Chapter 9

I took the train to Ft. Worth and arrived two days before the gold shipment was scheduled to be made. I wanted to be there so that I could see that all of the precautions we had agreed to had been taken. I even went with a bank clerk to a blacksmith who pounded the key into worthless junk while we watched. Okay, there was nothing else that I could do in Ft. Worth until the train left the next day.

The train consist was kind of unusual: a locomotive with tender, an express car, a baggage car, and two passenger cars, both coaches. I rode in the first passenger car on the seat next to the door. No other passengers were allowed nearer than two seats from me, and I was at the front of the car nearest the baggage car. This time, I had two shotguns with me. One was my standard 10-gauge double-barrel breach loader, and the other was a brand new Winchester Model 1901 pump-action 10-gauge. Both shotguns were loaded with #00 buckshot, so I figured that I was ready for almost anything. Annie was home with her mother who needed help with running the restaurant, which had become very popular. Part of that was because of the quality of the food, but part of that was also due to Annie acting as waitress.

Well, as expected, there were bandits dumb enough to try to steal the gold. On second thought, maybe they were just after whatever was in the express car. The mere existence of the express car in the train meant that it was hauling something valuable. It could be that these crooks just were after the unknown, but valuable, contents of the express car.

They were smart enough to hit us at a water stop. The train was going to stop here: it had no choice. That saved the bandits a lot of trouble, so that was where I was expecting trouble. Okay, I will admit to dozing between water stops, but I was always alert at those times. One interesting thing was that there was no effort to rob the passengers. That probably meant that it was a small gang that did not have the manpower to do everything. Theoretically, it only took two men to hit the train if all they wanted was the contents of the express car: one man for the locomotive and one man for the express car. In actual fact, any bandits who went after the express car with less than two men were just asking to be killed, so that was unlikely.

Anyway, I figured on three men in this gang, and that was the way I reacted. I figured that I had been so successful in shooting the bandits from under the baggage car the last time, I would follow the same tactics for this robbery. With that in mind, I just took my 10-gauge double-barrel shotgun and left the Winchester where it was.

I went out the door and ran along the side of the train opposite to the door to the express car. When I got to the express car, I dropped to the ground and fired one barrel into each of the bandits standing beside the car on the other side. The results were the same as last time, except that I did cut one man's leg off with the blast from my shotgun.

Only a moment or two after I shot those two bandits with my shotgun, I heard two shots from a revolver come from the locomotive cab. Oh, shit! The bandit had killed the engine crew! I reloaded in a hurry and watched for the other bandit. He ran from the train on my side, so I had no problem blasting him with my shotgun.

Yes, it was as I had feared. That damned bandit had shot both the engineer and the fireman before he left the locomotive cab. Both shots had been to the chest with a .44-40 pistol, so there was nothing that I could do for either man. At least, I did get revenge for them by shooting their assassin.

I went to the baggage car and called for the conductor. As before, I had to convince him that I was not one of the bandits before he would open the door. The conductor was very smart to be that dubious of me, but he did recognize me when he finally did see me. I told him what had happened to the engine crew, and he ran to verify my statements. He came back cussing a blue streak. Both members of the crew had been his friends as well as his subordinates, so he was really mad. Oh, well, there was a protocol for this, and the conductor climbed the pole with his portable telephone to call in a request for a replacement crew. It was going to take almost three hours for them to reach us, and all we could do was wait.

Meanwhile, so that we would have something to do while we waited, very nearly every man on the train went hunting for the horses that had belonged to the bandits. All too soon, I guess, the horses were found and brought to the train. I talked to the conductor before asking, but I asked if there was anyone who would take the horses into town and sell them. I offered the same deal that was made on my last trip, and a man took us up on the offer. He left right away, and there was a good chance that he would be ready to rejoin the train when we pulled into the next town.

I was very late getting home, and both of the women had begun to worry about me. I was greeted with kisses and hugs from both women and then fussing from both of them for not letting them know that I was going to be late. I knew better than to ask just how I was supposed to tell them; instead, I just let them work it out of their systems. I knew that the fussing was because they had been worried about me. See, I am learning how to get along with women.

I did not get called again for some time by the railroad, and we had nearly forgotten about my agreement with them. However, that was kind of beside the point because Annie turned up pregnant. Now I truly did have my hands full with two pregnant women to contend with. It was not so bad as long as I let them win every argument, but sometimes I had to take a strong position and not back down. That came up when Olivia nearly fell on the stairs.

I announced that she was going to move into the spare room downstairs until after the baby came. Of course, she did not want to make the change, but this was one of those rare times when I put my foot down and would not budge. I guess that she finally came to agree with my side of the argument, but I won however it came about. The next day, I hired two boys to clear out the room and to clean it thoroughly. Naturally, they grumbled about doing "women's work," but I pointed that they were being paid handsomely for their time, and that was enough to shut them up.

When the room was clear and clean, the two boys and I moved all of Olivia's furniture and other stuff into the room. Once she was installed in the room, she made it seem like it was her idea all along, and I had stalled in getting the job done. Annie warned me that it was not the real Olivia talking, and I should just ignore what she said. Fortunately, I was smart enough to follow Annie's advice, and things smoothed out by the next morning.

It was less than a month before Olivia delivered a boy whom she named Harold Weston. That had been her husband's name, and I thought that it was a well chosen thought. I told her so, and Olivia beamed. Harold showed us that he had well developed lungs and a very active digestive track. Olivia's room stank of baby shit, and there was nothing that we could do about it. Apparently, Olivia quickly got used to it and did not complain, but Annie announced that she absolutely was not going to sleep in a room that smelled like that, even if she had to pitch a tent in the alley behind the restaurant! I nodded my head as if I agreed, but I never said what I was agreeing to.

By now, Annie was starting to show a bulging belly. I told her that I thought it just made her look sexier, but she was sure that I was lying. I was not! Nevertheless, she refused to be seen in public, and I had to start doing the buying for the restaurant. We ate from the restaurant supplies, so we never worried about food.