Storiesonline.net ------- And Away We Go by cmsix Copyright© 2010 by cmsix ------- Description: With the typical incompetence that later had the place going broke during boom times, the Steel Mill fucked up my vacation time and was going to cause me to miss the first day of deer season. I quit and now was going to have plenty of time for hunting. Luckily, Along came Argus, the spaceman, and did he have a deal for me Codes: MF cons het ScFi TimeTr harem ------- ------- Chapter 1 I was minding my own business this fine November 5th and mostly getting ready for the opening of whitetail deer season in the morning. Actually, I was getting ready to head out for camping on my deer lease. I'd spent the last two afternoons sighting in my Marlin 336c in .35 Remington. It wasn't a tack driver by any means, but it was plenty accurate enough for me, especially since I didn't intend to even try for any deer farther than a hundred and fifty yards. I was well familiar with the rifle and ammunition I'd be using and a two inch group with them was not only possible, but probable if I do say so myself. The Steel Mill in Lone Star Texas had pulled a fast one on me this year and I hadn't been able to get my vacation to allow me to take off in time for the days I'd wanted, the start of the season, so I'd put in my resignation and told them to kiss my ass. I had no financial worries since the company who'd leased the rights to drill over some of my mineral rights had brought in a damned good well just lately and they'd recently paid me forty-six thousand dollars more to put a another well nearby. Hell, I'd just gotten my first months royalty check for the well they brought in and it had been nine thousand dollars. Indications were the next one would be substantially more since they'd only pumped for eight days on this months check. Hell, I was a rich redneck already and it seemed likely I was going to get much richer as long as the rest of you keep using so much gasoline. Yes sir, pull up to that pump and fill 'er up. I can use the money. This last well had started showing signs of being a big producer when they hit five thousand feet and things had kept looking better until they stopped at twelve thousand. The money from the well had me wanting to give up my twenty-two dollar and fifty-six cent per hour employment for about a month but fucking up my deer hunting had sealed the deal. I didn't give a shit about time and a half for anything over eight hours a day or the double time and a half for working on holidays. Fuck 'em, they could just make those oil field tubular goods without me. I already had sixteen years in at the place and our last contract made it possible for me to retire early. I wouldn't get shit out of that money until I turned sixty-two, thirty years from now, but what the hell. I had plenty for now. I was up late packing my Silverado four wheel drive for my camping trip. I hadn't spent the money on a travel trailer yet, but I could almost feel I would before long. With money coming in hand over fist I'd just have to find something to spend it on. Not for any sensible reason you understand, but just because I wanted to. I had one hell of a wanter. The next morning I was up at five AM and pulling into J & L Grill for breakfast by the time they opened at six AM. After several cups of coffee and plenty of eggs, bacon, and pancakes I headed out for my deer lease. It was about ten miles out of town so I was there quickly and I started setting up my camp. I pitched my tent, an army surplus two man model and gathered some handy stones to make a fire ring. I built a fire in it even though one wasn't really needed. Even in November it didn't get so cold in North East Texas. I basically farted around doing nothing for the rest of the day, but I did hit the sheets, or sleeping bag, sort of early intending to be up before light the next morning. I became conscious probably around one AM, but I didn't do it by waking up and getting up. I was called to a conference, at least mentally. I was almost scared shitless at first and then I realized I couldn't even shit my britches because my body hadn't come along for the ride. It was really weird since I was obviously awake and in among others without my body when they obviously had theirs. All was explained to me shortly. I had been commandeered by what any self-respecting redneck would call space aliens. It was quite a shock. It wasn't that I didn't believe in space aliens. I was a redneck after all. It was just I'd never thought I'd be meeting any. They looked mostly like humans, except taller and thinner, kind of wispy looking if you asked me. "Welcome aboard our ship, Jake," the tallest one said to me. "Thank you. And you would be?" I asked. "Argus, is what you may call me," he said. "We have a proposition for you," he said, and my first thought was oh shit but he settled my nerves soon enough. "We'd like to put you back in time a few years, back to when the United States was very much more simple. We'd like to leave you back then for several years and then we will return you to your own time if you want to come back. I must tell you we think it is likely you will not want to come back and if you don't we will leave you there," he said. "What for?" I asked. "We just want to see what you do. We will be doing what you might think of as filming you," he said. "You mean you can just put me back in time? Won't that cause things that have already happened to change?" I asked. "No. We will be putting you on a copy of your earth in a different dimension. It has gone along basically in lock step with your current home until the time we release you. You will make changes, but they will only be changes to the planet you are on and they will be changes in what is expected to happen there, not in what has already happened. The planet you are moving to hasn't progressed any further than the time we will place you. You will only be changing things that probably would have happened on your new planet later. It will seem exactly as if you had been put back in time, but it isn't actually the case. You will be highly paid for your participation. Our projected salary for you is ten thousand dollars per week," he said. "Shit. Sign me up. I'm your man," I said, before I did much thinking about things. "Good. We will be giving you a medical checkup first and doing any needed repairs. Remember to be careful while you are there. We will be able to help you out if you are hurt or injured while you are there, but if you are killed I'm afraid we won't be able to do anything about it," he said. The last part was a little sobering, but what the hell, if I got killed in my natural home I'd be dead there too. My medical work didn't take long and they didn't even tell me about any repairs they might have made. I did notice my eyes seemed to focus better, but blew it off. Next we talked about what I would need while I was there, and of course I told them it depended on what they expected me to do. I found out then they did have a few plans for what they wanted me to accomplish. They intended to set me down in Tennessee and let me take a little wagon trip. They took me to a larger room on the ship and showed me the wagon and I'll be damned if it wasn't a Conestoga. They had twelve big strong Missouri mules to pull it and it was equipped with a sort of trailer hitch on the back. It wasn't like any trailer hitch I'd ever seen though. It was just a semi-circular loop made of what looked like 1 inch steel rod. They also had an attachment for putting on another wagon tongue, which was basically a hook to go into the loop. They explained it would make it possible to hook two wagons together to save the bother of a separate driver for the back wagon. They told me the mules for the second wagon would catch onto the drill with little problem. Hell, it all sounded great to me. The next part of the preparations was almost like Christmas for me. They asked me what I would like for firearms and said they'd furnish them. I'd always wanted an M1 with a stock like an M16 and a replaceable magazine like on an M16. They said it wouldn't be a problem so I asked for a couple of Colt Diamondback with six inch barrels, a Ruger Superblackhawk in .44 magnum, and I saved the best for last. I wanted a Barrett .50 BMG. Hell they though it was great. Meanwhile, I wondered what I'd be shooting with these firearms. There were a few other things they suggested, including hatchets, axes, shovels, and yard brooms and I said fine. They even furnished me with a bunch of food they said wouldn't spoil no matter what. It all sounded fine to me, but I did wonder why they wanted me to sleep in the wagon that night. Hell, it had a very comfortable king bed size mattress in the back and I didn't mind a bit. I'll admit they pulled a fast one on me and I should have expected it. Sunrise woke me the next morning and when I looked out of the wagon I noticed right away I wasn't in the space ship any longer. Apparently my trip had started already. I got dressed in jeans and a work shirt and pulled on the boots they had provided and got out of the wagon. The mules were all tethered to a picket line strung between two trees. Hell, I built a fire and warmed up some of the indestructible food they'd given me. It seemed one hell of a lot like an MRE going down, but at least they had furnished a coffee pot and plenty of coffee so I made a pot and choked the alien food down. After I ate I hitched the team and pulled out into the road, or trail was more like it. I hadn't gone a mile before Argus' voice came to me from somewhere. "Jake. I hadn't intended to contact you further, but we felt we should wan you there are several men attacking a wagon ahead of you. It seems likely you will encounter them shortly. Be prepared to defend yourself. Well, this was a fine how-do-you-do. Hell, I should be ready for them though. I made sure the Barrett was easy to hand and the Marlin too. I came up on the fracas about two minutes later and I stopped maybe seventy yards from it. I figured it was lucky as hell they'd made arrangements to put me down and let me sight in my weapons right at the last. I grabbed up the Barrett and found a target. It looked like the leader of the attackers to me, especially since he was on the best horse and looked to be wearing the best clothes. When I touched off the Barrett I became the center of attention since it knocked him off his horse promptly and he didn't even wiggle after he hit the ground. I shot another one before they turned toward me, and then they were all racing headlong my way. I thought it was a really stupid move on their part and I nailed all four of them who came my way in short order. The Barrett and its hellacious cartridge dealt with them quickly. Every time I hit one he was knocked directly off over the ass end of his mount, ass over teakettle. Hell, just like that all six of them were dead. I swapped for the Marlin and took off on foot toward the wagon ahead of