Chapter 1

"Yes, I'm the sheriff. Do you need me?"

"I don't, but maybe someone does. I heard a gun battle going on when I come by the Rivers' property out east of town. I didn't stop as t'want any of my business. That was about two hours ago."

"I'll check it out. Thanks." The man turned and climbed into his saddle, going on down the street. I had never seen him before. I was puzzled for the Rivers' property was just a rundown old shack about five miles from town. Nothing to be fighting over. I guessed I better go out and check. My two deputies came strolling up from breakfast at the diner. "Pete, we got something to check into. Get your horse. Tom, you hang out here. It's too damned hot for much trouble to be caused, but you never know."

We put the horses into a fast walk and it was not quite an hour before we reached the Rivers' place. Pete Branch circled around and come in from behind. I didn't see where any horse tracks had turned off the trail and I waited until I figured Pete was close in. I walked the mount up to the shack. There was nothing stirring or any tracks to see. I began to get an uneasy feeling.

"Wild goose chase. I think we better get back to town."

"Let's go then, Sam. I got a feeling someone's been robbed and this was just something to get us away." I didn't say anything and we mounted up, putting our horses into a run.

There were people standing all around as we came down the street. John came rushing up to me. "Sam, go over to the general store. The bank was robbed and Jessie got run down when the bastards were getting away. Cindy and Miss Sylvia are with her. I want in on the posse when you get ready to go after them. Go to Jessie first. We'll get the robbers later."

"Where's Tom? Help him round up some men while I see to Jessie."

"Tom's dead. There is a teller dead too. Cindy also got off a couple of rounds with her pocket pistol and she says she wounded one of them."

"How many robbers?"

"Three, maybe four. Hard to tell." I hurried down to the store at the end of the street. The crowd parted and let me through. Jessie was laying in the back room on a pile of blankets that had been put down for her. Cindy and Miss Sylvia were crying and the doctor was standing by her. He stepped toward me.

"Sam, I can't do anything for her. I gave her some laudanum to ease the pain. She was knocked down by a rider and the next horse trampled her as it came to her. She's got a broken leg and one hoof landed in her middle. I hate to say this, but she's all broken up inside. I'm sorry, but I can't see how she can make it. I don't think she has very long."

"Thanks, Doc. I know you done your best." He let go of my arm and I went to Jessie.

I brushed my hand over her brow and her eyes opened. "Sam, I was in the middle of the street when they came around the corner. They just rode me right down. Now when you get them, don't do anything to bring trouble down on you. You're a good sheriff and I expect you to stay that way." A wan smile fluttered over her features and she stopped talking. I thought I had lost her. I sat there holding her hand.

I looked up when her father came in. He stood there holding Miss Sylvia who was crying. Jessie's eyes opened again. "Daddy and Miss Sylvia, I'm glad you are here." Her eyes traveled to Cindy. "Cindy, I give you Sam to take care of. He's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." Again her eyes closed, or almost. Once in awhile I could see a twitch of pain. I studied my wife's features so I would never forget her. Her face hadn't been damaged and she looked as she always had, except for her color and some dust that hadn't been brushed off one side of her face.

I got a faint, "Sam," when she next looked at me. Her fingers gripped me, and then I could tell she was no more. I leaned down and brushed my lips on hers and turned to go outside. James and Martha were coming in and I met them at the door. I shook my head and that's when I lost it, shuddering with sorrow at my loss. Her father was in worse shape than I was. In his early sixties now, I knew this would hit him very hard. I steadied him outside and got him into a chair on the verandah. He couldn't speak.

The crowd was silent for a bit. I was sheriff and it was up to me to get beyond my personal loss. I addressed the people standing around. "Someone who actually saw what went down here, come over to the jail and tell me what happened. Just those who can tell me what they saw for certain."

"When you going after those sons-of-bitches? They got our gold and they killed people."

"Soon--just as soon as I get the right of it." I remembered that John had told me Cindy had fired at the polecats. I stepped back inside, finding Cindy with my eyes. I motioned for her to come with me. Two men claimed they were on the street and I took them too. It took twenty minutes to piece together what happened. One man who had been lounging on the street gave me what he had seen.

"You left town with Pete and about fifteen minutes later, four men rode up to the bank hitch rail. Three men went into the bank and the fourth held the horses' reins. I saw Tom come out of the office here and look over across the street at the bank. Thinking back, he must have had suspicion something was going on. He started to pull his iron when the man shot him from where he was standing behind the horses. About that time the three men who had entered the bank came out shooting all over the place. I dove behind the water trough. I heard them mount up and ride out. I didn't know they rode your wife down until after I went over and looked at Tom."

"Thanks Bert. It had to have happened just as you have told it. I think when I find these men, one of them will be the one that told me about some gunfire I went chasing after. Cindy, tell me what went on in the bank."

"Sure Sam. Sam, I'm awful sorry about Jessie."

"Yeah." For a minute I couldn't say anything. "Cindy we've just lost one we both loved. Just tell me what happened in the bank and then we'll go after them."

"Okay. These three men came rushing into the bank and immediately drew their guns yelling it was a holdup. Phil Burns started for the gun he had in the till, but one of the men clipped him over the head and he went down. They made old Mr. Cumins empty the two tills into a sack while one held a gun on us. The other robber went into the safe and I could hear him emptying coins into another sack and I guess the paper money as well.

