Bucking the Odds

by Robert O' Hanlin

  “Just hang on to them loosely, they know where they are going for now.”

  Julia couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but she had already learned not to put up an objection to this man, and as she was thinking that, he turned to her.

  “I see you have a hand gun in that bag you are carrying, are you expecting trouble?”

  She clutched the hand bag closer.

  “How did you know I had a gun?”

  He smiled again, and she kind of liked that smile.

  “Well damn, Jule, you can see the outline of it in the soft sided bag. Why do you carry it?”

  She took a minute before she spoke, wondering why she should answer to this man she had just met.

  “I carry it to ward off any unwanted advances.”

  He waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, he spoke under his breath.

  “Well you won’t get any advances from me…unless you ask for them.”

  She heard him but she didn’t respond, instead she changed the subject.

  “Audrey got sick a few months ago and she’s has been gone for almost a month now, so when the letter came from Barney, I opened it and decided to come in her place.”

  Will was not sure he was hearing right, that she expected Barney to just take her in place of her sister, the woman he loved.

  Almost as if she was reading his thoughts, she continued.

  “It isn’t that I expect him to take me in her place, but I felt that I should deliver the news about Audrey by myself and if something developed between us it would be better than what I had back home.”

  Will respected her honesty, but she clearly did not understand Barney, so he decided not to comment on it any further.

  “We have about five miles to go but most of it is uphill, and since we had a late start we are going to have to spend the night along the trail.”

  She didn’t respond to that, but wondered how they were going to sleep when she had seen no tent or even any blankets.

  He was watching behind them and he saw the red and yellow circus wagon in the distance as he started to pull off the trail into a flat spot. They all got down and he had Rusty start gathering some wood from a copse of trees nearby while he started a small fire, and as he usually did he put on a pot of coffee.

  “It would be a good thing if you could rustle us up some grub…and keep that handbag with the gun close to you.”

  She looked at him for further explanation, but none was forthcoming and then she saw the red wagon pull up beside theirs.

  “Hello the fire, do you mind if I get down? I sure could use a cup of that coffee.”

  Will looked over at the man sitting on the seat of the wagon.

  “Come, join us and welcome.”

  The man walked directly past Will straight to the coffee pot and poured a cup of coffee. When he turned his right hand was partially covered by his long tailed coat, but he was bringing his gun out of his holster. He suddenly stopped when he saw he was looking into the barrel of Will’s already drawn gun.

  “Drop that gun on the ground and put the coffee down.”

  The startled man let the gun slide out of his hand and it hit the ground at his feet.

  “Now put that coffee down and step back away from that gun.”

  He cocked his pistol to impress his point, and the man stepped quickly back, dropping his coffee as he did.

  “Now lay down on your stomach…Rusty go to the wagon and get some of those ‘piggin’ strings under the seat.”

  The boy ran to the wagon and returned with the small pieces of rope, and Will tied the man hand and foot and then put a gag in his mouth and carried him to his wagon. He put him in the back of the wagon, and as he started back to the fire the man began kicking the back door. He went back and opened the door and gave him a warning to be quiet, but he could see the man wasn’t going to comply so he swung his pistol across his head and he fell back unconscious.

  He closed the door and when he went back to the fire Julia was standing with her mouth agape.

  “What are you doing, you just invited that man to join us!”

  He threw a couple more sticks on the fire and started arranging his bed roll.

  “He’s a bad man and there are more of them yet to come, so now you have to make your beds like I am doing and you have to do it quickly!”

  His raised voice at the end of the statement made her jump into action and when they had the beds made so it looked like they were sleeping in them, he pulled her and Rusty into the bushes beside the fire.

  “Now take that gun out of your handbag and both of you stay quiet.”

  They waited for a while and when it was full dark he saw some movement at the back of his wagon. He put his hand carefully first on Rusty and then Julia to make sure he had their full attention, and they all watched as the four men walked quietly closer to the fire… and then they all began firing into the beds on the ground in front of them.

  He gripped the two of them harder hoping they would not let out a scream and give away their position. When the shooting stopped the men just stood there for a minute and that’s when Will spoke from the darkness.

  “I’ve got you covered, drop those guns!”

  The men froze and three of them, mostly from shock, dropped their pistols realizing that they were probably empty, but the fourth who had a rifle started to raise it toward the sound of the voice. Will’s shot took him high in the chest and dropped him between two of the other men. Before they could regain their composure he spoke again.

  “Now take your boots off and drop them by the fire!”

  He watched as they struggled to get their boots off and comply with his orders, and then he yelled again.

  “OK take your pants off!”

  One of the men stiffened.

  “I’m not taking my pants off for anyone!”

  A bullet hitting the ground between his legs convinced him that he was going to join the others and he pulled his pants off, and dropped them on the ground.

