Chapter 6

After that bath, I think that I was the cleanest that I had ever been since the last time my mother washed me as a baby. Oh, Martha did leave the room before I stood up, so I still had my modesty intact. I dried off with a large towel that Martha had found for me, and I got dressed before I dumped the water from the tub out the back door. Well, I do not know if I really felt physically better as a result of the bath, but it was nice to know that women would not now shy away from me because of the way I smelled. Hell, if I continued to attend church with Martha, I was going to be bathing once a week from that time on. I was now looking forward to finding a wife, and that surprised me a lot.

I did wear my best clothes to church, and that meant that I had to buy a new set of everything but boots, belt, and hat. I had this thing about going anywhere unarmed, so I carried my Starr revolver in my left pants' pocket. I even had a few extra cartridges in my right pocket. I did not say anything to Martha about it, but I think that she knew because of the way my pants hung. Oh, well, Martha did not complain, and that was what was most important to me. On the other hand, she may have known that I was going to take that gun no matter what she said, so she did not say anything.

Church was church as far as that was concerned, but it was after church that the real action took place. There was always a pot-luck dinner after church with all of the women who could contributing something to the table. I never did find out where the plates, coffee cups, and eating utensils came from, but I never cared enough to chase that down. Anyway, Martha made sure that we each had a plate of food and a cup of coffee to haul around as she led me to the tables where the female prospects sat. She introduced me to so many people that day that my head was swimming with names that I promptly forgot by the time we got home.

By this time, all of the young women knew my history, at least some of it, and they had seen me around town, so the case of my bad leg did not come into consideration. It was obvious that I could get around without a cane or crutch, even though I did limp a little, but it was a rare man who had not had something happen to a leg, knee, or hip by the time he was 25 that did not show up as at least a trace of a limp. They all knew that I had been a successful stagecoach shotgun guard and that I was now a successful bounty hunter. That proved my bravery, and that was important to these women who lived so close to danger themselves.

Anyway, I had time to talk to nine young women before the social was over, and I would pick up the rest of them the next Sunday. Martha was quite pleased with the way things had gone that day, and she expected to have me meet the remaining eight women next time. No, there were not 17 unmarried women in Hesper of the interesting age range. Some of the women were there from as far away as Newcomb. That showed how hard it was to find a suitable husband at this time.

The farthermost any woman had traveled was 14 miles, and that meant that she had traveled on Saturday and would be traveling on Monday to get back home. I felt kind of sorry for her, but Martha warned me not to let that color my feelings. I had to admit that Martha was right, because that woman was not very high on my list for other reasons, so it was well that I heeded Martha's warning.

On the other hand, two of the women I was most interested in were both from within a mile of town, so they had a leg up on the others. Dammit, was that a good choice of words? Anyway, you get the idea.

When Monday came, I did not have much time to think about those women because I had to go back to work. This time, I planned to travel all of the way to Bowman and back. If I did not find any business opportunities with this trip, I was going to change my route for a while. Eventually, the road to Bowman would attract road agents again, so I would be able to work in that direction in the future.

Well, my guess about the opportunities on the road to Bowman had proved correct, and I was home late on Thursday afternoon. Martha was surprised to see me back so soon, but she commiserated when I told her of the lack of activity on the Bowman road. As far as I was concerned, she was happy to see me, and she verified that we were still in business for church on Sunday.

I took my bath on Saturday night this time, and I was not so dirty that it was safe for Martha to wash my back this time. Oh, well, I could not win them all. I teased her about me washing her back, but she turned so red in embarrassment that I never mentioned it again.

This Sunday was a repeat of the previous Sunday, and I met the eight women that Martha had lined up. Wow! One of those women hit me right between the eyes the moment I took a good look at her. She was not the prettiest woman of the bunch, but she had the nicest smile, and she really paid attention to me when I talked to her. The funny thing was that she was the parson's daughter, and I could not help wondering what was wrong that she was still without a husband. I asked Martha about her when we got home, and Sally turned out to be 20 years old.

That was old enough to mark a woman like Sally Olson as an old maid. Martha said that Sally was too particular for the men around Hesper, and she just did not want to marry any of them. Martha said that Sally had paid more attention to me than she had to any other potential suitor, so maybe there was a chance for me to tie up with Sally. "Martha, Sally Olsen is the one I am most attracted to at the moment. I will hold off until I have had a chance to talk more with the others, but Sally sure knocked my boots off with that smile she gave me."

That was where we left it, but I kept thinking of Sally Olsen up until the time I went to sleep that night. The next morning was a working day, so I had to put thoughts of Sally aside and concentrate on staying alive. This time, I headed out on the same road, but in the opposite direction to what I had been using. The word was that there was some trouble about 25 miles up the road just beyond Wills Junction. Wills Junction was a prosperous town at the intersection of two main roads: one that ran east-west and was what I called the road to Bowman. The other road ran pretty much north-south and carried traffic that eventually headed toward Laredo.

There was some talk about running a railroad spur through Wills Junction, but nothing had come of that so far, so I did not know how much stock to put into that idea. That was not important at the moment, but it could make the whole county more prosperous if the railroad actually did build through there. Of course, we would prefer for them to come through Hesper, but nobody was betting on that happening any time soon.

As usual, I stopped off in Wills Junction to visit the three saloons for the latest in gossip. I heard a lot of stuff that was of no real interest to me, but I also heard of a series of robberies taking place about three miles out of town on the road I was using. Posses had been out on several occasions to try to catch the robber or robbers, but, of course, they never found anybody. Only a fool would have been caught by a posse of 10 or more men riding in a bunch with the obvious intent of catching or killing you. On the other hand, single riders were fair game for whoever was doing the robbing.

So far, anyone who was stopped never showed up again, so murder was on the agenda whenever a robbery happened. With that in mind, I was very careful when I rode out to test the waters. Yes, about three miles west of Wills Junction, I spotted a place that was ideal for a road agent to ply his trade. I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but I knew that I had better do something out of the ordinary if I expected to live through the next few minutes. I figured that there had to be somebody hiding in the brush because there was no sound or sight of birds in the neighborhood.