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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1853651" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Forty-one, “A Wagon Load of Outlaws!”, January 7th, 1882:</strong></p><p></p><p>Ruby reacts quickly by coming up behind Knowles and covering his mouth with her hand as she grapples him to the ground. After a struggle she gets him down and she sits in top of him. Then she points her gun at his head. "Something you wanted to say?" He can tell by her eyes that she will have no problem killing him. Nanuet takes advantage of the fact that Katherine's dress is already torn, and he rips off another piece and works on gagging Knowles so that he won't be able to yell. "This man just saved your life," Ruby says to Knowles, pointing at Nanuet. 'You'd better thank him later." </p><p></p><p>Then she turns to Katherine who has a look of astonishment on her face at the fact that Nanuet just ripped her shirt even more. Smiling she says, "Don't worry we'll get you a new one." I have others, that's not what I'm worried about," she said, laying her hand over the now large hole in her shirt. The sheer undershirt wasn't hiding anything. Pointing to Knowles Ruby says, "Keep an eye on this guy..." She also positions herself and takes a shot with the shotgun, aiming for the men in the wagon with the weapons. Kate’s other hand still held the pistol steady toward Knowles. He must have figured out by now that she was not any kind of "Tough gal outlaw." She prayed he wouldn't try to call her bluff.</p><p></p><p>Jake takes out a stick of dynamite and lays it behind him. He quickly drops to the ground and aims the shotgun resting on the rock at the driver and fires both barrels when the wagon is about 50' away. Jake's first shot misses the driver but manages to strike the three men on the left hand side of the back of the wagon. He hits one squarely in the chest and arm that man slumping over into the wagon bed. The two wounded are both rather badly hurt on their left sides and arms. The other two men in the back of the wagon shoot in Jake's general direction but the shots miss him and bounce off of the large rock. His second shotgun blast misses, in part due to his movement to keep from being shot. </p><p></p><p>The major advantage that this has is that the foes are focused on where Jake is and none see Ruby and Nanuet as they prepare to fire. Ruby's shotgun blast manages to hit both men on the right side of the rear of the wagon straight on, killing them both. Nanuet fires at the driver, however his inexperience and the fact that the vehicle is moving have a combined detrimental effect and he misses. However, his shot does strike the other armed man up front in the buckboard who tumbles off of the rig and then gets run over by both left wagon wheels. Nanuet screams a war cry, lifting the rifle over his head and shakes it up and down with vigor. He then reloads his rifle and moves in the direction of the wagon, trying to keep cover from any returning fire.</p><p></p><p>One of the other men who Jake had hit now slumps over into the wagon, leaving only the driver and one wounded one in the back and the driver. The driver uses his whip to have the horse move onward and past the people shooting at him. The man in the back aims his rifle at Nanuet and fires. The bullet goes through Nanuet's right leg but he winces through the pain and temporarily remains standing.</p><p></p><p>Jake drops the shotgun after dodging and firing the second shot. He quickly gets back on his feet and leaps into the moving wagon bed from his location above the road. His Peacemaker then flashes out of his holster and shoots the last rustler standing who is holding a rifle. The startled and wounded man was not expecting somebody to leap down into his midst and in unprepared for the shot right between his eyes. </p><p></p><p>The driver still hasn't noticed Jake yet. Although tempted to shoot him in the back, Jake pulls the hammer on his pistol and sticks it in the drivers back and says loudly, "stop this rig now, nice and easy. I ain't saying please and I ain't asking twice." He keeps a hair trigger incase the driver tries something funny, and hopes for his sake he doesn't hit a big bump.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet winces, grits his teeth and falls. He begins reaching for his necklace when he hears another rider coming. He makes a quick decision and tries to roll and drag himself behind some cover before using yet another stone from the necklace on himself. The would looks to be clean and didn't hit any veins or bones so he decides that the other 1.5" stone will be sufficient. </p><p></p><p>The wagon begins to slow to a stop at a point around 80 feet beyond the party. Nanuet, Ruby and Katherine then hear another rider approaching. It is another rustler who is riding at a full gallop and takes aim with his revolver at Jake up ahead. Ruby quickly tries to get the rider in her sight and she shoots at him with her pistol. If necessary she will step out into the road to get a better shot. Katherine has the same thought as Ruby. She sets her foot down squarely on Knowles stomach to keep him down and peeks around the corner. Once she spots the rider she takes a shot with Tom's pistol and immediately turns back to Knowles. Ruby and Katherine both shoot at the rider as he goes by them, both missing.