  Will whispered to Rusty.

  “I want you to go back down the road a ways and find their horses, there will be four of them and they won’t be very far away.”

  He hesitated for a minute and then Will whispered again.

  “You can do this Rusty, remember you are almost a man now…just keep listening for them, and keep your nose in the air because horses always smell like horses.”

  With that the boy sneaked off into the dark being careful that he went well around the men still standing by the fire.

  Will turned back to them, still concealed by the darkness.

  “Lay down on the ground and don’t move!”

  They again complied as they looked at the dead body lying on the ground in front of the fire. Now he turned to Julia.

  “OK Jule it’s your turn, I’m going to get the old man and you have to watch these three, and if they move, shoot them. Your life and the life of your boy depend on you right now. Remember in their minds they have already killed all three of us, without as much as a warning or afterthought.”

  She hadn’t thought about it, but she realized what he said was true, so she lifted her gun and aimed it in the direction of the three men laying on the ground and waited nervously until he brought the other man out and put him with the others.

  As he dropped the last man beside the others he heard the horses coming up the road.

  “Just tie them on the back of our wagon Rusty.”

  The boy did as he was told while he stripped the older man of his boots and pants. He was starting to come around now and he looked directly into Will’s face.

  “I’ll kill you for this!”

  The others still hadn’t gotten a good look at Will and he wanted it that way. He pointed to the body lying by the fire.

  “You pick up this one here and get on down the road!”

  The old man started to object, but Will was firm.

  “It’s up to you to bury him or I’ll let him lay where he
is for the animals to pick his bones.”

  Will stepped back into the darkness beside his wagon as two of the men picked up the body and they struggled off into the darkness. He followed them a short ways to make sure they didn’t come back, and then he went to the red wagon and unhooked the horse and tied him with the others. He collected all the guns laying on the ground and put them in his wagon and then he unsaddled the horses and put the saddles on top of the load.

  “Help me push this wagon over to the fire.”

  He had Rusty steer the wagon tongues as he and Julia pushed the wagon toward the fire, and he didn’t stop until it was directly over the fire. While the fire billowed up around the fancy wagon they all climbed aboard the freight wagon and started up the road. He didn’t like driving the mules at night, but he had faith in the fact that they knew their way home, and he didn’t want to take a chance on any of those men sneaking back and harming the girl or her son.

  Rusty had been quite since he brought the horses back.

  “Will, are we going to keep all their things?”

  Will thought for a minute on how he was going to answer that question.

  “They tried to kill us, and if we would have been laying in the blankets by the fire, they would have, so we deserve to keep what they had.”

  Rusty looked back at the horses tied to the wagon.

  “Even the horses?”

  Will waited again, he realized now that what he was doing or saying to this boy was going to be part of his upbringing and he had to do it right.

  “No, not the horses…it won’t do in this country to be riding on a horse that belongs to another man without having a bill of sale. We’ll let them go up the road a piece.”

  Finally the girl who had been sitting quietly, chimed in.

  “How did you know the first man was a bad man?”

  He chuckled to himself.

  “I may not know much about women, but I know all about men. I saw them all together as they got off the boat and although they separated, I suspected they might be planning something.”

  He stopped for a moment and then he smiled and continued.

  “Of course the note that Captain Willow sent down with the paperwork on the first load helped. He warned me that they were up to something because they wanted to know about where all the goods were going. These goods would have made them a pretty penny further west.”

  She laughed.

  “So you are not the astute reader of men you pretended to be.”

  He chucked the mules on without saying a word but he smiled to himself. Farther up the road they released the horses and stopped for a short nap. Rusty was already asleep with his head on his mother’s lap, but the two of them needed some sleep themselves so they leaned back on the seat while the mules rested and had a half hour nap.

  Chapter 4

  As the store loomed into view Will was worried about having to tell Barney about Audrey. He knew it would not be an easy thing because he knew Barney loved her deeply, he did not understand that feeling for another woman, but he saw it in his brother.

  As they drew nearer he saw Barney standing outside the store watching them. When they were close enough for him to recognise the faces he turned and went into the store. Will knew he was disappointed that he did not see Audrey on the seat beside him, but he did not know that Barney already suspected that something bad had happened.

  He got down from the wagon and helped Julia and Rusty down.

  “Wait here while I go and talk to Barney.”

  She started to speak but he cut her off knowing she wanted to go in as well to explain things.

  “No, you wait here this is something I have to do alone.

  She watched him as he walked up the steps to the store and disappeared in the doorway. Will found Barney behind the counter, just waiting for what he was sure was bad news.

  “Barney, I have the worse news I could ever deliver to you….Audrey is dead.”

  Barney’s shoulders dropped and he turned his back to Will, but when he spoke his voice was strong.

