Chapter 2

"I've got them both on me," she said.

"Let me see them a minute please," I said.

When she handed them to me I unloaded them. I left the percussion caps in place but removed the bullets and shook out the powder. I told her to store them inside the wagon and to let Dad know where they were.

"We'll see if he wants to kill me now and when he tries it there'll be nothing but a loud pop from the caps," I said. She looked at me so funny then but said ok.

We were up with the sun the next morning. Mom fixed us some breakfast and we ate. This morning Dad rode on the wagon seat with me instead of saddling his horse. We'd only been moving for about an hour when Dad pulled one of the pepperboxes out of his pocket, pusshed it into my ribs and pulled the trigger. I took my right hand pistol and shot him right between the eyes. I heard mother scrambling to get up and see what was going on, but I told her to just stay back there. I stopped the wagon, threw Dad's body over the side and then got down to retrieve anything of value from his body. After I had him cleaned out, with damned little to show for it, I removed his clothes and threw his body out into the woods.

A couple of the men from on back came up then to see what was going on. I explained about unloading the pepperboxes and about what Tom tried. I even showed them the burn mark the cap made on my shirt and then told them what I did.

"It was the only thing you could do. When a man loses his mind like that and tries to kill his own child the whole world is better off without him." one of them said.

"That's a damned good place for him too. Naked beside the road. Now the animals can scatter his bones when they eat him up," another man said.

We didn't stop long and ended up making about twenty miles before we stopped for the night. After supper I reloaded the pepperboxes and made sure all the other weapons I took off dead men were loaded and in the front of the wagon too.

I got up before sunrise and hitched the teams. Mom had already told me she could handle them for a couple of hours and I knew Joe, our hired driver, could handle the second wagon with mostly freight in it. I built up the fire so Mom could cook breakfast and then saddled Dad's horse and took off down the road. I rode ahead for about an hour and a half and then went back to join Mom in the wagon and take over the driving. What with Mose and Dad both dead I thought someone should at least scout ahead a little.

We were fine as far as I'd scouted and when we got there I mounted the horse again and took off. I scouted for about two hours and then came back again. We stopped a little before sunset, made camp, and then had supper. I helped Mom clean up after and then we went to bed.

It was about the same thing for the next three days. I'd get thngs ready to go and then take off scouthing. I'd put both of our saddle scabbards with my saddle and carried both Henry's with me along with my 44-40s. Today I noticed some men in the edge of the woods about two miles from where we'd stopped. I went past them about a mile, tied my horse in the woods and then slipped back up on the other side of the road to where the men were.

Sure enough when the wagons came in sight a tree fell across the road and the men mounted up. I waited until they rode out into the road intending to stop the wagons and then I cut down on them with the Henry's. There had been six of them and I took care of four right off the bat. The others took off into the woods and I managed to burn the ass of one of their horses and it pitched the asshole off. I nailed him with the next shot and then mounted up and rode back to the spot.

A bullet whined over my head when I dismounted so I hit my belly in the woods and started looking around trying to find the last one. Apparently he though I'd been wounded and fell into the woods. He came slipping up a couple of minutes later and he stuck his head up to look around. I shot him in the ear and from the way blood and brans spattered out I figure the bullet went all the way through.

I had the tree pulled off the road by the time the wagons got there and was busily stripping the bodies. As usual we left them naked in the woods for nature's disposal squad and we tied their horses onto our wagon and rode on. About three miles down the road four men came out of the woods and headed towards us. I had both Henry's in the wagon box with me now and as the men came closer I picked one up and stopped the wagon. The men rode upcloser then and I could see one of them pull a rifle out of his saddle scabbard. Hell, I shot his ass and then started on the others. The last one tried to turn and run off, but I got him right in the back and he fell off not a quarter of a mile from where they'd run into trouble.

I got down from the wagon and mounted one of the horses I'd taken this morning. I went down and caught up the others and led them back to the wagon and tied them all on. I went back to take care of the bodies then and as I was stripping off all that was worth something I heard a noise out in the woods and walked out to see what it was.

I approached carefully and saw a wagon with its team unhitched. Looking closer I saw a woman and three girls sitting around on a deadfall. It only took me a few minutes to see they were tied to it.

I was being completely still, or as near as I could. I looked everywhere for someone stalking me and I finally saw a man moving my way, but very carefully. He had a pistol in his hand and so I spoke up.