Chapter 2

Not surprisingly, it was on Tuesday of the next week that we got the next attempt by road agents. This time, there were three of them. Somehow, a totally invalid rumor had started that we would be carrying $35,000 in gold from the train to the bank in Hesper. I heard the rumor that Tuesday morning, and I could not help but laugh. My first question to the carrier of the rumor was "What in hell to you think that the bank in Hesper would do with that much money?" Well, he kind of sputtered and wandered off to tell the rumor to someone else.

I repeated the rumor to Eddy, and I came close to having to help him onto the driver's seat because he kept breaking out into laughter. That taught me a lesson: never tell a good joke to Eddy until he was sitting down in the driver's box. Otherwise, the stage might be late leaving.

We had no passengers that day—in fact, all we had was the usual mail sack. That was going to barely make expenses for the company, and the mail was our sole reason for making the trip. We figured that the rumor had gotten all over Bowman, and people did not want to ride with that big an attraction for bandits. I cannot say that I blamed them. Eddy and I knew that we were going to get hit. All we did not know was when and where.

In an effort to speed up my reloading, I had taken to wearing a bandolier. My God, I must have looked like a desperado with it on, because people would cross the street to avoid getting too close to me. I did experiment with it and did find that the bandolier could cut as much as five seconds off my reloading time as compared to carrying the shells in a pouch. Needless to say, I was wearing the bandolier on that Tuesday.

We set out at a relatively easy pace because we were not expected in Hesper until nearly dark, and Eddy wanted to spare the mules. The coach was so lightly loaded that we were still moving about as fast as we usually did, and we pulled into the first relay station only about five minutes later than usual. It had become such a habit with the workers at the station that they had us back on our way about as quickly as normal, and the mules were fresh, so Eddy let them run. From the way that the mules acted, we both figured that they were having fun running like that with such a light load.

We had been going about 15 minutes out of that relay station when we heard the first gunshot. It was obviously a pistol, so Eddy turned to me and smiled. He signaled to the mules that he wanted maximum effort, and we began to pull away from the men on their horses. Eddy and I both knew that there was no way for a horse with a man and tack on his back to outrun a team of six mules pulling an empty coach.

Eddy shouted to me, "Hey, John, let's have some fun with that bunch of fools. I know of a place where we can ambush them if they are really dumb enough to keep chasing us."

I laughed and nodded my head. That must have been what Eddy wanted me to say because he proceeded to put on a demonstration of driving like I never heard of before. We had a half-mile lead on the bandits and could see them pushing hard on their tiring horses. About that time, we reached the trees that Eddy was looking for, so he pulled into an open space behind them where we would be hidden if the bandits did not get unforgivably lucky.

We could still see the road very easily, so Eddy set the brake and drew his pistol. The road was only about 25 yards away, so there was no problem with the range. I took both shotguns and lay down across the flat roof of the stagecoach in the normal prone position. That was not the most convenient position for reloading the shotguns, but I did have two of them, so there was a good chance that I would not need to reload.

Anyway, the bandits' horses were so tired by now that they could hardly keep moving at what could be called a fast pace. Eddy had his Colt ready and I handed him one of my Remingtons so he was fixed with 11 shots. I had four in my shotguns and six in my other Remington. Against only three men, we were an overwhelming force if they were dumb enough to fight it out.

I figured that I would be using the faster movement of the shorter shotgun first, so I laid out my long gun and got ready to fire the short one. I cocked both hammers and laid my finger alongside the triggers so that I would not accidentally shoot when I did not mean to. Eddy agreed to let me shoot first since I was the one with the experience at this sort of thing.

As soon as the men became visible through the trees, I started aiming at one with what I thought was the proper lead. That was not much because they were still approaching us and, essentially, riding directly toward us. I just wanted to allow enough time for the horse's head to clear the line of fire. I was holding my bead on the rider's head and fired as soon as I figured that he was in position.

I fired and immediately started looking for my second target without waiting to see what had happened to the first victim. I used the same technique with that man and fired again.

Without pause, I dropped my sawed-off shotgun on the stagecoach roof and snatched up the other shotgun. I cocked both hammers and started to take aim. Meanwhile, Eddy had been firing, too, so I was not surprised to see the third man drop to the ground just before I fired. Eddy had obviously hit him, and he was not going to cause us any more trouble because the fall would have killed him if the bullet had not.

We had knocked down all three bandits, and now it was time to pick up the pieces. Surely they were all dead because the fall onto their head and back from the saddle should have killed all three of them even if the bullets had not. I was not up to walking through the little section of woods to reach the road, so Eddy drove slowly to the first downed man. He was the first one that I had shot, and his face was one bloody mass of chopped up meat. Several of the shot had penetrated his eyes and must have killed him while he was still sitting in the saddle. I was not surprised because that had been nearly a straight-on shot to his face. We would have to find his horse to know whether or not he would have to be put down.

We wrapped the dead man's head in his shirt and pitched him into the luggage boot of the stagecoach. The next man was in similar condition, and we treated him the same way. Just a little farther on, we found the two horses chomping leaves from the nearest trees. They both looked to be in good shape, so we hitched them to the back of the stagecoach.

The third man had a bullet hole in his upper chest, but the fall from his horse must have been what killed him. Anyway, it was not important, so we threw him into the coach's boot and hitched his horse to the rear of the stagecoach. We climbed back to the driver's box and Eddy drove fairly slowly to the relay station. The station master had no trouble believing our story, and he wrote out receipts for the three dead men. He also bought the horses and tack from us, plus the other stuff that was worth having. By the time we finished, Eddy and I would have $62.73 each—we split the money evenly, which only seemed fair. After all, it had been Eddy's plan that won the day, and all I did was shoot two men, so he deserved as much as I got.

Eddy returned my Remington to me with compliments on how much better he felt using it as compared to his Colt. I told him of the few slight modifications that I had made in the Remington, and Eddy said that he would trade in his Colt for a Remington if I would make the same kind of changes in his new gun. I promised to do so, and Eddy took off for the gunshop as soon as we had finished our details with the company and collected our bounties.

As usual, the company man who ran the office was thrilled to pay us our bounties, and he gave each one of us $2.00 as an extra bonus. Hell, extra money from anywhere legal was a great treat to me, and Eddy's family also appreciated the money. We left the company office hoping that we would be so lucky the next week.