Chapter 5

The shot rang out and Beau's horse collapsed from a bullet in the brain. Fortunately for Beau, he was able to jump clear as the horse fell so that he was neither injured nor trapped by the falling horse. Beau rightly assumed that the bullet was aimed for him, since the horse raised his head just as the rifle was fired. This was verified by a second shot being aimed at Beau shortly after he fell to the ground.

This bullet sounded like it came from a Spencer carbine, but that was only speculation at this point. In any case, knowing the source of the bullet made no difference under the present circumstances.

Beau drew a LeMat and got ready to defend himself by rolling behind the body of his dead horse. At least, his canteen of water was accessible, now, and he moved it to be less exposed to a rifle bullet. He was carrying spare ammunition in a pouch at his belt, so he was not in much danger of running low on ammunition unless this turned into a very long battle.

The source of the two shots was obvious from the cloud of powder smoke clinging to the branches of some tall brush. At the moment, there was no wind to dissipate the smoke, so a shooter was going to have to move around to have a clear view of his target after three or four shots. Beau was counting on this to help him catch sight of his opponent.

Except for the brush and trees, this was a fairly open and flat section of landscape, and there was not much available for extra shielding from a bullet, so one had to be careful in his choice of shooting positions.

Beau was now lying on his belly behind his horse. There was not much to see from his present viewing location, but it would be very dangerous to move away from the horse's carcass until he knew more about his enemy. Beau had removed his hat, something not recommended in the hot Texas sun, but he wanted to be able to peek over the horse without drawing any more attention than he could help.

It appeared that his unknown enemy had sharper eyes than Beau had expected. A shot was fired at the very little bit of his exposed head, but it accomplished two things. It showed that the other person was alert, and it showed that the person had moved to a different location, but not far from the first spot.

Beau decided to try to take advantage of this new knowledge by moving away from his horse. At the moment, he had the option of slipping back into the brush while shielded by the body of his horse, but that option might slip away if he waited too long. He knew that the other person was on the right side of the road, so he would have to head to the left. Actually, that was to his advantage because of a slight depression in the ground on that side of the road. If he could get there without being shot, Beau's options would open up significantly.

Beau pulled his canteen of water along with him as he wiggled as fast as he could to that small depression in the ground. Behind it was some dense brush, so he had a further incentive to get there. The dense brush offered many options for further movement, provided that he was careful.

Before leaving his horse, Beau had arranged a decoy with his hat. The hat was propped in such a way that it looked like Beau was wearing the hat, and he was still hiding behind his horse. Beau didn't expect the decoy to work for very long, but he planned to make use of every moment he was given.

It took Beau an agonizing two minutes plus some to reach the depression, and a bullet just missed him as he slithered to the bottom. Glory be! The depression was deeper than he had realized and probably held water during the rainy season. At the moment, it was full of tall grass which could work for Beau or against him, depending on a lot of unknown factors. Oh, well, he would just live with what he had to work with and hope for the best.

As he was getting situated in his new fort, he saw some motion in the brush across the road. There was no time for a carefully aimed shot, but he did snap off a shot anyway. Talk about luck! There was a small scream of pain. What the hell, was that a woman's voice? Well, it didn't make any difference to the bullet what sex controlled the trigger finger, so Beau tried to act the same way. Someone was trying to kill him, and he was not going to take that without a fight!

He did not worry about giving away his hiding place, since the other shooter already knew where he was, but he did wish for some wind to blow the smoke out of his way. A slight breeze would help to clear away the smoke, and he needed every advantage that he could get.

There was a long spell of no activity from either side, and Beau wondered if the wound sustained by the other person might have been worse than he had thought at first. Nevertheless, Beau did nothing for a while, hoping that the other person would blunder. Finally it happened!

Apparently, Beau's opponent had less patience than he did. The shooter stood up to get a better angle for the bullets to travel down into the depression. The Spencer was fired four times as fast as a new bullet could be jacked into the chamber and the hammer cocked. All Beau could do was to keep his head down and hope for the best. When the shooting stopped, a few curse words were heard from the other side of the road, and there was the sound of frantic reloading.

Beau figured that he would not have a better opportunity, so he jumped up and ran toward where all of the smoke had come from. He held his LeMat in his hand, but he did not waste time or ammunition by shooting while he ran. However, he did take time to thumb the hammer into the shotgun position. He had loaded the shotgun barrel with five #00 buckshot. Those .31 caliber balls packed a serious punch at close range, both physical and psychological, so he wanted it for his first shot.

Beau ran into the cloud of powder smoke and saw a vague shadow ahead of him. That was enough for him. He stopped running and raised his LeMat. A moment later, he fired his shotgun load. As the pistol recoiled, Beau used the opportunity to flip the hammer back to cartridge-firing position and fired at the vague shadow again. The figure fell to the ground, but Beau took no chances and poured four more bullets into the barely seen body lying on the ground.

Satisfied, Beau squatted down to examine the body of his opponent. The first thing that he verified was that the enemy was dead. The second thing that he verified was that the enemy was a woman. Why would a woman try to kill him? He had no idea, but that was beside the point—the point was he was alive and she was dead!

Beau searched her body for valuables. She was wearing men's clothes, but that was sensible considering how difficult it would have been to move through the brush while wearing a long skirt. Beau pulled up her bloody shirt and found her moneybelt. Damn! She was carrying a nearly full belt. He would count the money later, but it was obvious that she had acquired a lot of money from somewhere.

She had a Colt Navy revolver and a derringer to go with her Spencer carbine. She was also carrying a bowie knife in a sheath at her back. In other words, she was well armed, so she was prepared for almost any kind of fight.

Beau collected the stuff worth selling and carried it back to his horse's carcass. He left it there while he went hunting for her horse. This was something he now desperately needed, so he searched with considerable effort. Finally he found it and rode it back to his old horse.

He used the woman's horse to break free his old saddle and swapped the saddles to the one that he preferred. He dragged the dead horse out of the middle of the road and loaded everything, including the woman's saddle, on the horse and went looking for the next town. There he disposed of the excess items he didn't want.

Later that day, Beau was in a saloon having a beer and talking about his latest adventure. The bartender said, "Ya must of run into Crazy Kate. Gossip has it that she has been ambushing men what use that road."

"Yeah, I guess so, but why would she want to kill men she didn't even know?"