Chapter 6

Now that we knew that we could never miss a shot ifen we paid attention ta what we was doin', we both got a little too cocky. We almost got our bell rung that same afternoon. We was ridin' back toward town, an', as the sayin' goes--"our hearts were young an' gay!" The trouble was that we wasn't payin the right kind of attention ta our surroundings, so we rode into a passel of difficulties.

We rounded a bend in the road an came upon six men lined up across the road. They all had their pistols drawn an' was just waitin' fer us ta show up. I guess that they had a scout out, an' he had reported on our progress. Shit, we would of known them road agents was there ifen we had been mindin' our proper business.

They had us dead ta rights, so there was nothin' fer us ta do but act brave an' stupid at the same time. I yelled, mind-ta-mind, "Sam, dismount an' start shootin' as fast as ya kin. Use yer pistol, not yer rifle."

I had my pistols out an' was shootin' both of them as fast as I could select a target an' pull the trigger. Sam did the same thin', an' I don't know which of us did the most killin', but every one of our bullets found a target in one of the bandits.

We quickly reloaded an' went ta examine the dead men. They was riddled with bullets, an' all were as dead as they ever would be. They never got off more than a very few shots, an' none seemed ta come close, either ta us or ta our hosses. That proved the advantage of pumpin' a lot of shots in a short time—it confuses the opposition an' keeps 'em from makin' sound decisions.

We made a banner haul of money from those bozos. Later, when we added it all up, we picked up over $1,000 in cash, plus we had all of them guns, hosses, an' tack ta sell. On top of all that, three of them bandits was on wanted posters. Anyhow, when all was said an' done, we had $1,757 from just this one incident! Sam was absolutely amazed when I pointed out that he was an equal partner, so the money was as much his as mine. As with any kid what had suddenly come into money, Sam wanted ta spend it all on a new saddle, fine clothes, an' new guns. I finally talked him out of that, but I did agree that he deserved a second revolver. That seemed ta satisfy him fer the moment.

I had been away from Austin long enough ta be homesick, so I suggested ta Sam that we head back that way. He was anxious ta meet the rest of his new family, an' we turned around ta git ta Austin as quickly as we could. It took us two weeks of steady ridin' ta get ta Alice an' Annie, an' I was right ready fer the reunion from the moment I thought of it.

As expected, Sam was welcomed with open arms, especially when the women learned that he, too, had the gift. They was both right relieved that I had found a partner what could do a good job of watchin' my back. They figured not ta worry so much about me when I was out of their sight as long as I had Sam ta back me up. Sam was right proud of the confidence they had in him, so it all worked out ta the good.

Annie an' Sam took a shine ta each other, too, so that made life a lot easier on all of us. There wasn't none of that young-folks bickerin' that disturbs so many families. I kind of hoped that they would make a couple when they both got older. I admit that it was kind of a selfish wish, since Annie still was stuck on me too much fer my comfort. I hoped that Sam would distract her.

Right soon after we got ta Austin, I went around ta see the best gunsmith in town ta see ifen he could duplicate the two guns what I was carryin'. He allowed that he could ifen he had one of the guns ta study. He also pointed out that the special-made guns was gonna be expensive. He estimated $250 per gun. I figured that my life was worth more than that ta me, so I told him that I wanted two of them, an' I needed them before Christmas. I planned ta give them ta Sam as a Christmas present from me.

I left one of the guns with him ta take apart ta learn how the job had been done. In the meantime, he loaned me an S&W Russian ta use in its place. When Sam asked me about my switchover, I just told him that my special gun was in the shop fer repairs. Since that was the prudent thing fer me ta do ifen I was havin' trouble with a gun, he bought the story. After all, a man in our line of business had ta have a weapon what he could rely on.

We fiddled an' fooled around in Austin fer five weeks afore we went out again. It was now pretty late in the year, soz it would probably be our last trip afore spring. I let Sam pick a direction fer us ta travel in, since I didn't have no special preferences fer this trip. I was just bored an' wanted ta do anythin' ta break the monotony.

We picked up a new set of wanted posters an' looked through them. Bingo, we both suddenly had a strong notion that we wanted ta travel down toward San Antonio. We was agreeable ta that, an' set out the next day. Our urge didn't tell us ta go all of the way ta San Antonio, just ta travel in that direction. What the hell? My hunches hadn't steered me wrong, yet.

We was hardly two days on our journey when we encountered our first adventure. It didn't seem like so much at first, but the thing just kept escalatin' on us. We pulled inta a town what was all abuzz over a kidnappin'. It seemed that the wife of the owner of the bank had been kidnapped, an' a ransom of $50,000 was demanded.

Now, there wasn't no way that the manager of a small town bank was gonna have access ta that much money. Personally, I wondered ifen there wasn't somethin' fishy goin' on. Anyway, the banker was offerin' a reward of $2,000 fer the safe return of his wife, an' that was too much money ta sneeze at. Sam an' I pricked up our ears at the chance an' went ta see the banker ta make sure that he was serious with his offer of that much reward.

He was right upset about his missin' wife an' readily wrote us a paper guaranteein' the reward an' signin' it. Sam an' I both read his surface thoughts while we was talkin' ta him, an' he was genuinely concerned about gettin' his wife back. Well, we promised ta do what we could ta help him out.

We asked ta see the ransom note, an' the banker complied without any reluctance. There wasn't nothin' that either of us could get from the note, but we both kept feelin' like there was somethin' not quite right about the whole thin'.

It turned out that the woman had disappeared six days ago while the banker was out of town on a business trip. Considerin' the fact that the only public transportation from the town was by stagecoach, I didn't blame her fer not goin' with her husband. Travelin' any kind of distance by stagecoach could do permanent damage ta yer back an' kidneys.

When last seen by the banker, his wife was wavin' goodbye ta him as the stagecoach left town. She was supposed ta go home after that, but nobody in the town had seen her do that. Everybody just assumed that she had gone home an' had been kidnapped from there. I asked the banker ifen it was OK fer us ta go through his house ta see ifen we could come up with some clues. He was agreeable, but warned us that the place hadn't been cleaned up since his wife was taken.

I assured him that we completely understood why that would be the case, an' I pointed out that the condition of the house might be helpful in us findin' a clue or two. He told us where ta find his house, an' we left fer there straight away.

The banker was right about his house not bein' in the cleanest shape. There was a layer of dust over most everythin', an' the trashcans had not been emptied. The dust on everythin' showed us that there was an empty place on the hanger where she kept a lot of her clothes, an' the empty place was there from the day she disappeared. I wondered why kidnappers would be so courteous as ta allow the woman ta gather up several changes of clothes. On top of that, there appeared ta be three or four pairs of shoes missin'. Now, that seemed really peculiar.