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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3565082" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twelve, “Escape Attempt“, Tuesday, June 6th , 1882,  3:30 A.M.Sally and Pinto continue to ride at full speed in a southward direction with mounted soldiers a distant back in pursuit.  Pinto suggests to Sally that they ride straight into the mountains to lose them.    A quarter-mile to the east Deadeye, Mae and Flying Arrow are riding to the southwest when they spot Sally and Pinto riding off in the southward direction.   That pair do not appear to be looking back and haven’t spotted the other two.  Flying Arrow suggests that they go away from those two rather than rejoining them.    Deadeye says, “I have nothing against them, but it makes a lot more sense to be hiding three people instead of five.   And to be totally honest, they’re sloppy stupid people.”   They then spot soldiers after Pinto and Sally, which confirms to the three that regrouping is not a good option.   They three stop and hide behind some shelter until the soldiers are out of sight after the other two and then proceed westward.    They consult the map, seeing some mountains which Flying Arrow can help them over.   The trio decide to ride all night long, alternating horses between their own and the ones stolen from the soldiers in order to make for the best time without overtiring the mounts.  Meanwhile, the wounded Pinto and Sally ride hard and by the time they reach the mountains they have been riding for two hours.  Looking back, they see a dozen mounted soldiers a short distance back.   They head up into the mountain, trying to stay out of sight using the trees and rocks for cover.   Unfortunately the more rugged terrain makes the travel slower and the soldiers begin to catch up.    Pinto decides that they should stop and set up an ambush.  He helps to rebind his and Sally’s wounds.  They find an area where some good-sized boulders and trees will shield the horses from below and will also provide good cover for Pinto and Sally to shoot from.    They don’t have to wait long until a quartet of soldiers arrive.  The men are on foot but are leading their horses.   Pinto determines which is the leader, a man wearing sergeant stripes, and fires a shot into the man striking his side.   The soldiers all pull back, one private assisting his wounded leader.  Pinto fires a second shot at the sergeant but misses.   The soldiers then move out of sight.   Sally had refrained from shooting as they were out of shotgun range. Pinto and the soldiers continue to exchange fire for the next five minutes even though neither can see the other due to cover.   Sally suggests “They’re probably expecting us to use up all our ammunition.”  “We’ve got plenty,” Pinto replies.   Another five minutes pass with another shot every fifteen to twenty seconds from the direction of the soldiers, with Pinto returning fire for every two or three shots.   At the fifteen minute point from when the shooting started the sergeant yells out “Throw your guns down and surrender, we have you surrounded.”   Pinto and Sally do not see anyone and quickly head over towards their horses.   As soon as they reach their mounts four shots fire from different directions a little higher up the mountain.   Two shots strike Pinto’s horse and it falls dead.   Another hits Sally’s horse, wounding it but it could still be ridden.   The sergeants voice yells out “Throw down your guns and surrender.  This is your last chance.”   Sally says, “What should we do?”   Pinto replies, “We’re beat.  Let’s do as they say.  Deadeye busted me out of jail twice before, he’ll do so again.”   They throw down their weapons and the soldiers come forward to take them into custody.    A total of $ 434,000 of the stolen money is found between the two of them. Meanwhile, the others have continued westward towards the next set of hills.   They’ve ridden a couple of miles when Flying Arrow hears the very distant sound of gunfire.   She comments “Sounds like the soldiers caught them.”  Deadeye replies, “Not Pinto and Sally, they’ll go down fighting before they ever let themselves get captured.”They way to go next.   Mae asks Deadeye “What was that you said to Pinto about Carson City?”  Deadeye replies, “Misdirection.  That’s to the west, so let’s plan on going either north or south.”  Mae points out that since Federal soldiers were shot that anywhere in the United States would not be safe, so either north to Canada or south to Mexico.”   Deadeye says, “You know where is nice this time of year…..England.   If we’re going to live like kings maybe we should think about going to a country with a monarchy.”   The others find that idea amenable to them.  As Canada and England are both parts of Great Britain they decide to go Canada, and going north would still require crossing the Colorado River at some point.   They decide that any Colorado communities along the river will be on alert for them, so they should probably head west into Utah and cross there.   They spend the next six days traveling south and then west, staying clear of the Colorado communities of Mesa and Grand Junction.   They live off the land and alternate between the seven horses and find the safest places possible to ford the Gunnison and Delores Rivers.   At one point they stop and finally count the stolen money, discovering that between the three of them they have $ 737,000 in bundled bills.  Mae comments “Gee, that was about what we had originally anticipated the total haul to be.”  They use this time in the mountains to find natural dyes to change their hair color and Deadeye grows out his beard and mustache.   They set the four horses with United States cavalry markings loose in the mountains.  On the morning of Monday, June 12th Mae Clark approaches the ferry boat across the Colorado river at the town of Moab, Utah.    Her hair is dyed black and she is attired in Flying Arrow’s buckskin clothing, giving the outward appearance of a poor half-breed woman.    She asks in broken English about the fare and is told fifty-cents, at which time she pays using a number of small coins.    There are soldiers near the ferry but none pay her any attention.    Once across she finds a place to wait in safety for the next ferry.Deadeye and Flying Arrow approach for the next ferry ride across.   She is attired in Mae’s most plain outfit and has dyed her hair lighter with white and gray strands to appear as older half-breed.  Deadeye has shaved the top of his head to make him appear bald and considerably older and both are wearing matching steel wedding bands.   They have all three horses, the two that they ride up on and the third pulling a stick and rope tripod with a blanket of supplies lashed to it (including the third saddle).   One soldier questions Deadeye who replies in a Minnesota accent that he is Torvald Jorgensen from Minneapolis and that he and his wife Running Stream are moving to Provo, Utah.   The soldier accepts their story. Four days later they arrive in Salt Lake City Utah.  They are still in the same disguises and have intentionally avoided bathing to add to the disguises.   They purchase a newspaper with a story about the New Douglas Gang, discovering that Mongo and Pamela have also been captured and are now in the same Colorado Prison as Pinto Joe and Sally, awaiting trial.   At Salt Lake City they sell their horses, using the proceeds from that sale to purchase train passage north to Butte, Montana.   From Montana they take a train east to Bismarck, North Dakota and from there travel by train north to Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Once they have crossed into Canada they finally start to relax.  In Winnipeg they purchase new clothes, and spend a day cleaning up and changing their disguises yet again, looking now like none of their prior outward appearances.  They then get on an eastbound train.  At Thunder Bay, Ontario they board a steamship which takes them across the Great Lakes and up the Saint Lawrence River.  A train then takes them from the port of Matinee, Quebec down to Halifax, Nova Scotia where they then board a ship to England.</blockquote>

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