Chapter 9

We looked over the bodies we could find and we lucked out. Five of them were wanted, and the one I guessed to be the leader was worth $275. The others were worth $25 or $50, so we could get $450 for the lot. That was not much compared to the loot that we had found, but we were into this on a "waste not, want not" basis. We loaded the wanted men into the wagon and tied the usable horses to the back. By the time we salvaged all of the good tack and guns, we were going to come out with over $750 for the lot. Wow, we'd had an unbelievably profitable day.

Of course, we were all heroes when we returned to town with the proof of the elimination of the bandit gang. I stopped by the saloon where the bartender had warned me about the gang, and I received a free Mexican beer as a token of his thanks. We collected the receipts for the dead bandits who were on wanted posters and sold the stuff we didn't want. The local hotel did not appeal to us, so we camped out of town. We went through a lot of coffee as several people, including the town's mayor, stopped by to thank us for what we did. We all really felt good over our success with this gang—even without all that recovered money, we would still have felt like we accomplished something useful.

We resumed our journey south and went for four days without an encounter with any road agents. I took advantage of this respite to teach Johnny everything I could about using his new pistol. In the rush of the moment when he first was given a pistol, he was accidentally given one that still used loose powder and caps. That was something that was just too complicated for a boy his age, so the first thing I did was switch him to a Colt Navy that had been modified to shoot .38 caliber metallic cartridges. That he could reload without worrying about incorrectly measuring the powder charge or incorrectly seating the bullet. Either error could result in the loss of a hand if he was really unlucky. We all felt better this way!

By the end of the four days, Johnny could shoot well enough to be trusted to do the right thing in a gun battle. His hand was still a little small for the pistol, so I had him concentrate on using both hands while shooting. It was also a little bit of a battle to get him to wait until his target was within range. To me, that meant a maximum of 50 feet, and more likely 25-30 feet. There was no problem getting Johnny to take the time to aim his shot, so I was confident that we could trust him to be an asset in any gun battle. His primary responsibility was to protect his little sister, but that seemed to ring a bell with him. Mary made a crossdraw holster for him, and he was very proud to be seen wearing his weapon.

The fifth day out, we did run into a highwayman. He was operating solo, but that didn't slow him down when he approached the wagons. I was away from the wagons as usual, so I was out of sight when the outlaw rode up. He pulled his gun, but did not cock it, probably because he saw that he was only facing women and children. Mary was driving and Amy Sue was on the seat between her and Alice. Johnny was standing behind the driver's bench so that the outlaw couldn't see that he was wearing a gun.

The bandit rode up to Mary and demanded that she stop. Mary told him to go to hell, so he pointed his pistol at Amy Sue. "Either ya stop, or I'll blow a hole through the little girl."

That was the threat that triggered all of Johnny's protective instincts. He didn't say a word. Instead, he drew his pistol and shot the bandit in the chest. The range was so short that even the small size of the .38 caliber bullet knocked the bandit to the ground. Johnny calmly reloaded the pistol before reaching past Mary to ring the bell. She had been so startled by the gunshot from him that she completely forgot it.

I came riding in as soon as I heard the shot and the bell, and I was certainly confused by the order of the sounds. The bell sound should have come first! I relaxed when I heard the full story and congratulated Johnny on his fast reaction. He fairly glowed at my praise. I was very pleased to see how seriously Johnny took his assignment of protecting Amy Sue.

It turned out that this particular bandit was not on any of my wanted posters, so we got nothing from him on that, but he had $36 in his moneybelt, and we unanimously agreed that Johnny had earned that. He was very happy to receive the money which was his alone, and he did not have to share it with anybody. None of us, including Johnny, knew what he would do with the money, but it was the principle of the thing, anyway.

I decided that Johnny needed his own horse, so he inherited the one the bandit had been riding. As it turned out, none of the bandit's weapons were worth much to us, so we decided to sell them at our first opportunity. That was all of the excitement for that day, but our luck changed for the better the next morning.

We had barely left our campsite, and I had hardly gotten to the woods when four men showed up and ordered the little wagon train to stop. The kids were in the back of the wagon and out of sight when the bandits rode up, so they didn't know of the extra gun that could be used against them.

Alice was driving and June was riding shotgun, so, when the intentions of the men became obvious, June rang the bell and pulled out her shotgun so that the men could see it. She was rather ostentatious as she cocked both barrels and swung the gun around to point in the general direction of the approaching riders.

The men apparently thought that the second wagon would be easier pickings, so they rode on past. One of the men actually tipped his hat as they rode by. However, the story was different when they got to the second wagon. They pulled their pistols and rode directly toward Sarah, who was driving. Before the men could say or do anything, both women dropped to the floorboards and poked their shotgun barrels over the wagon wall.

Three of the men continued to ride toward the women, but one of them swung around to be back of the second wagon. He was probably not expecting any opposition, so he was caught completely by surprise when he was shot in the chest by Johnny. That triggered firing by the women in the front of the wagon, and three more men died of buckshot perforations before they could shoot. By this time, I showed up with nobody to shoot at.

Johnny was again congratulated for his quick action, and he helped me search the four bandits. We found moneybelts and loose change amounting to $97.43 in gold and silver, but the most useful thing was that one of the bandits was wanted to the tune of $125. We tied him to his horse, and we tied that to the back of the lead wagon, along with the other three horses. One of the horses had been slightly wounded by a buckshot slug, but it was simply a flesh wound and would not permanently harm the horse nor lower its resale value.

All of the money went into the communal pot this time, but Johnny seemed to be resigned to that. He was happy with the fortune that he was carrying.

We rode on a little way, no more than 150 yards, and saw sign of a wagon being driven off the trail and into the woods. Based on previous experience, I decided to check on this wandering wagon. Johnny wanted to come along, so I took him. I wasn't expecting trouble, but you never know in this line of business, so I warned him to be ready to draw his gun.

We rode about 200 feet into the trees and came to a small clearing. A pair of wagons were parked there, and there were several horses in a rope corral. A woman of about 25 was sitting by a campfire nursing a baby. She saw us and never paused to put the baby down. She grabbed up a shotgun and readied to fire it at us while the baby was still hanging from her nipple.

I had no idea that Johnny could grasp a situation so fast or react so fast. He took off at a right angle to our former path, leaving me as the sole target of the shotgun. I knew that I was in deep trouble, so I did not take the time to watch what Johnny had in mind. The woman had the shotgun at her shoulder and was preparing to fire at me when a pistol shot rang out.