhere, and the bandits were just as active as the woman in dodging it. Strangely, she did not try to run away, but stood where she was, crying all of the time. Beau was aiming at another one of the bandits and just waiting for him to stand still for a good shot. As soon as the man stopped jumping about to avoid the spurting blood, Beau fired his second shot. This time the bullet hit the man in the shoulder and knocked him down. The third man turned to run, but Beau put this bullet into his back, smashing into the man's left kidney. He, too, went down, but he was not dead, yet.

The wounded man rolled over to try to get in a shot at Beau, but the woman finally got herself under control and kicked the him in the face. Probably, purely by accident, the toe of her boot caught him in the eye socket and blinded him on that side. His reflexive act to cover his injured eye gave the woman enough time to move out of the way so that Beau could get in a second shot. This time, he was a bit more deliberate in his aim and put a bullet in the bandit's skull, ending all effort at resistance.

Now that the crisis appeared to be over, Beau remounted and rode to do what he could for the woman. He had hardly dismounted when the woman ran up to him clasped him in a strong embrace. "Mister, I don't know who ya are, but I do know that I owe my life ta ya. Them bastards done killed my husband and my father-in-law. What am I goin' ta do?"

"Madam, the first thing we must do it to get you back to civilization. The relay station for the stage line is only two miles behind us. Can you ride in the stage with your husband and father-in-law? If you can, I can dump these bandits into the stage boot and take you all back to the station. I am not competent to drive a team of six mules, but I can certainly lead it for the necessary two miles."

"Oh, yes! I can do that. Please do whatever you have to do, and I will be happy to cooperate. But ya must tell me what ta do. I can't seem ta make a serious decision in the state I'm in right now."

"OK, just let me get these two gentlemen into the coach before you climb in. Then I will dump the three bandits in the boot, and we will be ready to leave."

It took a bit longer than expected to get back to the relay station, but it was finally accomplished. Beau told the agent what had happened, and the woman was led away by the agent's wife. That was the last Beau saw of the woman. The agent said that the stage company was paying a bounty of $25 for every bandit killed while in the act of robbing the stage, so the agent would write Beau a receipt that he could turn in at the office in the next town and collect his $75. Beau was running a little low on money, so that was welcome news.

Beau went through all of the steps and claimed his bounty. Damn, it would be nice to collect that kind of reward every week or so! The next day, Beau was regaling some men in a saloon with his luck the previous day, and one of the men suggested that Beau become a bounty hunter. "God knows, we need somebody with a little sand in his craw ta take on the riff-raff that has shown up since the War ended!"

Beau was intrigued by the idea of becoming a bounty hunter, so he asked how one went about starting in the business. Nobody in the group could offer any advice beyond making a visit to the local town marshal. Perhaps he could give Beau some advice.

Beau finished his beer and excused himself. He decided to follow up on the idea right away. Beau rode a couple of blocks down the street and found the jail and marshal's office. He went in and explained the reason for his visit. The marshal was full of advice on what to do, but the main point was for Beau to hie himself to the county seat, which was 15 miles north of the current town, and to drop in on the county clerk's office. There, he could pick up a set of wanted posters. With the posters in hand, Beau could start hunting down the dastardly individuals named on the posters.

As far as the marshal knew, there was no specific thing that a person had to do to become a bounty hunter, other than to announce to the county clerk what he was doing. Once a man got on a wanted poster, he was fair game for anyone who wanted to try to capture him. Thus, the marshal wished Beau luck and waved as Beau headed for the county court house to find the clerk.

Beau made it to Pearl City just in time to get to the clerk's office before he closed up shop for the day. The man did take the time to haul out a full set of wanted posters for Beau to take with him. Beau took the 62 posters with him and dumped them into a saddle bag while he found lodging for his horse and himself, both at the first livery stable with an adequate stack of hay. Once the horse was taken care of, Beau went to supper at the local restaurant. After that, he went looking for a reasonably quiet saloon where he could go through the posters while he was enjoying a beer.

Beau quickly found that the posters fit into one of three categories: posters with pictures (not very many), posters with good and useful descriptions of the wanted man (not very many), and posters with descriptions so vague that he fit most of them, himself (a majority of the posters). Beau discarded the third stack of posters, but figured that he could get some use out of the other two stacks. There were 19 posters left after Beau had discarded the useless ones, but that was certainly enough to get him started in his new profession.

Beau felt that the first thing he had to do was to study the pictures and descriptions so that he would be able to recognize any of the 19 men he might be able to find. He worked at this chore through three beers, and decided that it was time for bed, so he headed for his haystack at the livery stable. He wasn't being charged for his stay because he was paying full price for his horse.

During the night, Beau's subconscious had been mulling over his new job and had come to the realization that Beau knew absolutely nothing of the fine points of being a bounty hunter. Therefore, Beau needed to do some research before he made a serious, if not fatal, blunder.

After breakfast, Beau paid a call on the county sheriff's office. The sheriff was out on a business trip at the other end of the county, but Beau found a deputy who had once been a bounty hunter before the War. His advice was to talk to every bartender he could find and to get on a friendly, first name, basis with every one of them. In his opinion, the bartenders in a town knew everybody and everything in a town, and could probably steer him in the best direction. That was the way he had worked, and it had been a successful approach. The only reason he gave up on bounty hunting was that he had gotten too old to traipse around the country the way a bounty hunter had to do. The ex-bounty hunter gave Beau a lot of useful information and tricks of the trade which were likely to keep him alive long enough to collect the bounty. Beau thanked the man profusely for the help and left feeling much more sure of himself.