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet decides to wait until after the rider has gone by to start the incantation. Seeing that Knowles is well wedged between Ruby, herself and Nanuet, Kate reaches out and slips her hands under Nanuet's arms, trying to help him pull himself back. He reaches for another one of the stones on the necklace before she can rip another piece off her shirt for bandages. The rider takes a shot at Jake, which also misses, but does get his attention. Ruby starts to step out into the road for a better shot when she hears another horse approaching rapidly. She glances back and sees that it is an ally, Heath Barkley. </p><p></p><p>She turns back and steadies her aim at the rustler who has started to slow his horse as he nears the now stopped wagon around 120 feet away. "That's a mistake, I'm not done with you yet" she says to herself as she squeezes off a shot. A circle of red appears on his back. Meanwhile, Nanuet casts the spell to activate the stone and then feels much better. Things suddenly get quiet, with no further gunshots higher up the mountain.</p><p></p><p>'Why am I always surrounded' Jake thinks to himself while quickly turning to shoot the man on the horse who shot at him. Jake shot is on the mark and the man falls back and off of the horse. However, while Jake had turned around the driver decided to make a break for the nearest cover, jumping from the wagon and towards some boulders off to the side of the road. Heath is still riding hard and is almost up to the wagon. Jake pivots at the sound of the driver hitting the ground and fans his pistol before he can get away. Jake's shots miss but Heath's is on target and the man is dropped onto the roadway. </p><p></p><p>"A pleasure to see you Mr. Barkley." Jake says while surveying the bodies in the wagon to make certain that none of them are a risk to him. He waves down the road to the others that he is fine. "Heath, will you gather up that loose horse, I may need it." He then goes about putting the brake on the wagon, reloading his Colt and checking the fallen rustlers for signs of life. "I think we'll need this wagon before we are through today." He says to no one in particular, mounts the horse and rides back to the others.</p><p></p><p>Kate took a few deep breaths as everything got quiet. She tried not to think of the sheer numbers of people who must be dead and dying. Jake, Ruby, and Nanuet were all right, but they had no idea about the Cartwrights. She grabbed Knowles' arm and pulled him up. "How are the others?" she asked Barkley.</p><p></p><p>Heath replies "They were fine when I left them. We had waited for you on the trail and then three guys came down from the direction where you went. We exchanged fire and got one, the other two found themselves some better cover and kept shooting back. Flint figured you were all dead and was afraid that the gunshots would alert the others in the cave and catch us in a crossfire. He and I went off to try to keep those guys pinned down in the cave. We got there just in time, as they were coming out. I kept them occupied while Flint then climbed up and around and made it inside. The dynamite blasts started soon after that." </p><p></p><p>"When the cave mouth appeared to be clear I rushed over to help support Flint. I looked in the cave and just saw a bunch of dead men and horses covered with rubble. The dust inside was settling and people inside started shooting out at me so I had to find cover. We kept exchanging shots, and then my brother Nick and the Cartwrights came up from the other trail to help out. Two guys then made a break out of the cave on horseback. I shot one and grabbed his horse and followed the other one down here."