  “I knew the minute I saw you driving up. Don’t tell me what happened just now. Who is the woman and boy?”

  Will was surprised at his brother’s composure as he turned back to look at him.

  “That’s her sister, Julia and her boy. It was a shock to me too to see them getting off the boat. I’ll let her explain to you her reasons for being here.”

  Barney shook himself and straightened his shoulders and they walked to the door. When they went down the steps the woman and the boy were still waiting where he had left them.

  “Julia, this is my brother Barney and I think you two have some things to talk about.”

  He turned back to the wagon and drove it around behind the store to where they unloaded all the goods. He started carrying the boxes and bags into the storeroom and then he almost ran into Rusty coming through the door with a heavy bag in his arms.

  “Well boy, looks like you are going to give me a hand.”

  The boy smiled at him and he felt that this boy had not had much contact with men and there was a bond building between them.

  “Yes sir, my Ma and that man are talking and I just got out of the way.”

  Will smiled and sat down on a box and began rolling a smoke.

  “Well Rusty, it better sometimes to just get out of the way like you said. That man is my brother Barney and he’s a good man. He was supposed to marry your Aunt Audrey but you know what happened there. We’ll just wait around here until the dust settles and we find out where we all stand.”

  Rusty was happy to hear Will’s explanation because he had been worried about his mother and their coming to the west. He had never spoken to her about his concerns or let her know that he was even concerned, but he somehow felt he could talk to this big man sitting in front of him.

  “My Ma’s a good woman but I’m not sure we should have come out here without at least an invitation and I don’t know what we are going to do.”

  Will reached over and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. The boy smiled and leaned in quickly and hugged him. The sudden movement took him by surprise for a moment but then he wrapped his arms around him and held him in response.

  “You needn’t worry any more about that boy because no matter what else happens you and your Ma will have a place on the ranch…in fact you will fit right in with the rest of the folks we have here and we will be one big, happy family.”

  The boy held him tight for a minute more and then he let go and straightened up.

  “Yes sir, then we better get the rest of the wagon unloaded.”

  While they were unloading the wagon Barney and Julia were talking. She told him how Audrey died and explained to him that she decided to come and tell him in person. She left out the part about maybe them getting together.

  She could tell by talking to him that he was a good and kind man just like her sister had told her, but she knew it was too soon to mention the possibility of any meaningful relationship between them. He told her that she and the boy could stay in his small cabin behind the store and he would sleep in the back room of the store on a cot. She started to refuse but he would hear nothing of it.

  The first few days were hard on all of them but she started helping around the store and began settling in. Rusty was spending all his time with the ranch hands and learning to handle the horse that Will picked out for him. She didn’t see much of Will although he did usually come by when Rusty was coming home. On the fourth day she waited for him by the little corral where Rusty kept his horse.

  “Hi Will, I want to thank you for taking care of Russell….”

  The boy stopped his unsaddling.

  “Ma, out here I’m called Rusty!”

  She smiled and continued on.

  “I want to thank you for taking care of Rusty and would like to invite you to dinner. It’s all ready and I would love you to come.”

  She had been preparing the meals for Barney and Rusty and
now she was hoping he would accept, and then Rusty chimed in.

  “Yeah, come on Will, her cooking ain’t that bad.”

  She noticed that he was talking more like the ranch hands but didn’t bother to correct him and they all laughed.

  “Well Jule, I’d be pleased to join you folks for supper.”

  He had noticed that Barney was going to the cabin every night for supper and he wondered how things were working out between them. After finishing the meal he found out that Rusty was right, she wasn’t a bad cook.

  As they all sat around the table and had coffee to finish off the meal he couldn’t help thinking what a nice family they would make. He even felt a little jealous and then he shook the feeling off, but he couldn’t help looking at her, almost to the point of staring.

  The next few days he avoided going to the store and spent a lot of time with Rusty. The boy was fitting in real well and started riding some with Curly and Texas Jack. They both took a liking to him and were more than willing to show him how the ranch was run.

  While Rusty was learning all about ranching Barney and Julia had come to an understanding. He came out front and told her that he really had no interest in her romantically, but he did see the potential of having her around to help run the store, which was becoming quite busy now partly due to the fact that the word had gotten out that there was a pretty girl at the store.

  In a land where there were few women, and even fewer beautiful, available, ones a cowboy would ride for miles to see her. They couldn’t just ride and stare at her, they usually pretended to be on a shopping trip, and Barney made the most of that.

  Julia was flattered by the attention but she was wondering why Will had not been coming around. She was pleased that Will had taken such a liking to Rusty but that was not the only reason she wanted to see him. She was intrigued by him and had been since their first meeting.

  He was head strong and set in his ways and was obviously a man who knew what he wanted out of life, and she was wondering if she fit into his plans anyway. She had never felt this way about a man, not even Rusty’s father.