"About that time they heard a shot out in the street and I glanced out the window and saw Tom falling. The three men paused just a second before rushing out. I shot at them and I swear I got lead into the last one out the door. Phil got up and had his gun in his hand. He was standing in the doorway shooting at them when he went down again. He is dead on the floor just inside the bank.

"Ten minutes later someone told me that Jessie had been rode down and wanted to see me. I'm glad she waited to die so you could say good-bye to her. It would have been worse for you if you hadn't that few minutes with her."

I didn't say anything. I was numb about everything at this point. The second man I had asked to come with me looked as if he had information. "I was not more'n twenty feet away from Jessie when them bastards came wheeling round the corner. Jessie never had a chance. The first man clipped her, the second horse was the one that stepped on her and the third man was just hanging on and was way wide. The fourth horse leaped right over her and never touched her at all. God, Sheriff it was awful. We're going to get them and string 'em up ain't we?"

"We'll get them. Did you see what direction they took?"

"They headed right for the reservation. They'll get away when they get up into them hills."

"No, I don't think so, not if they went onto the reservation. Actually if they did, we've got them already. Both of you men are deputized for the posse. I may need you to identify one or all of them. Get grub and canteens for five days. We may be out that long before we get back. Depends how much fight they got in them before we can get them corralled. Cindy, you work with the family and see that Jessie is taken care of. Wire Felicity to come home. I'll break off the hunt and be back the day after tomorrow for her funeral if we haven't captured them by then. They can't get away. The Indians will see to that."

There were ten of us in the posse and we had five hours of daylight left to get on with the hunt. Pete, my deputy, was with me, and James was riding beside me. Never one to say much, he held true by being quiet. It was a comfort to have him at my side and I knew he was hurting as much as I was over the death of his mother.

It was almost an hour before we hit the reservation boundary. Three hours later we were well into the Indian land. We were having a hard time trailing the killers' hoof prints now because they were being obliterated by more horse tracks. The Indians had picked up the trail and were following the robbers. Just before dark, we came upon a dead man beside the trail laying in a ditch. "That's not the man who was riding the horse that killed your wife."

I dismounted and looked him over. I couldn't see much for marks on him except for some blood that had dribbled down his chest from coughing his life away. We stripped off his shirt and he had three small bullet holes in his back. One had bounced off his right shoulder blade and apparently done no damage. The other two though, had gone in and probably punctured a lung on his right side. "Looks as though Cynthia Bellows killed this one. It took awhile but her shooting is what did him in."

We rode awhile longer and then settled in for the night. We built a camp fire and made coffee. We had some beef along with several loaves of bread that Sarah Seldon had put into a set of saddlebags. Not much was said. We were after some killers and only about half the posse had ever shot at a man before. It wasn't a pleasant feeling no matter how much you hated the men you were after. Morning found us saddling up after coffee and a substantial feeding of slab bacon.

We could travel at a gallop now, as the Indians were leaving a clear trail for us to follow. It was one o'clock that afternoon when we knew we had reached our quarry. There was a little box canyon ahead of us. The skyline around the canyon was fringed with thirty or more braves sitting their ponies waiting for us to arrive. One Indian detached himself and rode over to me. This was one I had made captain of the Indian police years before. "Sam, I guess you found one of them back there didn't you?"

"Yeah. He was not the one that killed Jessie. How are we situated here?"

"Just waiting for you. They pulled in here after dark last night and are holed up. We made sure they could see us when they built up their fire this morning. They been here all day and haven't made a move. I think they would talk to someone if he was to go in there."

I turned to my deputy. "Pete, I'm going in. If they should happen to kill me, don't spare them at all."

"Sam, let's just kill them now. No one would blame us or you."

"Can't do it. Jessie told me I was to remember I'm the sheriff. I could do as you say, but ten years down the road it might come back to haunt me. No, I'm going in. James, you look after the family if need be."

I went up to the entrance and shouted. "I'm the sheriff. I want to talk and I'm coming in."

"Come in then, if you're brave enough. You'll be covered."

"I 'spect so." I rode maybe two hundred yards into the canyon. The Indians were clearly visible up on the ridges watching me. I looked the three of them over. The one man under thirty, maybe, was the one who had lured me out of town with his tale of the shooting. There was one youngster about twenty. The other one was my age or a little older. The money sacks were bunched on the ground.

The older man spoke. "Where are we on this, Sheriff?"

"Well, I reckon you are all dead. It is just a matter of when you want to die."

"Figures. When I seen them Indians up there this morning, I figured we was done for. What are you offering up?"

"Drop your weapons and ride out of here with me. You got about three weeks before the law hangs you or stands you up against a wall. That's your choice of how you want it done. You killed a deputy and you killed a teller. The town won't stand for nothing otherwise."

"What about the woman? She went down."

"My wife? She's dead. Her funeral is tomorrow. I'll be there."

"Sorry to hear that Sheriff. Real sorry. We was just scrambling to get out of town." I stepped down from my horse.

I wasn't worried about the two older men now, but that kid was looking mighty brave. He spoke, "What happens if we tell you to ride back out of the canyon? You can't fight us all."

"No I can't, but let me tell you a story. This happened eighteenteen years ago. Three men rode onto my ranch and were going to rob it. There were some Indian squaws there and them men started into doing some raping. Two of the outlaws were killed when a neighbor showed up. The third one threw down his gun and surrendered. I turned him over to the squaws. An hour later when they got done with him, they had cut the hamstrings in his feet and all the cords in his elbows and wrists.