me. "Hello, I think I've killed them all. Is everybody all right in there," I asked. "No. John is hit in the chest, but I'm not hurt," a female voice said. "Can you come in and see if you can help me with him?" she asked. "I'll be right up," I said, and climbed into the front. "I couldn't help with John, because he died just as I came up. I wanted to help with Sally though, because she was a fine looking woman. She was teary eyed just a little but she asked me to pull her wagon off into the woods. I wasn't an expert wagon driver myself, but I got it done in only a couple of minutes. "I guess we'd better bury John" Sally said, as soon as we were stopped. "I'll do it as soon as I get my wagon off the road and gather up their horses," I said. I got back out of the wagon and went into the road. I stopped at the first body I came to and searched his pockets. Damn, he had thirty double eagles on him. I put them in my pocket right away and then noticed he had two revolvers in a dual holster gun-belt. I took those too and then realized I'd have more than I could carry before I cleaned them all out so I went to my wagon and led the mules up to the next dead man in line. It was the last one I'd shot and he was still alive somehow, but he was in bad shape. The hole in his chest was pumping blood out alarmingly and it was obvious he couldn't move his legs any longer. I figured the Barrett had taken out his spine as it went through. He had a big Bowie knife in a sheath on his belt so I pulled it out and cut his throat. He also had thirty double eagles in his pockets and a dual revolver setup. I took his knife, gunbelt, and both revolvers too, and put them in my wagon after tying his horse onto the back. It took about a half hour to strip all the bodies of valuables and collect the horses. At the last minute I decided to take their clothes and boots too. Hell, I even picked up their hats from where they'd fallen. I didn't intend to bury a one of them, even though I'd found fifty double eagles on the leader, another nicer Bowie knife, and two converted Army Colts. They had been modified to fire the .44 rim fires a Henry used. I figured they might come in handy sooner or later. I pulled my wagon up into the spot where I'd left Sally and her wagon and I was happy to see she had a coffee pot on the small fire she'd built. While we were drinking coffee Sally and I talked and she was fretting over what she was going to do. John had been her brother and he'd taken her away from home since her Daddy had told her he was going to sell her to a Yankee when they took over. "Where were you heading?" I asked. "To Independence Missouri. John said we could catch on to a wagon train going West when we got there." she said. "See there, you can go along with me. It's exactly where I was heading," I said. "But what would we tell everyone? They're sure to talk about me going out west with a man I wasn't kin to." she said. "Well, if you'll have me we can get kin as soon as we find a preacher," I said. "But I hardly know you," she said. "We can just head that way and it'll give you time to get to know me. If you don't want to marry me later you can just say so, unless you want to go back to your Daddy," I said. "He's dead too. He started in cussing John while we were getting ready to leave and they had it out. John killed Daddy and since Mama died last year there was sure no reason to stay after that," she said. "I'll think about it while we're traveling, but unless you act awful I think I will marry you. A woman alone ain't got much chance now-a-days," she said. "I'll be good to you, you can count on it. Specially since you make such good coffee," I said, and it finally made her laugh. I put all our ill-gotten gains in their wagon and then put the hook the spacemen had given me onto the tongue of hers and hitched them together. Then we headed out. We came to a little town about an hour later and stopped to eat in a cafe. There was a Yankee officer and two noncoms eating in it and I guess he took a shine to Sally right away. He started talking louder and ordering the noncoms around, or at least he was talking awfully bossy to them. Finally he got up and swaggered over toward our table. "I think we should arrest this southern boy here. I need to interview the woman with him," the officer said. I've I'd only been armed with the Ruger, in my gunbelt, it would have been difficult for me, but I had on a jacket and both of my Diamondbacks were in shoulder holsters. I ripped on out and shot the jackass in the belly and then moved the aim up and put one in his pump. I had specified plus p ammunition and the 125 grain Jacketed Hollow Points I hit him with knocked him on his fat ass and started blood pouring out of his belly and chest right away. After he was down I pulled my left hand Ruger .44 magnum out too and faced the noncoms. "Any of y'all want in on this?" I asked them and one of them stood up and acted like he was going for his sidearm so I shot him in the chest with the Ruger. Of course it made a hell of a lot more racket and it knocked him quite a bit further back. The others all put their hands up as in surrender. "Ok then, finish your meals if you want to, I'm keeping my eyes on you and if even one more of you acts like you're going to pull a shooting iron I'll kill all the rest of you for it. So, if one of your buddies gets frisky you'd be better off stopping him yourself," I said. They kept eating but I noticed all their hands were visible now. Sally and I finished and I paid our way out. I even gave the waitress an extra dollar to pay someone to remove the bodies and I tipped her half a dollar too. Sally and I left then and got back in our wagon and headed on out of town. We made it about five miles down the road and then pulled off into the woods and parked for the evening. I built a cook fire and put on the coffee pot and then Sally started rattling the pots and pans and scared us up some supper. After we'd eaten and cleaned up we sat on a deadfall and just watched the sun go down. We didn't really have a good romantic vista to watch since we were in the woods but it was nice enough and I did put my arm around Sally and pull her closer for some kissing. Sally was surprised when I slipped my tongue into her mouth to play and in a second she backed off and just asked me what that was. "It was a French kiss," I said. "Funny, I never thought the French were worth a damn for anything, but if they thought that up I guess I'll have to say they were good for something," she said, and then she reeled me back in and this time it was her tongue invading my mouth. Sally took off to get ready for bed half an hour later and she said she'd call me when she was under the covers. I just sat on the deadfall and waited until she called and then I got into the wagon myself. I was a little surprised to see she had a small lantern lit, but I started shucking my clothes right away. Sally was watching me like a hawk and I expect it was what made Jr stand up to be counted. He did the right thing though since I could hear a sharp intake of breath when I dropped my boxers. "My God. That's the biggest dick I've ever even heard of," Sally said, when it was revealed. I didn't say anything. I just crawled in under the covers with her. When I lay down she pressed all her goodies up against me and I naturally wrapped her up in my arms. "Have you made up your mind yet?" I asked her. "Yes I have and I had even before you showed me your thing," she said, and then showed me she remembered what I'd taught her about kissing. "I guess we'd better start checking the towns we go though for a preacher then," I said. "Yes, we should. We'll need to get married pretty soon because I intend for us to start the honeymoon tonight," she said, and then plastered herself against me and kissed me again. Hell, I considered that an all systems go and I ran my hands down to cup her naked asscheeks. Sally must have liked the maneuver because she wiggled against me and kissed me harder. I eased her over onto her back and began trailing kissed down over her throat and made my way to her spectacular titties to kiss and suck on her nipples until they were both standing tall. She was sighing and petting around in my hair for a few minutes and then I threw her a curve and kissed my way down over her flat belly and into her crinkly bush. She tensed up for a little bit, but she almost threw her legs apart wide when my lips reached her pussy and started kissing her there. Her hands were still in my hair and she started trying to steer me with them, but I knew how to find her button on my own and when I gave it the first snaky lick she relaxed her grip and let me have my head. When my lips closed around it and my tongue batted it back and forth a second Sally went off like a Roman candle and her hips started humping up a storm. For my next trick I moved up and put my bloated dickhead against her slit and eased inward gently. I came up against a hymen in no time and Sally tensed up again. She relaxed when I didn't shove it on through and of course when she did I shoved it on through. She let out a little squeak then and I went back to kissing her mouth and around her lips. "It didn't hurt so bad as I've been told, but it did sting a little," she said. "Has it quit yet?" I asked. "Almost. Go ahead and do it to me now," she said, and so I started. Once I had it all the way up in her what I bumped against must have been her cervix, but it was at the very end of my travel. I considered us a perfect fit. I started a rhythmic stroking then and Sally was helping with her hips almost at once. She went off a little before me but I kept it up and joined her in seconds. Then of course I sagged down beside her and dropped off to sleep. ------- Chapter 2 I woke first, because of light streaming in from the sunrise. I looked over at Sally who was cuddled right up against me. She looked so peaceful and beautiful, but I had to kiss her lips and it woke her. I was watching so closely my eyes nearly crossed when hers fluttered open. I could tell she didn't remember exactly where she was at first, and then it came to her and she smiled her widest. "At least turnabout is fair play," she said. "Huh?" was my witty reply. "You went to sleep first so you woke first too," she said. "Now, we can fight over who gets dressed first and has to make the coffee," she said, and I gave in without a fight and told her I would. Of course we'd come uncoupled during sleep and there was a slight tearing sensation when I moved my sperm-glued dick away from her upper thigh. It didn't really hurt me and even though Sally squeaked about it I don't think it hurt her either. Trying to be a gentleman about the whole thing I pulled the cover off her and bent to lick up my dried on mess. She put up with it for a couple of minutes and then she told me to get up, get dressed, and get out since she had to use the thunder mug. I had to take about a month long piss myself so I did as she