Chapter 5: A wedding proposal

Leah joined us after we had finished our cigars, and Mrs. Schwartz came out very shortly thereafter. We talked for about an hour before it was time for bed. I left for my hotel room and walked on air the whole way!

WOW!!! I became a fixture at the Schwartz home over the next week. I was invited to dinner every night except Saturday for the next eight days. I did not think about the missing Saturday invitation—I just assumed that Mrs. Schwartz was tired of fixing enough food for a freeloader. For whatever reason, Sunday was back to what was normal for me.

On Sunday, I took Leah for a carriage ride up into the hills where it was a lot cooler. It was not until later that it dawned on me how much the elder Schwartzes trusted me with their daughter. I had only known Leah for a week and here we were making a trip out of town unchaperoned! This was just another thing that I had forgotten about how times had changed in the 21^st century and how much freedom a girl was given up-time compared to 1876. Yeah, in a lot of ways, I was still ignorant, innocent, and naïve.

I returned Leah to her home completely undamaged and she gushed to all who would listen how much she had enjoyed her excursion. Leah and I were both a little embarrassed when she impulsively kissed me on the cheek. Her parents smiled at this, and I suddenly realized how much they liked and trusted me.

On Wednesday, business suddenly reared its ugly head. Gossip had it that there had been a long series of stagecoach robberies between Phoenix and Tucson. The bandits were identified as Mexicans, and the stage line was offering $50 for every dead bandit and $25 for every live one. Their purpose was obvious, but everybody agreed because of the number of rapes that had been associated with the robberies. That was simply too much money to be ignored, so I left Tucson to see if I could cash in on the potential money at the end of the rainbow.

Before leaving, I had consulted with Aaron about what to do with the money that I already had. I was now carrying almost $1,200 in my moneybelt, and I was not comfortable with that. He found for me a strongbox and I put my money in that. We buried it under the floor of their carriage house, and I felt a lot more comfortable about the whole thing. I kept out a little over $100 for operating expenses and dumped the rest of the money in the strongbox. You cannot imagine what a relief that was.

I was very sorry to have to leave Leah, and I kissed her for the first time on the lips on the night before I left Tucson. Anna Schwartz happened to see us kiss, but she never commented on it in my hearing. I assumed that meant that she approved.

I left Phoenix armed with my Winchester, my shotgun, and my Starr DA. I now had enough experience with all of them that I was certain that I was in good shape. I stopped off at the stagecoach office to verify that the rumor about the bounty on bandits was true, and I was assured that it was. I thanked them and left to begin my hunt.

The stagecoaches ran every day between Phoenix and Tucson, and there were at least two robberies a week, so I was hopeful of finding something worth my time and effort. I had decided to follow the stage route from one city to the other to get some idea of where the robberies were most likely to take place. I had a list of the robberies that had already happened, so it did not take me long to find the pattern.

There were only five places where most of the robberies happened, and there seemed to be a sequence about where they happened. The bandits were smart enough to skip around with their robbery locations, but they were following a pattern. I guessed that they figured that if the sequence had worked so far, there was no need to change it. Well, I was about to prove them wrong.

If they stuck to their pattern, the bandits should hit the place I happened to be watching at the moment. I was set up among some rocks on a little hill where I had an excellent firing position. If the bandits showed up, I figured that I could get at least a couple of them with my Winchester. I had a lot of confidence in that peep-sight.

Eight men showed up about half an hour before the stage was due and pulled a boulder to the middle of the road. Aha! They had to be the bandits! I did not want to shoot yet because I wanted the stagecoach crew and passengers to witness that I actually had shot the bandits during the course of a robbery. I did not want to give the stage line an opportunity to weasel out of paying me for my work.

I waited just as the bandits did until the stagecoach showed up. There was a lot of shooting as the stagecoach was halted by that big rock, and that was when I put in my two cents worth. The bandits had no idea that I was behind them, so they had taken positions that protected their front, but did nothing to shield them from me at their back.

The bandits were using rifles, either Henrys or Winchesters; it made no difference which. I let the bandits take a few shots before I acted. I wanted to establish definitely that I was breaking up a robbery attempt. I figured to start my shooting with the man closest to me, and I managed to put a bullet into his back with my first shot. I cannot take too much credit for that since he was less than 100 yards away. Nobody noticed the sound of my shot with all of the noise that both sides were making, so I had plenty of opportunity to line up my next shot.

This one was not quite as perfect as that first one, but it did the job. Another bandit permanently out of the business! Still, no one noticed my shooting, so I had plenty of time for my next shot. This time, I got a little cocky and aimed at a man toward the front of the group of bandits. I do not know what possessed me to choose that man, but it was a stupid decision!

I was shooting at his back, just as I had done for the other two, but the man moved before the bullet reached him. Therefore, I did not get a quiet kill with a clean shot into the man's back, but he moved enough so that my bullet hit him in the head. He was still close enough that the bullet had plenty of energy, and it blew the man's head to smithereens when it struck. Unfortunately, one of his companions happened to be looking in his direction when the bullet got there, and he was able to see that the bullet had come from the back, not the front!

He turned and looked in my general direction. That was when he saw the cloud of powder smoke that had not dissipated from the lack of wind. He pointed at me and yelled to his comrades. That precipitated a general retreat, and I only got off one more shot which missed before they were no longer in my sight.

I waved my hat and shouted to the coach that I was a friend, and they stopped shooting. They had nothing but pistols and the one shotgun that the guard was using, so I was out of range, but one never wants bullets coming at him if they can be avoided. I waited to be sure that the shooting was stopped before I made my way to the stagecoach. I wanted to preserve my persona as a true Westerner, so I rode my horse the 150 yards to where the stagecoach was halted.

I greeted the crew and explained what I was doing there. The were glad to see me and said that I was the first person ever to offer timely help. The bandits had taken the horses of their dead comrades, so I asked the crew to carry the bodies to the next relay station to verify my count. They agreed, and we dumped the bodies in the boot of the coach for transportation that short distance.

I used my horse and rope to pull the boulder out of the way to let the stagecoach continue its journey. I had looted the bodies as I had dragged each one to the boot, so I already had everything I thought that I could sell removed before dumping them into the boot. They went on ahead while I followed at a more leisurely pace to the relay station. There, I got a receipt for three bandits killed in the course of a robbery attempt, and it was signed by the driver as well as the station master. That piece of paper was worth $150 in gold and I was delighted to get it.

I rode toward Phoenix and spent the night in a small town along the road. The next day was simply spent in riding because there were no likely robbery sites to be found in that segment of the road. The next day was one that had a potential robbery site ahead of me, so I increased my speed in hope of getting to it before the bandits did. I was lucky and beat them by about 20 minutes. I did not find quite so favorable a shooting site as on my first day, but I figured that it would be adequate.