</p><p></p><p>"You've had quite a busy morning," Kate said dryly. "Speaking of horses..." Kate pointed toward the loose horse Jake had mentioned and Heath ran off to collect it. She stopped to make sure Nanuet was alright before she stepped out to talk to Jake "From what Heath says, everything should be quiet up there now, looks like the shootings over," she gave Jake a little smile. Immediately after she says that there is another series of a dozen or so gunshots further up the hill followed by the sound of back-to-back dynamite explosions. It then gets quiet again. </p><p></p><p>Kate says, "How nice of you to find me a wagon. There are a few hundred things I'd like from that cave up there." She took a few steps over, unthinkingly pulled Knowles around behind her. "You're alright, yes?" He looks back up at her, his lip quivering as he says "Y..Y...Yes, Please don't hurt me." "I wasn't talking to you, but it's good to know," she began to turn back to Jake when she realized something was wrong. "How did you get that gag off?" She was getting tired of having this guy tied to her apron strings. The least he could do was stay quiet. She was about to replace the gag when she looked more closely at him. His eyes were wide with absolute terror. "I'm not going to hurt you, just stay quiet," she sighed. Kate turned her eyes back up the mountain. "Well, we know Flint is still alright. We need to get up there though. I wish we had our horses."</p><p></p><p>Got you a wagon?" The rest of Jake’s thought is interrupted by the burst of gunfire and earth shaking blasts. "I wonder if there is going to be any cattle left when Flint is through. Stew meat all around tonight folks!" He notices Heath doesn't find that funny. </p><p></p><p>As Jake admires Katherine’s new attire, he also notices her considerable embarrassment. He removes the jacket and takes off his button shirt and puts the jacket back on. "Here," He says to her handing her this shirt "not that I'm not admiring the view but being beet red every time anyone looks at you can't be good for a body." She'd been trying to ignore the tattered state of her shirt and the blush that came each time someone looked at her, but obviously she hadn't been succeeding. "Thank you," she said, slipping it over her head, glad that since she was already red she couldn't get any redder as Jake undressed. </p><p></p><p>Jake climbs up the rocks and picks up the stick of dynamite he dropped, "Don't want no prairie dog blowing himself up." He also retrieves the weapons he dropped earlier and reloads the shotgun. </p><p></p><p>"Hermes take me for a fool, but I haven't been able to hold on to a prisoner all day. We keep having to shoot 'em when they try and run away. You will be polite enough to be different Mr. Knowles?" He looks around at the carnage and says, "You think they need help up there or should we clean up here? And what in Hades are we going to do with all these bodies?" Kate replies "Well Flint seems to working on a fairly large pile of rubble, I imagine we could put them there."</p><p></p><p>Heath helps Jake off load the five bodies from the back of the wagon, Jake discreetly checking and emptying the pockets as he does so and less discreetly leaving the gunbelts and other visible weapons in the wagon. While Heath is preoccupied Ruby does likewise with the body of the rustler lying in the road.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 1853651, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Forty-one, “A Wagon Load of Outlaws!”, January 7th, 1882:[/B] Ruby reacts quickly by coming up behind Knowles and covering his mouth with her hand as she grapples him to the ground. After a struggle she gets him down and she sits in top of him. Then she points her gun at his head. "Something you wanted to say?" He can tell by her eyes that she will have no problem killing him. Nanuet takes advantage of the fact that Katherine's dress is already torn, and he rips off another piece and works on gagging Knowles so that he won't be able to yell. "This man just saved your life," Ruby says to Knowles, pointing at Nanuet. 'You'd better thank him later." Then she turns to Katherine who has a look of astonishment on her face at the fact that Nanuet just ripped her shirt even more. Smiling she says, "Don't worry we'll get you a new one." I have others, that's not what I'm worried about," she said, laying her hand over the now large hole in her shirt. The sheer undershirt wasn't hiding anything. Pointing to Knowles Ruby says, "Keep an eye on this guy..." She also positions herself and takes a shot with the shotgun, aiming for the men in the wagon with the weapons. Kate’s other hand still held the pistol steady toward Knowles. He must have figured out by now that she was not any kind of "Tough gal outlaw." She prayed he wouldn't try to call her bluff. Jake takes out a stick of dynamite and lays it behind him. He quickly drops to the ground and aims the shotgun resting on the rock at the driver and fires both barrels when the wagon is about 50' away. Jake's first shot misses the driver but manages to strike the three men on the left hand side of the back of the wagon. He hits one squarely in the chest and arm that man slumping over into the wagon bed. The two wounded are both rather badly hurt on their left sides and arms. The other two men in the back of the wagon shoot in Jake's general direction but the shots miss him and bounce off of the large rock. His second shotgun blast misses, in part due to his movement to keep from being shot. The major advantage that this has is that the foes are focused on where Jake is and none see Ruby and Nanuet