bid me and hit the ground running. It was a lucky thing I did. Hit the ground running that is, since some jackass who'd been watching our wagon fired a shot at my motion. I thanked myself immediately since I had remembered to strap my gun belt around my waist when I was dressing. I also used my head and stumbled to the ground. Really, I did it on purpose. I'll swear I did. It might have saved me for the second time this morning since I drew my Ruger as I was going down and spun over facing the direction I thought the noise had come from. I was on my back just as the ambusher rose to his feet and I sent a round at him at once and I hit him just below the lower end of his sternum. With the Jacketed hollow points I was using it was the last shot he'd ever require. I was pretty sure the now misshapen bullet had torn a large part of his heart and connecting blood vessels to shreds as it went spinning though his chest. The flood of blood pouring out convinced me I was right at once and even though he made a last ditch effort to fire again he wasn't able to pull the trigger until his Army Colt conversion was pointed nearly straight down and the bullet damned nearly hit him in the foot. What a way to wake up. I was instantly alert and began looking around. I spotted his horse tied to a tree limb nearby, but try as I might I couldn't find any other signs of danger. Sally screamed out my name then and I had to calm her with a reply and then I had to rush off to water a tree. I counted myself lucky for not receiving any lead and I guess I'd never forget to take a look around before jumping out of a wagon again. I built a small fire, enough to get the coffee going, and then fetched the enameled coffee pot and filled it with water from the nearby stream. With coffee on the way I walked over to the body and wished I'd shot him somewhere else. He had a nice shirt on but it was a bloody mess now along with the nearly half inch hole right in the chest. His jeans weren't too messy yet and so I pulled off his boots and removed his pants hoping one or the other would fit me at least half-assed. His hat was lying close to the body too, but a quick try let me know it was way too small to fit my watermelon-sized head. His pockets were worth the trouble checking though. He had a fold-up pocketknife and forty-seven gold double eagles. Nine hundred and forty dollars was nothing to sneeze at for a split second of work. His double holster gun belt was a fine one too. It had been nicely made and after I checked I found my Ruger would fit it nearly perfectly. The cartridge loops even held the .44 magnum cartridges just as well as they held the .44 rim fires for a Henry. Speaking of a Henry repeater, he had an almost brand new one in his saddle scabbard and over two hundred and fifty cartridges in his saddlebags. I put a .44 mag into the Army Colt and tried to fire it, but it didn't touch it off. It would have been handy if it had, maybe, but then again if it caused the thing to go off like a hand grenade in my hand it might have been a little bothersome. As I thought about it a little more I decided I'd been a dumbass to even take a chance on such a thing. Now that I had a perfectly serviceable dual holster gun belt I decided I'd lobby for another Ruger Superblackhawk if the spacemen got in touch with me again. I was happy enough with my finds though, or with my ill-gotten gains anyway. I figured the Henry would look more normal than my Marlin, at close range at least, and the Army Colt could just provide more shots if it came down to it. I'd just finished up with my search and acquire mission on the dead man when Sally came out of the wagon. I hadn't put the coffee into the pot yet and she gave me a tiny bit of grief over it, but then she took care of it since the water was at least boiling by now. "Was he just sitting out here?" she asked. "Yes, and apparently he was waiting for whoever to come out. Luckily I stumbled just before he shot because I didn't even look around when I first came out. I'm glad to have his things though. He has a pretty nice horse, a good, nearly new saddle, and he had an even newer Henry. He also had nine hundred and forty dollars worth of double eagles. "Damnation. He had a lot of money for a saddle bum," she said. "Yeh, he did, and I'm pretty sure he was robbing for a living instead of working cattle." I said. "It might pay to look around in the woods near here then. He was probably using a wagon he'd already stolen to camp out of," she said, and I thought at once she was probably right. When the coffee was done I built up the fire a little and then sat down and drank a couple of cups with Sally. She had some ham fried and a couple of eggs cooked to go with it ready in a few more minutes and so we ate and then she started cleaning up. I mounted the horse our benefactor had tied up and rode off in the woods for a little and then crossed the road to look on that side. Just as Sally had mentioned I found a wagon, but I didn't like what I found with it. At least there was a shovel in it and so I started digging a couple of graves. There was a young man and an even younger girl lying near the wagon. The man had been shot and the girl's throat had been cut. She had obviously been raped too. I buried the two of them; all the time wishing the robber was still living so I could kill him again, taking more time to cause pain this time. I checked out the wagon and it held clothes for the young girl and the young man. I tried on his pants and shirts and they both fit me fairly well so I rode back to Sally and hitched the team to her wagon. When she was done cleaning up I helped her into the wagon, tied Ben, the name I'd given the jackass's horse, to the back and headed us across the road. I told Sally the tale as we moved. When we got up beside the other wagon we got down and I asked Sally to say a few words or a prayer over the two unknown bodies and she did. I helped her into the wagon then to let her look around. She gathered up all the young man's clothes and told me they would probably fit me. She left the girl's clothes where they were saying they wouldn't fit her at all. I had to move our wagon over closer to the back of the other one then since Sally found a barrel of flour and one of cornmeal in the wagon and when I moved the first one she told me there was a secret door under it. I moved the other barrel before we looked inside the compartment and I was surprised to find a tin box inside it. I was more surprised to find six hundred and nineteen double eagles in the tin box, but I was happy enough. It made me sad in a way, thinking the two bodies we'd buried were a young couple just getting started in life and had it cut short by such an asshole. I got out of the wagon and walked to his body then and took my bowie knife and cut his guts open. Maybe it would entice the animals to get rid of him faster. Sally and I took off then. She asked if I didn't want to try and figure a way to take the wagon with us, but even though I tied the mules on behind ours I didn't want the other wagon. "I figure there is too good a chance we'll be heading through the town it came from. It looked like a farm wagon rigged up for traveling and some folks might not think we were telling the truth about where we got it." I said. The next town was only about five miles but we went straight on through it. We'd already had breakfast and Sally knew of an even bigger town about ten miles down the road. We decided we'd do better stopping there for supplies, as in more eggs and more meat. We changed out mind about three miles out of town when we came up to a farmstead. I pulled the wagon off the road to talk to a man standing out near the front of his house. I asked him if he had any ham, beef, or eggs he might sell and he said could fix me right up if I had real money. I told him I did and so Sally and I got down and he took us to the house and called his wife to the door and introduced us. She and Sally talked a few minutes and we'd hit the mother lode, of food anyway. We bought two smoked hams, five pounds of sliced bacon, four loaves of bread she'd just baked, twenty-four eggs, and even eighteen bear sign she said she'd made yesterday. I was more than happy with the stop and Sally made me even happier when she sliced off some of the ham and made me two sandwiches as we were rolling down the road. We rolled right on through the next town we came to and pulled off the road into the woods to camp after about ten more miles. Sally fixed more sandwiches for supper and they went down even better with fresh coffee. I drank plenty of it, hoping I wouldn't sleep so soundly if I did. What happened this morning had me a little worried and I decided we needed a dog or two to tie to the wagon at night for at least a little warning. We settled into bed about an hour after sunset and though I'd drank four cups of coffee I didn't have any trouble falling asleep. I needed to take a leak when I woke the next morning and I'm pretty sure it was what woke me up. I dressed and latched on my gunbelt but you can bet your ass I took a good look around outside before I got out of the wagon to bleed my lizard. As long as I was up I started a cooking fire, found and filled the coffee pot with water, and then put it near the fire. Sally was awake when I dug out the coffee pot and she was dressed and out of the wagon in a few minutes. She did me up right for breakfast with fried eggs and bacon and she even put a couple of pieces of bread in the skillet to warm them up a little. The coffee was ready when breakfast was and we had plenty while we ate. After we got started I showed Sally my binoculars and told her to try them out looking into the woods on each side of the road. She was amazed with them and I was glad I'd thought of it when she said there were men out there chopping down a tree near the road. There happened to be a wagon not far in front of us when she said it and I pulled the team to a halt as the tree fell into the road stopping the wagon in front. I had my Barrett pointed that way and ready when the first one rode into the road firing his pistol into the air. It was the last thing he'd ever shoot. They made it too easy on me. They came out of the woods single file and I cashed in all six of them. I wondered about them not even firing a shot into the wagon, but I was glad about it. I was even gladder when I walked up to the wagon. The driver was an attractive woman and she had twins, probably fifteen years old on the seat beside her. No doubt the thieves had been saving them with a later raping on their minds. None of them were up to the job now. Sally pulled our wagon up behind theirs and then got down and came up to it with me. I had already introduced myself to Mary, Jan, and Jen and I introduced Sally to them when she came up. None of them had been hurt or wounded in the dust up and Mary asked me if we should bury the men. "I wouldn't waste the time on scum like they were. I'm going to