Chapter 2

The next couple of days were pretty dull from the lack of action. However, the situation did change on the third day. I was just ahead of the wagon and on the left side about 500 yards from the road. I had turned toward the road and was about to ride to the wagon when I heard some stirring in the bushes. It was four horses and two mules tethered to tree limbs. Uh-oh, that meant trouble if I ever saw it!

Trying to keep the noise to a minimum, I moved as fast as was practical toward the road. I didn't see anything threatening until I was about 50 yards from the road. There were four men hiding behind trees and facing the road with Mississippi Rifles at the ready. Okay, this was no time to fool around! Maybe this was a good time to try out that Dragoon pistol I had hanging from my saddle. All six chambers were loaded, so I had plenty of firepower to use against only four men. That .44 caliber ball was loaded with as much powder behind it as a rifle would use, so I was carrying the ultimate in hand weapons. The only thing stronger would be a cannon loaded with canister shot.

I looped the reins over the horse's neck and nudged him with my heels. He picked up speed now that there was no reason to hide from the bandits, and I guided him with my knees. That was another gift from my mentors: I had not known until then that I could guide my horse that way. I had a fully trained cavalry steed and the skill to use him properly.

I removed that heavy pistol from the holster and held it with both hands. My horse carried me within 10 feet of the four bandits, and I fired at them as fast as I could thumb back the hammer and pull the trigger. I was so close that I had no trouble pointing my pistol at the bandits, but I was too close for them to use their rifles effectively. The result was that I got off four well-placed shots, and they got off only one wild shot that went I knew not where.

I didn't kill all of the bandits: I was too close and moving too fast to take careful aim, but that .44 lead ball did a hell of a lot of damage to each man's body as it entered. Also, it bounced around so much while dissipating its energy that it never exited the body. By the time I got my gun holstered and my horse turned around to return to the slaughter site, all four men were dead.

I yelled to my employer on the gold wagon to keep going. I would be there in a few minutes with a complete explanation of what had happened. Both men waved back, and I turned to the messy job of looting the bodies. I picked up very little money, but I did get four Mississippi Rifles in excellent condition and four more of the Colt Pocket Pistols in average condition. All of these guns were surplus as far as I was concerned, but I could get a good price for them, so I saved them for future sale.

Where I really made money was with the two mules the bandits had planned to use for hauling off as much gold as they could handle. I should get at least $125 for each mule, and that was more than I would get in wages for this job. The horses were worth something, too, but the mules were the true gems of the loot!

I was finally able to finish with this quartet of bandits and get to the wagon. The two men were astonished when they saw the mules. Hell, I was close to netting a fortune from this little job!

That made me finally bring myself to asking the real question I wanted answered. I asked, "From what I can see, you two knew that you were going to be the object of bandits' interest from the time you left Sacramento, so why were you traveling without an armed escort?"

"Well, that is kind of embarrassing. You see, we left with four guards, and they did drive off a couple of bandits early in the trip. But, they took off when they had to face the attack by the five men you fought that first time we saw you. That just left the two of us to defend our freight (notice he would not say "gold"). Thank God, you came along and saved us!"

"Okay, now I feel better. I didn't think you were that stupid to travel without some sort of guard, but I couldn't figure out what was going on. Well, I will stay with you until you make your delivery, but I'm not sure what I will do after that."

I paused long enough to reload my .44 pistol before resuming my patrol. That was the end of the excitement for that day, and life returned to its boring state for the next two days. By now, we were getting close to Los Angeles, and all of us were expecting the last shoe to drop before we got to the end of the line.

It was mid-afternoon of the day before we arrived in Los Angeles that we were met by our stiffest challenge. This time, there were nine bandits, and they had positioned themselves on both sides of the road. I did not know that they were around until the shooting started. Thank God that most people don't spend enough time practicing with their guns. The first few shots did nothing but warn the two men with the wagon, and they had time to scramble into it before the serious shooting started. At least, these bandits were careful not to shoot the oxen.

I was my usual 500 yards away from the road when the shooting started, and I knew that there were a lot of shooters from the noise of the gunfire. I charged to the scene of the fight and tried to assess the situation. I had no trouble telling that there were bandits on both sides of the road, so my first question was what strategy I should use against them. There was no practical way for me to attack both sides of the road at the same time, so I decided to concentrate on the bandits closer to me. Once they were taken care of, I would worry about the other side of the road.

I counted four shooters on my side of the road and five on the far side. That was enough bandits to make my job a bit chancy, but I knew that if I were killed in the fight that I would just wake up in some other adventure. That went a long way to boosting my bravery and my foolhardiness!

I had four Mississippi Rifles hanging from my saddle, so I had four shots before I was reduced to reloading or to changing to another weapon. I was going for four shots for four men in my current planning. Oh, I knew that was probably a pipe dream, but that was what I would try for.

I rode to a good shooting site and drew the first rifle from its scabbard. I dropped in the cap and brought the hammer to full cock. I was not too worried about my employers at this point because they had their Colts and the stout walls of the wagon to protect them. Therefore, I had time to take careful aim at the bandit that I could see from my current position. I stayed on my horse because I wanted to move quickly, but the horse was stationary, so I had a reasonably good shooting position. I went through the breathing exercise that I had learned with the SEALS in my first life and fired. The man moved just as I fired, so I hit him a little to the left of his spine, but it was still a killing shot.

There was still a lot of shooting going on when I fired, so my shot did not draw undue attention to me. Nevertheless, I returned my rifle to it scabbard and moved to my next shooting position. I went through the same shooting routine and eliminated another bandit. Too bad they were not all going to be this easy!

The third man I went after escaped me because he decided to take up a new shooting position just before I arrived. The situation was that I decided to go after the fourth man and come back to this one for my last rifle shot. The new target was not in as favorable a location for me as had been my first two victims. Nevertheless, I set up my shot and fired. I was a little closer than with my previous two shots, so I went for a head-shot. My target was stable because he was in the process of aiming his own rifle, so my bullet hit him in the back of the head just where I had aimed, or so close as to make no difference. Anyway, his head exploded, and I returned to hunting that third man in line.

Dammit, I could not find him! Suddenly, there was a nearby plume of powder smoke and a rifle ball whizzed by my head so close that it took a tiny notch from my right ear! I credit my horse with the near miss. He had shifted his foot just enough as the rifle fired so that my head was moved a few inches to the left. Otherwise, I would have been moving on to another adventure!