We slunk back on our bellies until we were far enough back to stand, and then we hurried over to the horses.  Jimmy had only led them away, so mounting up was easy enough, and then we scanned around us, looking for our perimeter guard.  The sky was endless blue, the ground was parched sienna, and even the trees looked tired and sunburned.  There was though no sign of a guard.

"Which way, then?" asked Jimmy, his horse stepping first left then right as it picked up on his nervousness.

"Guess we guess," said Suzie.  "It's one man, on a horse.  By the time we can see him, he can see us.  And I reckon it's probably Oliver Jenkins.  None of those three were ugly enough to be the Marshall's brother."

"Hold on now," said Ben, his fingers patting his pockets again.  I wondered if nerves were beginning to get to him too.  "Why only one perimeter guard?  You just said it Suzie, it makes no sense.  You set two guards, going opposite directions, or your perimeter's so small you can cross the whole area when there's a fuss."

"Hey," said Jimmy.  "Fine, so now there's two guards?  I thought there were only four of them out here?  We've seen three, so where's the fifth come from?"  When he finished speaking the only sound for a few moments was the steady clop-clop of his horse pacing about.

"No-one said there's a fif–" began Ben, but Suzie butted in, little red spots burning in her cheeks.

"There's no fifth guard!  There's just Jenkins, and while we're sat here squabbling he's creeping up on us!"

"No-one's creeping up on us, we can see for mi–"

"Will you shut up!  Just shut up, Benjamin!"  Suzie looked furious, and swiped her hair back from her face with the back of her hand hard enough to concuss herself.

"Don't tell him to shut up!"  Jimmy's horse reared slightly, two hooves pawing at the air, and he shouted out as he tried to rein him in.

"If we all keep shouting we won't have to worry about any other guards," I said at last.  "The ones we've seen already will hear us and come looking."

"You're no better!"  Suzie whirled round in her saddle, unnerving her horse which started to back up with tiny, jerky steps.  "Always siding with that idiot!  We're so damn close, Red, let's not blow all this no–"

"What's she been saying to you, Henry?"  Only Ben would dare call me Henry.

"Hey, this is stup–" started Jimmy, but again his horse reared up, and now Suzie's horse reared as well, unhappy with the noise and fuss, and then the two horses were striking at each other with their hooves and whinnying and whickering, teeth showing and ears flattened back against their heads.

"Mother of all that's holy," snarled Ben, half under his breath.  "Get those horses down, now!"  He wasn't shouting, but his words were like iron bars dropping through the air.  Jimmy reacted, turning his horse, drawing it away from the fight, but Suzie didn't seem to hear him, and dug her heels into her horse's sides.  I figure she was planning on riding away, but she'd misjudged how upset her horse was, and now it reared up fully on its back legs – and a horse is a terrifying sight when it towers over you like that, iron-shod hooves dangerously close to the soft flesh and bone of a man's skull – and flung her from the saddle.

"Suzie!" Jimmy was the only one of us who spoke, and he wheeled his horse and cantered over to her, dismounting as he approached.  Ben silently went after her horse, snagging the reins easily before it decided where it was running to and hauling in on them cruelly.  The horse snorted and tossed, but the pain in its mouth was too much and it calmed down.

And I looked off into the distance and was astonished to see that it was still empty.

Suzie was unconscious and went on the back of my horse.  Her forehead was too hot, her mouth was too dry, and she only swallowed weakly when I gave her water.  Too much sun, even despite her hat, I was sure of it.  Living in the nunnery must have softened her up some.  Jimmy took the map, and Ben leant heavily over his shoulder, and they pointed at various bits of it, arguing over what looked like a safe place to try and hide out.  Finally they came apart, and Jimmy waved the map at me.

"We've got somewhere," he said.  "It's marked down as a spring, there'll be water there.  Chances are, these guys will be using it too, but probably not all at once."

I nodded.  Divide and conquer was always a good strategy.  Ben took Suzie's horse alongside his own, and after patting all his pockets again for a couple of minutes he lead us off towards this spring.  I rode up next to Jimmy.

"Is she OK?" he asked.

"I wouldn't get too fond of Shanghai Suzie, Jimmy," I said.  "She's a lovely gal, but she's best in small doses.  A bit like syphilis, though you might be a bit young to know that yet."

He blushed, which I'd been kind of counting on, and then he changed the subject.

"So where do you think Oliver's got to?" he asked.

"Ridden out to meet his brother is my guess," I said.  "We were sitting sheep up there, waiting for the rustler.  If he'd been patrolling those horse apples he'd have spotted us.  He's gone out to meet his brother, which means that we've got to act fast.  There are three guys to take out before the cavalry arrives, and then we let the cavalry think we're already ahead of them in the mine and follow them in."

"What about Suzie?"

"What about her?  It's three against three now, Jimmy.  Don't you fancy those odds?"

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Author guidance for This story

I was perusing the Recent Activity feed the other day when someone made a comment about westerns.

My reaction was as follows:

1. I've never written a western.
2. I wanna write a western.

The following is the extent of the notes I made before starting to write:

- Henry "Red" Williams: train robber, red hat, red horse, red gun
- Benjamin "Black Smoke" Davis: Red's partner, always smoking, black horse, charcoal grey hat
- Charles Best: sheriff
- Jimmy Best: sheriff's son

And off I went.

I'm happy to say that Greg and Gabe have decided to join me on this wild tale. I think now that we're over thirty chapters in, unless someone is extremely keen and incredibly convincing, I'll have to say this is just for the three of us to bring to a conclusion.

updated Apr 4 '11 by Eloosive