rob their bodies, catch up their horses, and then I plan on moving on," I said. "We should at least stop and fix a little lunch, Jake," Sally said, and I agreed at once. There was an obvious place to pull the wagons off the road, but Mary asked me if I'd do it for her. "Robert, my husband, was killed by a bunch of similar thieves just two weeks ago and I'm not very good at driving yet," Mary said. I gave her my condolences and then told her I'd be glad to drive her wagon into the woods for her. I did it while Sally was pulling ours forward and as I'd almost halfway expected there were two other wagons and sixteen mules already in the spot. I put off looking them over until I went back to the road and drove our wagon up into the woods. Sally hadn't wanted to try it either. I didn't even get to build the fire since Jan or Jen had it going already and Mary already had a pot of coffee makings putting it on the fire. I left the women to do the cooking and started looking into the two parked wagons. There was blood on both the driver's seats but thankfully no bodies were around. "Both wagons had clothes and other household truck in them so I went out to the road and gathered up the outlaw's horses and started going through their pockets. It was a good haul. Each of them had at least thirty double eagles in their pockets and two of them had fifty. They all had good tools of their trade too. Including double holster gun belts with Army Colt conversions in them. They all had a good Henry repeater and two of them had two saddle scabbards with double barrel Greener ten gauge shotguns in the extra scabbards. All their horses looked like good ones and they all had nice, fairly new saddles, except for one who had a good saddle, but it wasn't as new as the others. Our lunch was ready in about twenty more minutes and it was roast beef sandwiches. I told them all about the money I'd found and offered to split it with Mary, but she declined. She did ask me if they could follow us when she found out we were headed for Independence Missouri. I told her she was welcome to and asked her if she could drive a setup like mine. "I've never driven anything like it, but I'm sure I could. Do you need me to drive for you?" she asked. "No. I was thinking about hitching one of these wagons to the back of yours. We might not need it, but we can surely sell it on the way for a pretty good sum," I said. I'll at least try it and do my best," she said. After the meal I went to look at the back of her Conestoga and was surprised to see a loop exactly like mine attached to the back of it. There was also another hook hanging from the loop. I got aboard her wagon and managed to get it turned around to make hooking them up easier and then I hitched a team to the Conestoga that had been parked in the woods. After I attached the hook it was no trouble to get them hitched together. I went ahead and hitched the team to the other wagon and decided to lead out with it in front. We gathered up everything and got aboard and I headed the single wagon out into the road. I parked it and then went back for the others, one at a time. Soon enough we were on our way with me leading in the single wagon. About five miles down the road I pulled up into another farmyard and the whole small train followed me. I'd seen a farmer out in the front yard fooling around with a bunch of dogs and I had lust in my heart for a few of them, or at least one. He told me hell yeh he'd sell a few. "I'd sell five of them in fact, for three dollars each," he said. I pulled out a double eagle while I was totaling the bill in my head, then he said. I'd let the mama dog go for the whole double eagle. I told him it was a deal and then asked him if he had any thing else to sell, as in food. He had about fifty pounds of pinto beans he said he'd share with us and he called his wife out and asked if she had any beef, bacon, or ham he could sell. She did in fact. She had two big beef roast and a cured ham, but no bacon. She did have a big piece of fatback she decided she could do without and I was glad to get it for a dollar since I knew it would good well with the pinto beans. I settled up with him and loaded the food into the wagons and then put the young dogs in with Mary, Jan, and Jen. ------- Chapter 3 I was surrounded by overwhelming beauty by now. Mary was a blue-eyed blonde while Jan and Jen were green-eyed redheads and they were just downright pretty. They also had remarkable titties for girls so young. Actually their hair was more of a deep rich auburn color than a redhead's normal orangey red, and I felt sure their whiter than white skin would make for bright pink nipples and lovely freckles. I couldn't even guess at Mary's age since she seemed way to young to have a pair of sixteen-year-old twins. Still, I recognized Mary as another woman who needed a husband and as far as I was concerned I intended to be that man. It was true Mormons were the most likely to have more than one wife, but having two wasn't illegal at this time to my knowledge and after I felt Sally out about it I was going to hit Mary up for another blessed union. If she'd have me or if she wouldn't I still intended to try and get my dick wet up her, but I knew it would be easier if we were married. It wasn't really that she was better looking than Sally, but she did look equally as fine and as far as I knew too much pussy never hurt any redneck. I noticed the women didn't leave before filling a big pan with water and putting plenty of the new pinto beans in it to soak. Thinking of eating my fill of the beans somehow had me thinking about having my fill of the women too. Sally sidled up to me a little later and whispered something into my ear. "Jake, you know you can have two wives here in Tennessee. In most of the states actually," she said. "Oh, did you spot someone you wanted to help you out with your onerous duties?" I asked. "Well, Mary is awfully pretty and she looks even younger than me," she said. "You're my wife now Sally, and you're damned sure pretty enough for me," I said. "Well, you're my husband, and I have to look out for your well being. Besides, you'll wear me plumb out if I have to handle that big dick by myself all the time. I think I'll talk to Mary and see if she's ever considered such," she said. I noticed Sally went back to sit with Mary as we left. I was sure they intended to talk over what Sally mentioned to me, or at least I was sure Sally intended to feel Mary out about it. Hell, I just kept my eyes open along the roadside woods and drove on. After I figured I'd made about ten more miles I pulled us off the road and off into the woods. As soon as I had the team stopped I went back to the other rig and pulled it in beside the first one. Mary and Sally were both grinning at me when I got up beside them and Mary handed over the reins right away. I pulled this setup in beside the other one and everyone bailed out. Even the twins grinned at me when I helped them down and I wondered if they were in on the secret too. No matter, I was sure I'd find out soon enough. I scared up the makings for a fire and as soon as it was going the pinto beans were on it and the skillet came out and ham was in it frying before long. Mary had another Dutch oven and she made up a bunch of cathead biscuits and put them on the fire too. By the time supper was ready it was damned good. The beans could use another bout on the fire, but they were still good tonight. I ate all I could possibly hold, and while the girls and women were cleaning up I tied the dogs to the wagon wheels and then tucked Jan and Jen into bed for the night. "Jake, you will take good care of Sally and Mama tonight won't you?" Jen asked me. "I'll take as good a care of them as I have the strength for," I said, and the two of them giggled at me. Sally met me when I came down out of the wagon and told me to go ahead and ask Mary to marry me too. Hell, I didn't have any better sense than to do it and Mary surprised me by smiling her widest and saying we could have a nice triple wedding as soon as we found a preacher who would do it. She and Sally got into the wagon next and said they'd call for me when they were ready. I didn't know how ready I was until I got inside. They were both on top of the covers and buck-naked when I got in. Sally had the lantern lit again and when I shucked my clothes they started talking about the size of my dick between them. I was even happier when they both took hold of it when I got in the bed between them. Sally was nearly on fire when I kissed her and Mary wasn't far behind. I ran it up Sally first and she sure as hell saluted. I think part of it was because Mary went to kissing and sucking on her nipples as soon as I pushed it up her. I managed to hold out when Sally went off and I was soon wiggling my way between Mary's legs. Damnation, her pussy was hot inside and it felt grand. She wrapped her legs around my waist and pumped back up at me when we got going and I shared the white lotion with her just as she got her cookies. Then I sagged down between them and they both started kissing and petting around on me as I drifted off to sleep. It was probably only an hour later when a little movement woke me. I opened my eyes and raised my head and noticed right away Sally and Mary both had their heads down near my dick and they were playing with it. Just then Mary slurped it up into her mouth, lashing along its length with her tongue and then she sucked her way back off it and encouraged Sally to try the same. Sally learned fast. Mary noticed I was awake now and giggled just a little. "I didn't think it would take much of this to wake you up. We decided we needed to work you harder to get you in shape to handle all your upcoming duties," Mary said. "Yeh, has Mary got a surprise for you," Sally said, and giggled a little herself. "You will need to show Jan and Jen just how it goes between men and women. They're both old enough to try it now and I want you to show them all about it. Besides, if they know they'll be taken care of at home they won't be nearly as likely to give it up to some no-account they might meet," Mary said. At least I wasn't fool enough to start any arguments, and when Sally lay down on her back I got over between her legs and put Jr where he belonged. Mary was intent on helping this time. At first she just kissed around on my neck and ears and then she put her lips to one of Sally's nipples and sucked it up very hard. It was inspiring to me and I kept pounding. When Mary put her lips to Sally's though, I could feel myself getting close. Sally solved the problem by going off just then and it let me feel free to share the white creamy lotion with her. It was all so exciting to me I didn't even go down in stiffness. Mary hit her back, spread her legs, and then pulled me over to mount her. I was in heaven, but it was only the start. Mary began tugging at Sally and soon had her squatting over her face and she started licking out the mess I'd left