Chapter 6

While the girls were poking around in the wagon I sat on my ass and watched the women cook. It was my favorite way to spend time. Our lunch was ready in half an hour or so and we ate up and then cleaned up. Soon enough we had our traveling show on the road and we didn't run into anyone else before we hit a small town just before sunset. We pulled to a stop in front of the first saloon I saw and I went inside to talk to the bartender/owner.

He wanted to come sample the whiskey and I let him. I knocked out the bung stopper and he dipped out a sample of each barrel. He offered me two hundred and fifty dollars for both of them and I told him Hell yeh. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass to get both double wagon rigs around back to unload, but I wanted to make sure we stayed together. I had to unhitch the wagons and then back one of them to his back door, but after he paid me he got some men from in his place to come out and unload.

We took off as soon as we had the whiskey unloaded and we only had to go about five miles out of town to find a place to pull out into the woods for the night. I built us a fire and the women put a meal together. After eating we cleaned up the dishes and piled into the wagons to sleep with the dogs tied to the wheels.

We must have been asleep for a couple of hours when the dogs started making some noise. I put my pants and boots on and picked up my Marlin and poked my head slowly out of the front of the wagon. I spotted two assholes out in the woods and one of them had his revolver out pointing it at the dogs.

"Don't shoot the dogs. The noise a gunshot makes will wake them up for sure." one of them said.

"Well, we can't sneak up on them with the dogs. They'll wake 'em up for sure," the other one said.

"Hell, I'm already awake, and I've got you in my sights. Put your weapons down or die where you stand," I said, loudly.

The one with his pistol already out turned toward my voice and I shot him since he didn't put his revolver down. Then I shot the other one on general principles. Hell, they'd both come out to rob us so what the hell. Of course it woke all the women and girls, but I told them to just hunker down and find their Greeners. I got down off the wagon and went to the bodies, but they were both dead already. At least I found their horses so I led them over with ours, took off their saddles, and tied them up. Thankfully they had been a hundred yards or so out in the woods so I left them where they were after making sure they were dead.

It didn't take me long to get back to sleep and I sawed logs until sunlight woke me the next morning. The women and girls were already out and cooking when I woke so I put my clothes on and went out to join them. We had a nice breakfast and then packed up and took off. We were heading toward Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We made it within ten miles or so before sunset and we pulled off the road into the woods again for the night. After a good supper we went to bed and I felt confident the dogs would let us know if anyone came around.

No matter how sure of the dogs I'd become I still looked around closely before leaving the wagon the next morning. Everything seemed fine so I got out and untied the dogs to let them scratch and sniff and take care of other business before I stepped up to a tree and watered it myself. I built up a fire and the women did the honors for breakfast.

We had plenty to eat and after we'd finished I hitched the teams while the women were cleaning up and packing up. We mounted up and took off to head on up the road.

I figured we were just outside of Cape Girardeau after a couple of hours on the road and we headed right into town. A town marshal with a real looking badge and everything was sitting on the sidewalk in a chair he had put out right in front of his office. He came over to talk when I stopped the wagons in front of a cafe and he asked if we'd seen anyone who looked like trouble on the road so I told him about the dustup with the would be robbers and let him know we'd left the bodies out in the woods. I'll be damned if he didn't thank me for taking care of them and say he'd had reports of them out there trying to rob people.

"It ain't my job to take care of assholes like that but we ain't got much in the way of a sheriff in this county. He sent two deputies that way about a week ago and they never came back. The deputies weren't too smart in the first place and both the sheriff and I figured the robbers either killed them of else they joined up with them. Seems like you've cured our ills no matter what happened." he said, and then he drifted off and sat back down in his chair.

I was mentally bracing for trouble when we entered the cafe and I was right too, sorta. We'd barely found an empty table when an asshole at another one started trying to talk to the women and he got a little shitty when they ignored him. I was about to pull a Ruger and try discouraging him when I noticed an older man sitting at the bar stop eating and turn around and shoot the one causing the trouble. At least he didn't kill him, only shooting him in the shoulder, but the wailing and bemoaning the wounded man made was a little annoying.

Just then the shooter walked over to where the wounded one was laid out on the floor and gave him a good stout kick in the ribs.

'I've warned you before about bothering the decent customers in my cafe, Cletus. Now you probably know I meant what I said. Jenny, go fetch the marshal," the owner said and one of the waitresses left through the front door and came back with the marshal in a few minutes.

"So you finally got tired of his worthless ass, huh George?" the marshal asked.

"Yep, I'd already bout had my fill of him and then he started bothering these folks what just came in to eat." the shooter said.

"Hell, you probably done him a favor. These folks just took care of the robbers we'd been hearing about down the road. I doubt they'd have put up with much of his shit. At least they don't have to now."

"Cletus, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace. We'll call the doctor over to see if he can save your stupid ass in a little while. Jethro, you and Gilmer come on in and haul this dumb bastard over to the jail. After you get him locked in a cell send for the doctor to look at him." the marshal said in a loud voice, and two men came in, took a leg each of the wounded man and dragged him out the door.