as they prepare to fire. Ruby's shotgun blast manages to hit both men on the right side of the rear of the wagon straight on, killing them both. Nanuet fires at the driver, however his inexperience and the fact that the vehicle is moving have a combined detrimental effect and he misses. However, his shot does strike the other armed man up front in the buckboard who tumbles off of the rig and then gets run over by both left wagon wheels. Nanuet screams a war cry, lifting the rifle over his head and shakes it up and down with vigor. He then reloads his rifle and moves in the direction of the wagon, trying to keep cover from any returning fire. One of the other men who Jake had hit now slumps over into the wagon, leaving only the driver and one wounded one in the back and the driver. The driver uses his whip to have the horse move onward and past the people shooting at him. The man in the back aims his rifle at Nanuet and fires. The bullet goes through Nanuet's right leg but he winces through the pain and temporarily remains standing. Jake drops the shotgun after dodging and firing the second shot. He quickly gets back on his feet and leaps into the moving wagon bed from his location above the road. His Peacemaker then flashes out of his holster and shoots the last rustler standing who is holding a rifle. The startled and wounded man was not expecting somebody to leap down into his midst and in unprepared for the shot right between his eyes. The driver still hasn't noticed Jake yet. Although tempted to shoot him in the back, Jake pulls the hammer on his pistol and sticks it in the drivers back and says loudly, "stop this rig now, nice and easy. I ain't saying please and I ain't asking twice." He keeps a hair trigger incase the driver tries something funny, and hopes for his sake he doesn't hit a big bump. Nanuet winces, grits his teeth and falls. He begins reaching for his necklace when he hears another rider coming. He makes a quick decision and tries to roll and drag himself behind some cover before using yet another stone from the necklace on himself. The would looks to be clean and didn't hit any veins or bones so he decides that the other 1.5" stone will be sufficient. The wagon begins to slow to a stop at a point around 80 feet beyond the party. Nanuet, Ruby and Katherine then hear another rider approaching. It is another rustler who is riding at a full gallop and takes aim with his revolver at Jake up ahead. Ruby quickly tries to get the rider in her sight and she shoots at him with her pistol. If necessary she will step out into the road to get a better shot. Katherine has the same thought as Ruby. She sets her foot down squarely on Knowles stomach to keep him down and peeks around the corner. Once she spots the rider she takes a shot with Tom's pistol and immediately turns back to Knowles. Ruby and Katherine both shoot at the rider as he goes by them, both missing. Nanuet decides to wait until after the rider has gone by to start the incantation. Seeing that Knowles is well wedged between Ruby, herself and Nanuet, Kate reaches out and slips her hands under Nanuet's arms, trying to help him pull himself back. He reaches for another one of the stones on the necklace before she can rip another piece off her shirt for bandages. The rider takes a shot at Jake, which also misses, but does get his attention. Ruby starts to step out into the road for a better shot when she hears another horse approaching rapidly. She glances back and sees that it is an ally, Heath Barkley. She turns back and steadies her aim at the rustler who has started to slow his horse as he nears the now stopped wagon around 120 feet away. "That's a mistake, I'm not done with you yet" she says to herself as she squeezes off a shot. A circle of red appears on his back. Meanwhile, Nanuet casts the spell to activate the stone and then feels much better. Things suddenly get quiet, with no further gunshots higher up the mountain. 'Why am I always surrounded' Jake thinks to himself while quickly turning to shoot the man on the horse who shot at him. Jake shot is on the mark and the man falls back and off of the horse. However, while Jake had turned around the driver decided to make a break for the nearest cover, jumping from the wagon and towards some boulders off to the side of the road. Heath is still riding hard and is almost up to the wagon. Jake pivots at the sound of the driver hitting the ground and fans his pistol before he can get away. Jake's shots miss but Heath's is on target and the man is dropped onto the roadway. "A pleasure to see you Mr. Barkley." Jake says while surveying the bodies in the wagon to make certain that none of them are a risk to him. He waves down the road to the others that he is fine. "Heath, will you gather up that loose horse, I may need it." He then goes about putting the brake on the wagon, reloading his Colt and checking the fallen rustlers for