in Sally. Just the thought of it would have made me as hard as steel and getting to watch it so closely made me even harder. As I pumped on, Mary's hips caught up to the tempo and she was fucking up at me from below while Sally was moaning and wiggling from Mary's attention to her pussy. At least I got Mary off, big time, before I shot my wad, but from the sounds she made I was sure Sally got the best end of the come. I sagged down onto Mary's lush body then, out of breath. Soon enough she rolled me off between her and Sally and they kissed and nibbled on me until I was sawing logs again. I guess it was about an hour before sunrise when the dogs earned their keep. At first I heard the youngsters making little noises and then the mama dog cut loose with a low growling. I was up and into my pants and boots in seconds and peeking out the front of the wagon with a Greener in my hands a few seconds later. There were two scrounge looking assholes sitting at our fire and they seemed to be making a pot of coffee. I let the Greener lead the way out, but when my head cleared the curtain I spoke up. "You two had better get your hands up away from your guns pretty fast. I've got a ten gauge Greener on you and you ain't gonna live much longer if you don't," I said, and I'll admit it was a little loud. I'm not sure if they thought they were going to fool me or what, but one of them raised his hands and the other one tried to turn my way, drawing his revolver at the same time. I cut loose with both barrels and it made one hell of a mess. The one who had stood and raised his hands was nearly cut in half and the other one lost both ears, both eyes, and most of his face was shot to doll rags. I grabbed up my Marlin, and after looking around, I bailed out of he wagon. I wasn't worried about the first two since I knew they were at least out of action for now. The one I'd shot in the back was pouring blood out, no doubt from his ruined kidneys, and the other one couldn't see shit without his eyes. I didn't see shit either, as in; they didn't have any help nearby. I was glad enough about that. I looked around in my toolbox, which was attached to the side of the wagon and pulled out a pair of pliers, then I went over to the one that was still alive. He started trying to say something as I unlatched his pants and pulled them down off his feet. I finally understood him after a couple of tries. "What are you doing to me mister?" he said. "I'm about to ask you a few questions. I'm just pulling your pants down so I can slice off parts of your dick if you don't tell me what I know and tell the truth about it," I said, and then I clamped down on his dickhead with the pliers and showed him I had a good grip on things. I started out with easy questions. "How did you know where we were parked?" I asked. "We saw the fire from the road," he said, as if he were proud of it. "Where is your other loot hidden?" I asked. "What other loot?" he said, and so I eased the pliers off and grabbed his dickhead by the very end and then I sliced the little bit I had hold of off. "Now, do we have a better understanding of what will happen to you if you keep lying? Where have you hidden your loot?" I asked. "It's on this side of the road, back in the woods about half a mile up the road," he said. "How many are watching it?" I asked, and he looked like he was going to try holding out on me again so I put the sharp edge of my knife about half way down his dick and just cut it slightly. "Two, just Jed and Clem are watching over it," he said, and I figured it was all I needed out of him so I went ahead and cut his dick in two. Just to make sure he bled to death soon I grabbed his ball sack, pulled it out tight, and sliced it off him too. "Now I guess you see what robbing innocent people gets you," I said, and went back to the wagon. Sally and Mary were waiting near the front of the wagon when I went back to it. I told them what I'd learned. I had them both check the Greeners to make sure they were loaded and then told them I was going up to where the two had told me their loot was hidden. "But what for? It will be dangerous," Sally said. "It will be more dangerous for us tomorrow when we have to go that way in the wagons. It's better to just go up and kill them tonight. I'll send Jan and Jen over here to get in with you two as I leave," I said, and then knocked on the other wagon when I got to it. Jan and Jen didn't waste any time getting out of the wagon and heading over to join their mother and Sally. I stayed around to watch since they didn't even bother to put on any clothes as they went. The fire was low by now, but it still gave off enough light to show me their perky titties and let their pouty naked asses flash me a good look as they went. Of course it left me walking with a hard dick, but I counted that as all to the good too, since it helped me pay attention to what was going on. Jed and Clem must have been tending to the fire since it was fairly bright and it led me right to where I was going. It also let me look around carefully and I couldn't see anyone else around them. They were easy enough to spot though since they were leaned up against a couple of trees and passing a bottle back and forth between them. I guess I really should have taken the time to capture the two of them, but what the hell, it was dark and I was tired of this shit already. I shot the one who had the bottle up drinking a big slug in the chest and as fast as I could lever the Marlin I shot the other one while he was still looking around. I walked over to take a look at the both of them and they were as dead as turds in a punchbowl. Well, that would stop me from asking them any questions. They weren't needed though since a look inside the wagon let me know where the loot was hidden. There were two barrels of flour, one of cornmeal, and one of moonshine. After I got inside I found a box with a smaller tin box inside it and when I opened it I saw it was damned nearly full of double eagles. I didn't take the time to count them right then, but I knew it had to be three or four hundred. I got back down out of the wagon and searched the bodies. They each had thirty double eagles on them and they both had double holster gun belts with Colt conversions in them. I gathered it all up and put it in the wagon and then started stripping off their clothes. When I found the first pair of pants full of newly released shit I gave up on their clothes, but I did take their boots. Hell, one pair even looked like I might be able to wear it. I saddled their mounts and then had to look around for their rifles since both their saddle scabbards were empty. The rifles were in the wagon and I left them there. I was about to hitch the mules to the wagon when I got a message from Argus. "Jake, we'd like to do a little work on this wagon before you take it. Why don't you leave it where it is and come back for it in the morning? We'll keep a watch on it and on the mules too," Argus said, and I didn't mind if I did. I walked back to where our wagons were and was happy to climb in with Sally and Mary when I got there. "Did you find the wagon?" Mary asked. "Yes. It's right up the road. We can pick it up when we leave in the morning," I said. It satisfied them and I was glad no questions came up. I wouldn't mind telling them about the spacemen, but then again I'd rather leave that little detail off. After I'd shed my clothes I noticed Jan and Jen were in bed with Sally and Mary and I was a little surprised when Mary motioned for me to lie down between the to youngsters. I was more surprised when she pulled the covers off them and I saw they were just as naked as Mary and Sally. I didn't mind getting in between them, even if it was a little crowded. In fact the crowding made it even better because it caused the girls to snuggle all their naked bits right up against me. Who says a man can't get to sleep with a hard on? ------- Chapter 4 Even though I trusted the dogs to warn me of unwelcome guests I didn't try bailing outside without looking around again. And even though I needed to piss like a Rocky Mountain Racehorse I still released the dogs before finding a tree to water. I knew the dogs needed to pee too and they were scratching and sniffing before I could even get my pants unzipped. I'd just finished shaking the dew off my lily when one of them started barking and then the rest joined in. I zipped up and went to see what was up. They had a girl treed, or nearly so. I told them to shut up and went to her to see if she was hurt. "No, I'm not hurt yet mister, but four assholes killed my pa yesterday and they captured me. I think they would have raped me last night if I hadn't managed to slip off into the woods and hide before they got around to it. The last thing I heard them say was they'd find me after the sun came up and then they'd show me they meant business." she said, and tears were leaking out of her eyes by now. "Don't worry about a thing honey. I'll take you back to my wagons and let my women take care of you then I'll find the men who did all this and I'll take care of them," I said. Mary and Sally were already up and cooking when I brought Jean over to introduce her. I picked up a Greener to go with my Marlin and revolvers and took off toward the wagon and mules I had waiting in the woods. Sure enough, four men were looking over my find when I got there and they were arguing over whether to keep looking for the girl or hitch up the wagon and take off with it. Since they were all bunched up closely together I cut loose with the Greener, both barrels, and then set it down and brought the Marlin up into firing shape. One of them was still in good enough shape to have a revolver in his hand, but the Marlin made him drop it right away. The rest seemed too badly wounded to do anything so I walked up on them. "Howdy Gents. Were you looking for a young girl before you decided to steal my wagon?" I asked them, and one of them asked me if I'd seen her. "Of course I saw her. I took her back to my other wagons so my women could take care of her, but I guess I've settled your hash now anyway. Who wants to start talking first?" I asked. "We ain't telling you shit," one of them said, and so I shot him just under his nose and it made a fucking mess of his head. It even popped his eyes out. "Any of the rest of you want to take up his attitude?" I asked them and they all claimed they didn't. "That's good, now tell me where your loot is hid out," I said. "Ain't you gonna try to help us out and doctor us up a little first?" one of them asked. "Shit, if I wanted you to live I wouldn't have shot you in the first place, but if you tell me where your loot is I won't do nothing else to you and I'll let you die in peace. Bleeding to death ain't such a painful way to die you know, least that's what I've heard." I said. None of them said anything else so I walked to the closest one and pulled his pants off him, or at least I pulled them down far enough to let