Chapter 9

Jase was on the trail most of the month of June, 1866, getting to Knoxville. It was a long, slow ride made in pain and grief after the death and burial of Sue and the aborted twins. With the warm June weather, Jase mostly made camp out in the open and avoided people as much as possible. But, every so often, Jase would stop at some small town hotel for a room, a bath, and a shave.

He spent July in Knoxville trying to come to terms with what had happened, drinking hard, although not to the point of drunkenness, and gambling hard, honing his skills. And Jase won regularly, winning over seven thousand dollars by the time he finally left town.

Jase seemed to be a natural at cards as much as he was a natural with firearms. With a new and deep desire to raise horses, instilled in him by Sue, Jase had no idea as yet, what trail his life was going take. Gambler? Gunslinger? Bounty hunter? Horse rancher? The choices were confusing.

It was October first when Jase tied up his two horses at the hitch rack in front of a modest hotel in Chattanooga. He'd crossed the Tennessee River on a ferry just a short time before. Seeing no one behind the desk, Jase tapped the push bell three times.

"Don't get your horses in a lather, sonny," said an elderly man with a scraggly beard as he entered from a back room, "I'm a'comin', I'm a'comin'. You young whipper snappers are too gol darn antsy! Now, what'll it be, the bridal suite? Har, har, har."

"No," said Jase, I want an upstairs room at the back and on the end, if such is available."

"Let me see here now, yessss, I have one of the end rooms available ... for a dollar fifty a night or ten dollars a week, in advance, if you please!"

Jase paid the one fifty, signed the register, and said, "I don't know if I'll be here longer or not. When my plans are clear, I'll let you know."

The clerk said, "Well, in the meantime, the room is yours until check out time at noon tomorrow. The privy is out back. So's the well. If you want water more often than the maid brings it around."

Jase took the key from the clerk, hefted his saddle bags and bedroll, and climbed the stairs to his room.

Jase looked the room over as he dumped his gear on the floor in the corner behind the bed. The room was neither too large nor too small. It contained a double bed, dresser with mirror, wash stand with towel rack on either end and a water pitcher with bowl on the top.

The room also contained two armless, straight back chairs. He found a chamber pot under the bed. There was a window in the back wall that looked across and alley to the back of a row of one story buildings. The window in the other wall looked across another alley to the side of another two story building.

Jase also saw a door in that side wall with an outside stairway leading down to the alley, The foot of the stairs was a few feet from the boardwalk that ran along the side of the street in front of the hotel. Jase made sure this side door was securely locked and angled the back of one of the chairs into it under the door knob. Once he returned to the room for the night, Jase would angle the back of the other chair under the hall door for insurance there also.

Jase still had his horses to look after and the rifle still in its saddle boot. So, he left the room, locking the hall door behind him and pocketing the key. He continued down the stairs and out onto the boardwalk.

Jase looked across the street to a bank as he stepped off the board walk and between his two horses. He saw a very nervous acting cowboy type pacing a few steps up and down the boardwalk on that side. Suddenly, Jase heard a shot, followed closely by two more.

The shots seemed to come from the bank building. The shots galvanized the nervous gent into startled action as he drew his pistol and took a shot in Jase's direction. The man was too excited and his shot plowed into the roof of the wooden awning above and behind Jase.

Jase, on the other hand, was quite calm and collected as he drew his Colt Army and fired one shot at the man, obviously a lookout. The round took the man dead center in the chest and he was blown backward into two men trying to dash out the bank door. Those men fired several wild and random shots before Jase dropped one of them with a round in the center of his forehead and, with a snap shot, shot the pistol from the hand of the other one.

As Jase lined up a second shot at the man still standing, two things happened. One of Jase's horses shifted just enough in the excitement to knock his aim off and the round missed, chewing up boardwalk instead of the outlaw. That allowed the wounded bandit time to mount his horse and gallop pell mell down the dusty street. The second thing that happened was a fourth man bounded out of the bank doorway and rolled under the horses, effectively blocking a clear shot at him by anyone. Hanging onto the side of his horse away from Jase, the man used the horse as a shield as they trotted after the fleeing bandit ahead of him.

"Damn," said Jase as he holstered his pistol and pulled his Henry from the saddle boot. Levering a shell into the chamber and stepping to the center of the street, Jase took aim on the lead bandit and fired. He saw the man slump in the saddle, but the bandit managed to stay horsed as he disappeared over a small rise in the trail.

Jacking another round home, Jase took aim at the last bandit, who was now fully mounted, and fired again. The man's hat went flying, but he showed no further ill effects of the shot.Jase lowered his smoking rifle as the sheriff ran up, gasping and wheezing for breath.

The sheriff said, "That's some might fine shootin, ' son, two down and at least one wounded, if not two!"

Jase replied, "I should've had that third one in front of the bank, but my horse bumped me or I would have."

Just as everyone thought the ruckus was all over, still another, a fifth bandit, ran out of the bank firing a fusillade of shots from a pistol in each hand in the direction of Jase and the sheriff.

Jase took a round through the fleshy part of his left thigh and a second that put a hole between the fourth and fifth ribs on his right side at the edge of his chest as he went down on his left side. The sheriff took one round through the neck and another into his chest and also went down.

At that moment, a bank clerk appeared in the door and emptied both barrels of his shotgun into the back of the bandit. Standing just ten feet behind the bandit, the blast of the clerk's ten gauge scattergun nearly cut the robber in two.

People were now running up from all directions. The undertaker and a doctor pushed their way through the growing crowd and started giving orders. The undertaker corralled several men to begin carting the dead off to his establishment while the doctor ordered Jase and the sheriff carried to his office.

"Well," Jase said as he winced in pain, "I guess I'll be staying more than one night!"

At his office, the Doctor yelled for his daughter to come and help. A very comely young woman of about eighteen or so stepped into the room.

The doctor said, "You work on the young man there and try to get the bleeding stopped. I have to take care of the sheriff first-he is hit pretty bad."

The young girl came over to Jase. She said, "My name is Sally. I'm sorry about those clothes, they don't look too old, but I'm gona to have to cut off the pants leg and the shirt in order to stop the bleeding."

Jase answered through pain clenched teeth, "My name is Jase."

Sally examined the leg first. She said, "There is both and entrance and an exit wound so the bullet went through clean. That's good!"

With a sponge and warm water, Sally cleaned the wounds and then told Jase, "Brace yourself, I'm going to rinse the area with whiskey,"

Jase gritted his teeth at the shock as she did so.

"Now let's take a look at that chest wound," said Sally. "It's ragged and messy, not very pretty to look at, but it's superficial. You're a lucky man, Jase!"