signs of life. "I think we'll need this wagon before we are through today." He says to no one in particular, mounts the horse and rides back to the others. Kate took a few deep breaths as everything got quiet. She tried not to think of the sheer numbers of people who must be dead and dying. Jake, Ruby, and Nanuet were all right, but they had no idea about the Cartwrights. She grabbed Knowles' arm and pulled him up. "How are the others?" she asked Barkley. Heath replies "They were fine when I left them. We had waited for you on the trail and then three guys came down from the direction where you went. We exchanged fire and got one, the other two found themselves some better cover and kept shooting back. Flint figured you were all dead and was afraid that the gunshots would alert the others in the cave and catch us in a crossfire. He and I went off to try to keep those guys pinned down in the cave. We got there just in time, as they were coming out. I kept them occupied while Flint then climbed up and around and made it inside. The dynamite blasts started soon after that." "When the cave mouth appeared to be clear I rushed over to help support Flint. I looked in the cave and just saw a bunch of dead men and horses covered with rubble. The dust inside was settling and people inside started shooting out at me so I had to find cover. We kept exchanging shots, and then my brother Nick and the Cartwrights came up from the other trail to help out. Two guys then made a break out of the cave on horseback. I shot one and grabbed his horse and followed the other one down here." "You've had quite a busy morning," Kate said dryly. "Speaking of horses..." Kate pointed toward the loose horse Jake had mentioned and Heath ran off to collect it. She stopped to make sure Nanuet was alright before she stepped out to talk to Jake "From what Heath says, everything should be quiet up there now, looks like the shootings over," she gave Jake a little smile. Immediately after she says that there is another series of a dozen or so gunshots further up the hill followed by the sound of back-to-back dynamite explosions. It then gets quiet again. Kate says, "How nice of you to find me a wagon. There are a few hundred things I'd like from that cave up there." She took a few steps over, unthinkingly pulled Knowles around behind her. "You're alright, yes?" He looks back up at her, his lip quivering as he says "Y..Y...Yes, Please don't hurt me." "I wasn't talking to you, but it's good to know," she began to turn back to Jake when she realized something was wrong. "How did you get that gag off?" She was getting tired of having this guy tied to her apron strings. The least he could do was stay quiet. She was about to replace the gag when she looked more closely at him. His eyes were wide with absolute terror. "I'm not going to hurt you, just stay quiet," she sighed. Kate turned her eyes back up the mountain. "Well, we know Flint is still alright. We need to get up there though. I wish we had our horses." Got you a wagon?" The rest of Jake’s thought is interrupted by the burst of gunfire and earth shaking blasts. "I wonder if there is going to be any cattle left when Flint is through. Stew meat all around tonight folks!" He notices Heath doesn't find that funny. As Jake admires Katherine’s new attire, he also notices her considerable embarrassment. He removes the jacket and takes off his button shirt and puts the jacket back on. "Here," He says to her handing her this shirt "not that I'm not admiring the view but being beet red every time anyone looks at you can't be good for a body." She'd been trying to ignore the tattered state of her shirt and the blush that came each time someone looked at her, but obviously she hadn't been succeeding. "Thank you," she said, slipping it over her head, glad that since she was already red she couldn't get any redder as Jake undressed. Jake climbs up the rocks and picks up the stick of dynamite he dropped, "Don't want no prairie dog blowing himself up." He also retrieves the weapons he dropped earlier and reloads the shotgun. "Hermes take me for a fool, but I haven't been able to hold on to a prisoner all day. We keep having to shoot 'em when they try and run away. You will be polite enough to be different Mr. Knowles?" He looks around at the carnage and says, "You think they need help up there or should we clean up here? And what in Hades are we going to do with all these bodies?" Kate replies "Well Flint seems to working on a fairly large pile of rubble, I imagine we could put them there." Heath helps Jake off load the five bodies from the back of the wagon, Jake discreetly checking and emptying the pockets as he does so and less discreetly leaving the gunbelts and other visible weapons in the wagon. While Heath is preoccupied Ruby does likewise with the body of the rustler lying in the road. [/QUOTE]
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