Untamed Journey by Eden Carson Read Free Book Online

exactly where he’d left them, hidden
between two cars.
    “What’s happening young man?” the old woman
whispered, clasping her wrinkled hands together.
    “My men are on the way,” Jackson quietly
replied, gesturing toward the oncoming riders. “But we’re in no
position to help from here. We need to get out in front of the
engine and place the gunmen between us and the Marshals on
horseback.”
    Before they had moved even ten yards in the
direction of the engine, gunfire erupted.
    “Run!” Jackson shouted the order as he pulled
Ruth behind the cover of his body.
    The old couple scrambled to follow, but were
nearly run down by a dozen panicked passengers screaming for help.
Ruth watched as Betsy decked a hysterical woman who had clutched
her by the sleeve and wouldn’t let go. The old woman knocked her
senseless and was pulled into cover by her husband. “She’ll be
safer out cold,” Betsy offered by way of explanation to the gaping
Ruth.
    Jackson yanked Ruth down until she was fully
sprawled on the ground. “Crawl underneath here and take aim at the
skinny one in the checked shirt. Lower your head as soon as you get
off a shot, and make sure none of the Marshals is in your line of
fire. If you’re not sure, just fire in the air. The robbers will
think they’re trapped either way.”
    Ruth nodded her understanding of the orders
and shimmied into the tight space behind the wheel well of the main
engine.
    He placed the old couple ten feet to the
right of Ruth and went hunting for a better position for
himself.
    As he moved quickly along the tracks, Jackson
urged passengers to the ground as a wild shot from the charging
Marshals zinged past his ear. He grabbed the third rung of a ladder
and hefted his body up the side of the dining car. He then inched
over the top of the carriage, coming to the very edge, where he
carefully aligned his Sharps rifle. This gave him a clear shot of
at least two of the robbers, who had all of their attention focused
on the oncoming horses riding full bore into rifle range.
    Jackson gently squeezed the trigger and the
first man tumbled over into the dirt.
    The second man didn’t miss a beat, and kept
firing straight into the thundering posse. He caught Abel Wyman in
the upper left arm, causing him to veer off course. When a second
Marshal took a bullet in the chest, his horse stumbled and crashed
into the remaining riders. The posse was stopped in its tracks as
horses and men alike tumbled to the ground and limbs cracked.
    Jackson couldn’t get a clear shot at the
second gunman through the dust and smoke. He grazed the man’s
shoulder, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from quickly mounting
one of the Marshal’s horses and riding off at a gallop. Jackson
watched as the man joined five others at a dead run.
    Another man veered in from the east in an
attempt to join the escaping men, but a bullet caught his horse in
the hind leg. The fall broke the man’s neck instantly.
    Jackson looked in the direction the bullet
had come from and spotted Emmett and Mike pursuing on
horseback.
    They ran full out in pursuit but pulled back
as the bandits reached the dense woods to the north and split up.
Jackson had standing orders to pursue armed men in groups of three
or more only.
    Now that the immediate danger had passed,
Jackson took a quick inventory of the scene before him. He shook
his head at the railroad hires below him, whistling for their
panicked horses as they shook the dust off their tattered egos.
    His eyes lit up in a small smile when he
spotted the young woman who’d watched his back. While every other
passenger on the train was milling about in tears or curses, she
was calmly seeing to the welfare of the old couple, helping them to
their feet now that the gunfire had stopped.
    He carefully un-cocked his rifle, then
prepared to climb off the railroad car. As he caught Ruth’s gaze,
he absently wondered where the woman before him was headed. If he
didn’t have five armed men