Chapter 8

It was a rough four days, but we finally pulled into San Antonio, tired, but relieved to arrive there at last. Man, was it hot! Even in the shade, it was just too damned hot for somebody who had gotten used to the weather in Deadwood. We were surprised to see people walking around as if they were not the least bit bothered by the temperature, and that was nearly enough for me to buy three train tickets to take us north.

The problem was that we were stuck because there were no north-bound trains until tomorrow at the earliest. Okay, we would tough it out for one day, but I bought three tickets for Austin for tomorrow. Olivia was especially uncomfortable. No, "uncomfortable" was not a strong enough word! That was when I had a brainstorm: I flagged down a taxi and had us taken to a hotel with suites that had attached bathrooms.

Price was no object at this point, I just checked us into the kind of suite that I wanted and rushed Olivia to the room. I turned on the cold water in the bathtub while Annie stripped her mother. Between the two of us, we got her into the tub of cool water up to her chin and let her soak. Olivia was in such bad shape that Annie was afraid to leave her, and she wanted me to stay to help if I were needed. Well, I guess it was okay for me to see Olivia naked in the bathtub since I had already fucked her several times; nevertheless, I still felt a little awkward being in there.

The room was so hot that we were not sure that Olivia was going to be okay, and Annie and I were almost as uncomfortable as Olivia was. It was not long before Annie and I also stripped off our clothes to try to get some relief from the heat. With only one bathtub, we had to be creative, so we soaked towels with cool water and wrapped them around our heads. That helped some, but we decided that we were getting out of San Antonio tomorrow, no matter what it took.

We had the same railroad headed to Austin that we had come in on, but this trip was only going to take one day. Therefore, I did not object so much to the coach tickets that we had to buy. This railroad did not offer much in the way of comfortable trips: just basic transportation. Oh, well, we would be satisfied if it just were cooler in Austin.

When she had recovered enough to socialize, Olivia commented that she was sure that she had cooked in ovens that were not as hot as San Antonio! The weather never did cool off that day enough to satisfy us, and we just suffered through. We did get dressed long enough to grab enough supper to hold us, but it didn't take much quantity for that. I swear that I honestly do not know how the natives of San Antonio can stand that heat on a regular basis.

We returned to the train station in plenty of time to catch the train. They did not have an express car on this run, but they did chain my strongbox to a steel loop in the floor of the baggage car. I had some argument about carrying our shotguns into the coach, but I won that one by pointing out that we were the ones who had foiled the robbery of a few days ago. The conductor was very busy, so he did not have much time to argue with me, but I could see that he was not happy with having passengers carrying that much firepower. It may have been that two of the people with shotguns were women that caused his unease, but I did stare him down.

Anyway, we were stopped for water in a place that even Satan might have turned down for Hell if it had been offered. That was when we were jumped by more train robbers. I was really concerned about my strongbox being in the baggage car which was not as well protected at an express car would have been. That meant that we went into action the moment the bandits appeared.

Two men entered our car at the end where we were sitting. It probably was only coincidence that there were no other passengers near us. Anyway, that made it easier for Annie and Olivia to shoot the two bandits with their shotguns only moments after they showed up. They might have gotten away with the robbery if the bandits had not entered the car with bandanna masks covering their faces and guns drawn. They made the obvious, but fatal, mistake of concentrating on me and ignoring the women.

Annie and Olivia were sitting next to the open window and had their shotguns propped against the wall of the car. It was amazing how fast they were able to pull their shotguns into use and fire them at the bandits. Two shots, one from each shotgun, were enough to eliminate the troubles in our car. They quickly reloaded and were ready for more action in only moments.

I told Olivia to guard the door at our end of the car while Annie and I looked into the situation in the other passenger car. There was only one car other than ours, so I thought to look into it before worrying about the baggage car. We ran down the aisle and stopped at the door. This car and the other one had a platform instead of a vestibule, so Annie was going to have trouble following me to the next car. Therefore, I asked her to come onto the platform and back me up from there.

I did not see anyone in the next car, but I knew that it had not been empty before the robbery. I hoped that meant that passengers were hiding on the floor in an effort to escape bullets. Since I could not see anyone, I had to assume that the bandits were still there and were intimidating the passengers. It looked like my only choice to do something was to enter the car. The shotgun was too awkward to use with one hand, so I left it with Annie and drew my revolver from my left hip.

I crossed to the next platform and cocked my revolver before I entered that car. It was well that I did because I had hardly stepped through the door before somebody pointed a cocked pistol at me. I did not wait but fired at where I assumed that person's chest would be. The bullet went through the seat back and was accompanied by a scream of pain.

That scream coincided with the sound of another pistol being fired, but this one did not sound like a conventional revolver. I quickly found out why. A woman's voice said loud enough for me to hear, "That's the last of the bandits. I just shot him with my derringer." A moment later, a woman of about 50 stood up. She was fashionably dressed, but she was not wearing anything ostentatious. I bowed and thanked her before returning to my wife.

"Annie, thanks for the backup. That car is clear, so you can rejoin your mother. I am taking my shotgun to see what the situation might be in the baggage car." I looked around the corner of the passenger car and saw two men standing on the ground with drawn pistols. They were near the opposite end of the baggage car where the smaller door was located. They were out of convenient range of my shotgun from where I was standing, so I jumped down on the opposite side of the train and ran toward the baggage car.

Those two men were so near the locomotive that they probably had not heard the shotguns over the noise it made, so I figured that they did not know that they had outside opposition. I looked under the baggage car and saw that the men were still standing where I had last seen them, so I ran toward the locomotive, but stopped when I was opposite the two men. I was now only 12-15 feet from the two bandits and separated from them by the baggage car.

This was too good an opportunity to pass up. I kneeled on the ground and fired one barrel each at the legs of the two men that I could see. Actually, I could see as high as their waists, so I was hoping to do a lot of damage to their crotches. Let me tell you, a man shot with 12 #00 buckshot at that range does not ignore the result. The buckshot did so much damage that the men were dead, even if they did not know it yet.

Of course, both men collapsed to the ground. Well, actually, they were blown to the ground by the force of the buckshot hitting them. From the waist down, both men were a bloody mess, and neither man moved after he hit the ground. I reloaded my shotgun and ran toward the locomotive's tender. I couldn't climb encumbered by my shotgun, so I laid it on the ground and used both hands to climb to the top of the tender's water tank. Once there, I drew my reloaded revolver and began to sneak over the tank and the wood fuel toward the locomotive cab.