me get at his dick with no problem. "What are you doing mister. Are you one of them cocksuckers?" the pant less one said. "I'm glad you think it's a joke," I said, and reached into my pocket and pulled out the pliers I'd kept up with yesterday. He didn't think it was a bit funny when I clamped them onto his dickhead and he really though the joke had gone too far when I pulled out my big Bowie knife. "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do for you. For all of you in fact. I'm going to cut your dicks off about an inch at a time until one of you tells me where your loot is hid out," I said, and then I sliced the head off the dick I had hold off. I was going to ask him if it felt like I was giving him a cocksucking, but he was screaming too loud to hear it if I'd asked. "Ok, he's too busy screaming now to answer any questions so which one of you wants to be next?" I asked. I didn't get any volunteers so I picked one. He was the fattest one and he actually looked tougher than the others, but he spilled his guts as soon as I had his pants down. He might have been just telling me something to get me to leave him alone, but I tied his hands and feet and all the others too before I headed down the road to find the wagon he'd told me about. It was a shitty little farm wagon, but it was full of stuff. I looked through it and found another tin box sorta like the one I'd found so much gold in. This one was full too, and it might have had a little more in it. I decided to finish them off figuring it was all they had. I walked back and when I got to them again I shot them each in the forehead with one of my colts and then I went back to our wagons. Sally and Mary were cooking while Jan, Jen, and Jean were sitting around and watching. Jean was on a deadfall and I sat down beside her, put my arm around her and told her she was safe from the others now. "Did you run them off?" she asked. "No, I killed them off," I said, and she wrapped her arms around me and thanked me. I kissed her forehead and told her she'd be fine now. I asked her if they had stolen her wagon, but she said they hadn't. They had taken their mules off it though and hitched them to a wagon they already had. I showed all the women and girls what I'd found in the wagon then and they were excited. Jan and Jen wanted to count the money and I let them. They came up with two hundred and twenty-six double eagles and it reminded me I hadn't robbed the bodies of the men I'd killed. ------- Chapter 5 Breakfast was ready soon enough and I dug in. It was good and I ate plenty and then sat around on my ass drinking a last cup of coffee. Sally asked what I was going to do next and I told them about forgetting to rob the bodies of the last men I'd killed. After I'd finished I left the women cleaning up, saddled a horse and headed back for the scene of last night's executions. It was good enough I did it because I found twenty double eagles in all their pockets except for the last one. He had the best clothes on and he had eighty double eagles on him in all. I gathered their horses and saddled them up and then started looking around for anything else, which might be worth anything. They each had an Army Colt conversion and two of them had a pair of them. I took their gun belts and revolvers but left their clothes alone since I could already smell shit from their relaxing bowels. I did take their boots and hats, but once again none of the hats would fit my head. I mounted the best horse they'd had and lead the others back to where the women were parked. I tied the horses onto the back wagon when I made it back and then removed the tack and put it inside the back wagon. We were on our way within an hour and even though I kept one horse saddled I still tied him onto the back wagon and rode in the front one. We didn't make it far until we had to turn off the road again and see about the wagon Argus had told me they were going to work on. It was right where I'd left it. I started a fire and put on a pot of water to boil for more coffee. This wagon now had a loop on the back like the others they had provided and there was a hook hanging from the loop for attaching to a wagon tongue. The coffee was ready in a little bit and while Sally, Mary, and I were downing a couple of cups Jan, Jen, and Jean were going through the wagon. They found a wooden box inside it, but it was nailed together all around. They brought it out to me and I took a prybar to it and removed the top. Damnation, it was the biggest haul yet. I let the three girls count the money and they came up with three hundred and seventy-six double eagles. Now we were talking about real money. As soon as we finished our coffee and polished off the bearsign to keep them from going stale I started getting the wagons in shape to get them moving. We made it about five miles before four men coming from the other direction waved us down. They were all wearing cheap shit imitation tin badges and the leader told me he was going to have us take us back into town. "Well, you've got it to do," I said, and let him see the Greener I'd pointed his way. "Hell, mister, you can't scare me with that Greener, I'm the sheriff of Clarkston, the next town on down the road," he said, and I nearly laughed at him. "Well, Mr. Sheriff. I'm just wondering how you got to be sheriff of a town and not of a county. I may look stupid but I just ain't that dumb. I guess you'd thought you should call yourself a sheriff since it's what's wrote on the badge you stole somewhere," I said, and then I did laugh at him. I could see the others knew the bullshit was over now, and when one of them reached toward his pistol I cut loose with both barrels. They had been kind enough to be sitting their horses close together and so they were all hit, early and often. The faux sheriff caught the worst of it, but all of them were hit hard. He, and the one next to him were blown off their horses and the other two fell off after a few seconds. I got down out of the wagon seat and pulled a Ruger before doing anything else. After checking the bodies I found they were all dead, except for one who kept telling me he was dying, but didn't actually expire until I cut his throat. Apparently they'd been doing well with this scheme since they all had at least fifty double eagles in their pockets. The faux sheriff had seventy-one of them, maybe it was because he was the smartest. They were all bequeathing me a double holster gun belt and two nice Army Colt conversions and they were well supplied with long guns too. All except the sheriff had a Henry in a saddle scabbard and also a Greener ten gauge in another saddle scabbard. I guess the sheriff didn't think he needed anything except his talking to get him by. Oh well, I finally found a hat big enough to fit me on one of them and I took the time to try on their boots until I found two pair that fit me too. Thankfully they were low mileage models. I stripped everything off them even if I did leave their shitty britches in the ditch after I dragged the bodies off into the woods. I stripped the tack from their horses and put it in a wagon and after taking a look at their horses I decided I could do better farther along and I swatted their asses and sent them on down the road behind us. We didn't have any more trouble for the rest of the day. We came into a little town about two hours before sunset and stopped to get a meal in a cafe there. It was nothing fancy, but the beef and beans were good and it would be easier to eat now and just go on out of town to set up camp. As we were heading out of town Argus broke in to give me the lowdown on the wagon he'd fixed up. He wanted me to move our sleeping things into it for the night. He told me they had lined the wooden sides and front and back sections with light metal that would turn bullets. I hadn't noticed the wagon being too heavy and so as soon as we pulled off the road I did as he asked. Well, the women did most of it, but they didn't complain. I did notice we went directly to sleep as soon as we lay down though. I felt more confident when we woke the next morning since the dogs hadn't made a peep during the night. I still took a good look around outside before I bailed out to start a fire for cooking breakfast though. Everything was ok and soon enough the coffee was on and the cooking was too. We ate up and there was plenty and then I was hitching the teams and we took off on down the road again. We pulled into a little town just before noon and had a meal in a cafe. It was thankfully uneventful. About six miles out of town we came up on a wagon stopped in the road. As we passed them I could see one of their mules was down and a man and woman were trying to get it out of its harness and get the wagon loose and ready to go again. I stopped to help. John and Clara Jenkins were headed west too, but first we had to get the mule pulled out of the way. I helped with removing the harness and then put a little on one of our spare mules and we used it to pull the dying one out of the way. "I don't know what happened to it. It just started walking a little funny and then fell down," John said. Since we were all headed the same way I loaned him a mule and we hitched it in with his others. We made about six more miles and then pulled off into the woods and set up a camp. Clara joined my women in cooking a nice supper. After it was eaten we sat around and drank coffee and then got in the wagons to sleep for the night. John and Clara traveled along with us for the next two days until we came to Memphis. John bought another mules in town, but they stayed around town saying they were going to spend a few days shopping for things they needed. I figured we had all we needed and so I headed us north along the river road and when we came to a ferry we crossed and I was glad enough to pay our way over. There was a town on the other side of the river where the ferry let us off. The town had been a small one and even though it had two saloons we didn't see a cafe and so we pulled off into the woods out of town to camp. The women cooked supper as soon as I had a fire going and then we cleaned up the dishes and went to bed. We woke with the sunrise the next morning and were out of the wagons and eating breakfast soon enough. I didn't have any idea why, but I felt a little uneasy this morning. I was especially watchful along the sides of the road here. After all, we weren't far from Missouri's southern border and there had been a lot of raider activity along it during the civil war. Barely two miles after we'd started it looked like, to me, there was going to be some similar to raiding activity this morning. I saw an axe head flashing as an asshole was chopping on a tree right beside the road. I pulled our wagon to a stop at my best guess at five hundred yards from the axe work and I picked up the Barrett and took a look at what I could see. The scope I'd bought for it paid for itself then. There were four other mounted men looking our way and apparently they realized they'd fucked up their attack somehow. I think they must have assumed I was just having other troubles since the mounted men started toward us while staying in the woods. I didn't have the heart to laugh at them but they were pulling a stupid stunt for real. The smart thing for me would have been to start shooting the horses, but who said I was smart. I'd still end up having to kill the men and the horses weren't to blame. Hell, one of two of them might be worth having. When they came within two hundred yards I showed them I had a rifle that could reach out and touch them. I shot the first in line, thinking he was probably the leader and got the one right behind him next. That left two of them still coming, albeit much more slowly, and the one was still chopping on the tree. The men moved even farther into the woods but kept coming and I got a good chance and shot one more of them. It left one man coming my way and he quit that shit right away and turned back heading toward the tree chopper again. I stayed on my ass stopped in the road, but I did pick up my binoculars to give them a better looking over. When the last rider made it back to the chopper I shot the rider and then the axe man. I took the binoculars again and searched for others but didn't find any more so I started the team moving again and stopped at the first body I came to. That Barrett sure gave an authoritative accounting of itself. When I went to check the dead man he was dead, thoroughly dead. I had hit him a little left of center in the chest and apparently his heart had been destroyed en passant. It must have kept beating though because there was blood everywhere. He was a good prize though because he had forty double eagles in his pockets, a nice bowie knife on his gunbelt and a nice looking Colt conversion. I wondered if he'd ever shot anyone with it and I wondered how he'd felt being killed by and even larger bullet, right at the last. The others were about the same as I came to them. Thirty eight to forty double eagles, Colt conversions, and big bloody holes in their chest. Their horses were nice enough though and mostly seemed like Quarterhorses though I realized the breed nor association had been started yet. Still, their large hindquarters and agile movement made them similar to the Quarterhorses of my original time. I was glad enough to get them, especially the big sorrel stallion. Two bay mares looked really good too. We kept our eyes open and binoculars in use for the next two or three miles on the lookout for wagons pulled into the woods. It seemed these roving road-pirates usually had a wagon or two in the woods near where they were setting up their ambushes. Damned if I didn't spot one. A wagon that is. I wasn't sure it had been left by the crooks, but it was off the road about two hundred yards and so I decided to pull off near it and camp for the night. There was plenty of room for both our double wagon rigs but not much extra. I built a fire on the remains of one from probably last night. When I looked in the wagon there was blood on the seat, but luckily if there were any bodies they'd either been dragged off of buried. I suppose they had already sold the mules since there were none picketed nearby. I guess it was good enough. The wagon wasn't such a much and we already had four traveling down the road. It didn't take long to get supper going and we ate it, cleaned up, and then crawled into the wagons for sleep. The dogs woke me a few hours later and it must have been more than a few since I could see the sun was rising. It wasn't what had my attention though. Two men were riding up and looking over our wagons. "Bill, Jeff, Jeb, wake your asses up. I see you done made a hell of a haul and we want to know what you've got for loot," the first man in the pair said. I dressed and let a Greener ten gauge lead me out of the front of our rig. "Oh, you guys must think those robbers won the fight yesterday. They didn't. They're about a mile or two down the road out in the woods. At least we dragged them off the road when we killed them. It was awful nice of you to come on into the woods so we can just leave you where you drop," I said. "What?" he asked. "Drop your guns if you want to live long enough to talk about it," I said, and I didn't think I left any wiggle room in my statement. He must have thought so though because he dropped his hand for his revolver. I let the Greener put forth my arguments and it got them both. I had it mainly pointed at the one going for his weapon though so he took the brunt of the blast. The other one was right up near him and so he caught a lot of the over spray. It didn't do him any good at all and he went off his horse too though I think it was just his clumsiness since he basically fell off instead of being blown off like the other one. Me and a Ruger got down to look them over and I was a little pissed since the one who'd taken the lions share of the lead had on a nice new shirt and he was about my size. Well, it had been a nice shirt but it was rags now, and bloody rags at that. It didn't hurt the gold eagles I found in their pockets though. "Oh God that hurts," the one I'd only wounded said. Of course he was the only one in any shape to be doing any talking by now. "Well, partner, what did you expect when you took up robbing and stealing for a living?" I asked him. "I hadn't even taken it up yet. I was just riding out here with George to see about joining them." he said. "Well, all I can tell you was it was the wrong damned day for it. I'm glad you did though. That looks like a damned good horse you were riding and I'm gonna like it I'm sure." I said. "What? You're gonna steal my horse?" he asked. "Well dumbass. When you thought of taking up robbing and stealing you didn't think you might get robbed yourself? Welcome to the real world. Besides, it would be plumb cruel to just leave the horse here with you dead and all." I said. "But I ain't dead mister. I'll admit I ain't in the best shape, but I probably won't die from it," he said. "Oh. You might live over that little bit of buckshot I put in you, but I don't think you'll live over it when I cut your throat in a little bit." I said. "Please mister, don't do that. I don't want to die," he said. "I'm sure none of the people they been robbing wanted to die either. But there's blood on the seat of that wagon over there and I don't see no wounded man around. I'll just go ahead and cut your throat in case you were lying about just starting out stealing." I said. He pissed and moaned so I wanted to check his pants to see if he didn't have another set of lips instead of a dick. I knew I wasn't likely to run into paragons of virtue and bravery out robbing people on the road, but damn. It was even worse to run into sniveling cowards. I'd heard enough out of him by now and I just went ahead and slit his throat. He'd already told me he was brand new at the game and I doubted he could lead me to any of their stolen loot. At least he wasn't starting out dead broke. He did have two double eagles on him and he had outfitted himself nicely for the trade too. He had a double holster rig on with two newly converted Army Colts. The other one was the big prize though. Hell he had ten double eagles in each pocket and a double holster gun belt with two equally good converted Colts to go in them. It wasn't the last of the deadmen's loot either. Both horses were nice and both their saddles looked nearly new and were well made. To top it off they both had a saddle scabbard on each side of their mounts with new looking Henrys in one side and good Greeners on the other. Their saddlebags were even full of ammunition. I slung some harness on one of the mules and dragged their dead asses off into the woods a little farther. When I had them out there I pulled off their boots and took them back with me in case we came to a place we could sell them. Everyone else came out of the wagons after I finished dealing with the deadmen and breakfast was on the fire soon enough. I was looking forward to some coffee, but took a look in the wagon out in the woods by its lonesome while it was making. Hell, it was a damned good thing I did. There was a barrel of flour, one of cornmeal, and one of whiskey in it and a good cache of meat, mostly smoked ham and bacon. There was also a stout lockbox with a chicken shit little padlock on it. I found a hammer and a prybar in the wagon and removed the lock and was stunned when I got the box open. Hell, it was full to the brim with double eagles. It had to be five hundred of more. I put the box near the back of the wagon and brought it to breakfast with me. After we'd eaten I moved the meat cache over into one of our wagons and set Jan, Jen, and Jean to counting the new money I'd found. I had to hook a couple of mules to the wagon to move it to the back of one of ours so I could wrestle the flour, cornmeal, and whiskey into one of our wagons. We now had two barrels of whiskey of the "white lightning" persuasion and I figured I'd better try to sell it before too long so we could quit hauling it. If the wagon had of been in better shape I'd have been pissing and moaning a little myself, about the lack of mules, but it wasn't much worth a shit. I did at least decide to look it over real good before we left though. The girls came up with seven hundred and thirty-six double eagles when they finished counting and I knew we were set for cash with all we'd been picking up along the way. ------- Chapter 6 While the girls were poking around in the wagon I sat on my ass and watched the women cook. It was my favorite way to spend time. Our lunch was ready in half an hour or so and we ate up and then cleaned up. Soon enough we had our traveling show on the road and we didn't run into anyone else before we hit a small town just before sunset. We pulled to a stop in front of the first saloon I saw and I went inside to talk to the bartender/owner. He wanted to come sample the whiskey and I let him. I knocked out the bung stopper and he dipped out a sample of each barrel. He offered me two hundred and fifty dollars for both of them and I told him Hell yeh. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass to get both double wagon rigs around back to unload, but I wanted to make sure we stayed together. I had to unhitch the wagons and then back one of them to his back door, but after he paid me he got some men from in his place to come out and unload. We took off as soon as we had the whiskey unloaded and we only had to go about five miles out of town to find a place to pull out into the woods for the night. I built us a fire and the women put a meal together. After eating we cleaned up the dishes and piled into the wagons to sleep with the dogs tied to the wheels. We must have been asleep for a couple of hours when the dogs started making some noise. I put my pants and boots on and picked up my Marlin and poked my head slowly out of the front of the wagon. I spotted two assholes out in the woods and one of them had his revolver out pointing it at the dogs. "Don't shoot the dogs. The noise a gunshot makes will wake them up for sure." one of them said. "Well, we can't sneak up on them with the dogs. They'll wake 'em up for sure," the other one said. "Hell, I'm already awake, and I've got you in my sights. Put your weapons down or die where you stand," I said, loudly. The one with his pistol already out turned toward my voice and I shot him since he didn't put his revolver down. Then I shot the other one on general principles. Hell, they'd both come out to rob us so what the hell. Of course it woke all the women and girls, but I told them to just hunker down and find their Greeners. I got down off the wagon and went to the bodies, but they were both dead already. At least I found their horses so I led them over with ours, took off their saddles, and tied them up. Thankfully they had been a hundred yards or so out in the woods so I left them where they were after making sure they were dead. It didn't take me long to get back to sleep and I sawed logs until sunlight woke me the next morning. The women and girls were already out and cooking when I woke so I put my clothes on and went out to join them. We had a nice breakfast and then packed up and took off. We were heading toward Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We made it within ten miles or so before sunset and we pulled off the road into the woods again for the night. After a good supper we went to bed and I felt confident the dogs would let us know if anyone came around. No matter how sure of the dogs I'd become I still looked around closely before leaving the wagon the next morning. Everything seemed fine so I got out and untied the dogs to let them scratch and sniff and take care of other business before I stepped up to a tree and watered it myself. I built up a fire and the women did the honors for breakfast. We had plenty to eat and after we'd finished I hitched the teams while the women were cleaning up and packing up. We mounted up and took off to head on up the road. I figured we were just outside of Cape Girardeau after a couple of hours on the road and we headed right into town. A town marshal with a real looking badge and everything was sitting on the sidewalk in a chair he had put out right in front of his office. He came over to talk when I stopped the wagons in front of a cafe and he asked if we'd seen anyone who looked like trouble on the road so I told him about the dustup with the would be robbers and let him know we'd left the bodies out in the woods. I'll be damned if he didn't thank me for taking care of them and say he'd had reports of them out there trying to rob people. "It ain't my job to take care of assholes like that but we ain't got much in the way of a sheriff in this county. He sent two deputies that way about a week ago and they never came back. The deputies weren't too smart in the first place and both the sheriff and I figured the robbers either killed them of else they joined up with them. Seems like you've cured our ills no matter what happened." he said, and then he drifted off and sat back down in his chair. I was mentally bracing for trouble when we entered the cafe and I was right too, sorta. We'd barely found an empty table when an asshole at another one started trying to talk to the women and he got a little shitty when they ignored him. I was about to pull a Ruger and try discouraging him when I noticed an older man sitting at the bar stop eating and turn around and shoot the one causing the trouble. At least he didn't kill him, only shooting him in the shoulder, but the wailing and bemoaning the wounded man made was a little annoying. Just then the shooter walked over to where the wounded one was laid out on the floor and gave him a good stout kick in the ribs. 'I've warned you before about bothering the decent customers in my cafe, Cletus. Now you probably know I meant what I said. Jenny, go fetch the marshal," the owner said and one of the waitresses left through the front door and came back with the marshal in a few minutes. "So you finally got tired of his worthless ass, huh George?" the marshal asked. "Yep, I'd already bout had my fill of him and then he started bothering these folks what just came in to eat." the shooter said. "Hell, you probably done him a favor. These folks just took care of the robbers we'd been hearing about down the road. I doubt they'd have put up with much of his shit. At least they don't have to now." "Cletus, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace. We'll call the doctor over to see if he can save your stupid ass in a little while. Jethro, you and Gilmer come on in and haul this dumb bastard over to the jail. After you get him locked in a cell send for the doctor to look at him." the marshal said in a loud voice, and two men came in, took a leg each of the wounded man and dragged him out the door. That was it for the excitement and we finished our meal and left after paying. We were out of town and a couple of miles down the road in about an hour and I spotted a good pull-off and headed into the woods at it. It was obviously a regular camping spot and so we got out and built a fire for coffee and later the women put a meal on to cook. I took the dogs on a walk around the spot and let them sniff to their hearts content and I made it back with them when supper was nearly ready. We ate and then got ready to go to sleep. It was still a little early, but there was really nothing to stay up for and when the women called me into the wagon I could tell right away I had work to do. Every one of them, even Jean who'd just joined us, were naked and lying in the bed. It was a good fight ma, but I lost. In fact I was pussy whipped within an inch of my life. Mary's twins and Jean nearly did me in. Mary's twins were well and truly ready for a dick ride by this late date and Jean caught the mood from them I guess. I didn't have a bitch coming but I was fucked to sleep before it was all over with. Just at sunup the dogs started whining to be turned loose. I felt I should be in a bad mood over them waking me up so early, but what the hell, I'd fallen off to sleep early enough last night. I dragged on my jeans and a shirt and then strapped on my revolvers and bailed out of the wagon for a look around before building a fire for the women to cook on. I should have known things were going too well this morning and it was only a few minutes before I spotted some asshole sneaking around out in the woods and creeping up on me. I walked back over to the wagon, told the women to stay inside and stay down and then I pulled a Greener out and turned back toward the last place I'd seen the sneak about. He'd moved since then, but he'd crept up closer. I could see he had a revolver in his hands and so I decided to speak up. "I see you out there spying on our camp and I've noticed you have a gun in hand. I'm about to cut down on you with this Greener ten gauge unless you drop that gun," I said, pointing the Greener right at him. Instead of dropping the revolver he tried to duck down behind some brush. It was a fool's move since the thin brush wouldn't stop a thing but I counted it as his decision anyway and touched off the Greener. I held it in my left hand after I'd fired and pulled the right hand Ruger for more action if it was needed. It wasn't. It's hard to explain what two loads of ten gauge double ought buckshot will do to a man, but it probably isn't too hard to figure out it is nothing good. He was a bloody torn up mess when I walked over to him in case he needed a coup de grâce. He didn't. In the vernacular he was deader than shit. I figured it was mostly because his chest was ripped open nearly completely. His stilled heart was even visible, even though I could easily see it wasn't fit for anything any longer. I searched his pockets and he had ninety something double eagles on him. His revolver was a lost cause now too since it had taken a good dose of the buckshot. Thankfully he was about twenty feet out in the woods and he wasn't a distraction while we ate our supper. Even though we had come out without a scratch I was still unnerved by the altercation. While the women and girls did their best to take my mind off my troubles it was still a restless sleep for me that night. It turned out to be a good thing since the dogs were making low growling noises when I woke around sunrise. I slipped into my clothes, buckled on my Rugers, and took up the Greener again before I stuck my head out of the wagon. I'll be damned if two turd heads weren't asleep near where the cooking fire had been. I could even tell they'd added fuel to it during the night. I warned the women and girls to be quiet and then slipped silently out of the wagon and crept over to where they were bedded down. I used a Ruger firing over their heads to wake them and I'm pretty sure they first thing they saw they could make sense of were the two big smoke holes of the Greener. I at least waited until they were both awake and trying to think of something to say to get them out of the fix they were in before blowing their asses away. I found their horses picketed to some low hanging branches and I threw the saddles back on them and tying them with our other stock. The bodies didn't have much worth a shit on them. They had a couple of double eagles each and they both had a Colt conversion, but they appeared to be down to only the shells in the guns. It wasn't exactly the shape I'd expected to find two robbers in, though it was possible they had only recently joined the game. What the hell, maybe I'd shot two innocent men. I felt sure I'd live over it if it were the case. The women and girls were out fixing breakfast before I finished snooping around. We ate soon enough and a mule wandered up and joined the party while we were finishing. I got up to look around more carefully while the others cleaned up. I noticed the mule walked over to the two horses we'd gained from the owl hoots last night and so I figured they had been traveling together. A little searching around let me find where the mule had been tied. It was obvious he'd pulled loose during the night and I nearly stumbled over his packsaddle. It was worth finding too since it held more ammunition for the dead men's weapons and it also had a fairly large canvas bag with a lot of double eagles in it. I took the bag to Jan, Jen, and Jean and they began counting it right away. We were having a last cup of coffee before heading out when the girls made the happy announcement. There had been seventeen hundred and forty nine double eagles in the big bag. I thought it was worth the effort to get up and shoot the bastards after all. We left them laying and headed out with their horses and their money. ------- Incomplete and Inactive ------- Posted: 2010-07-30 Last Modified: 2010-10-26 / 06:50:58 pm ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------