Killing the two soldiers was not Roper’s choice.
He and the two men watched as Clint took the other five men to retrieve the money. Roper could see that the two young men were nervous. He didn’t know whose decision it was to send all young men with them to fetch the money, but because they had no experience they were extremely jumpy.
“Take it easy, boys,” Roper said, “they’ll be back.”
“You shut up!” one of them said. They were both holding rifles pointed at Roper, who thought he might get shot by accident.
“Okay, okay,” Roper said, “I’m not saying a word.” But he kept his hand down by his gun. What kind of a senseless death would it be to be shot by accident by two nervous boys?
But when Clint and the others didn’t come back right away the two boys became even more nervous, for a different reason.
“What if they take off with the money?” one of them asked the other. “We don’t get our share.”
That was when Roper knew these men had no intention of returning to town with the money.
“We got their horses,” the second man said.
“They can buy new horses with fifty thousand dollars!” the first one said.
“So whataya wanna do?”
“We gotta do somethin’ before they get away!”
They both looked Roper and he knew what was coming. He didn’t wait. He drew his gun even as they tightened their fingers on the trigger. He fired once, threw himself into the bed of the buckboard with the casket, and then fire two more times.
Both young would-be Confederate soldiers lay dead on the ground.
Clint came running up to the wagon, but stopped when he saw Roper standing by the casket.
“What happened?” he asked.
“They got nervous. You?”
The other two soldiers came running up behind him and Roper started to go for his gun.
“No!” Clint yelled. “They dropped their guns and surrendered.”
“And the others?”
“Not so lucky.” Clint turned to the two men. “Toss him the saddlebags.”
The man holding them obeyed, tossing them up to Roper.
Clint walked around the wagon, saw the two men lying on the ground.
“They weren’t so lucky, either,” Roper said.
“I can see that.”
“What about these two?” Roper asked.
“They’re free to go,” Clint said. He looked at them. “Take off those jackets, mount up and go.”
“Yessir!” they both said.
The stripped off their jackets and left them lying in the dirt as they mounted up and rode off, away from town.
“What are we facing back in town?” Roper asked.
“About fourteen men,” Clint said.
“Could be worse,” Roper said. “Of course, we have half the ransom and the casket. We could just go.”
“Yeah, we could.”
They stared at each other for a few minutes.
“You can’t do that, can you?” Roper asked.
“No,” Clint said. “Can you?”
Roper backed off answering and said, “It’s your call.”
Clint looked at the two dead men, and then the five horses that belonged to all the dead soldiers.
“We better tie these horses off so they don’t go back to town and tip them off.”
“I think when these fellas, and those others you killed, don’t return with the money, that’ll pretty much tip them off.”
“Which is why we can’t wait,” Clint said. “We have to move fast.”
“So, back to town.”
Clint nodded.
“And what do we do with the casket? And the money?”
“We’ll take the money with us,” Clint said. “We’ll have to leave the buckboard and casket out here somewhere.”
“But where?”
“Well,” Clint said. “off the main road, for sure.”
“Okay,” Roper said. “we’ve got to hide the buckboard, the casket, and five horses. That shouldn’t be too hard.”
Clint gathered up the five horses, tied them to the back of the buckboard, then mounted Eclipse.
“Let’s go,” he said, “Maybe all we have to do is get far enough off the road.”
As it happened they found a clearing inside a ring of trees and rocks where the wagon could sit out of sight. They formed a picket line for the horses, and as long as the remained quiet they’d stay hidden, as well.
“I hate to leave the President here,” Clint said, putting his hand on the casket.
“If here’s even in there,” Roper said.
“He’s in there,” Clint said, then added, “we have to believe he’s in there.”
“Yeah, okay,” Roper said, “he’s in there. And he’ll still be here when we get back.” After a moment Roper added, “If we get back.”
“Check your guns,” Clint said. They made sure their pistols and rifles were in proper working order, then mounted up.
“Where to first?” Roper asked.
“Let’s circle around and see if we can catch Gemma in her house,” Clint said. “We might be able to use her as a hostage and get the other men to disarm.”
“I’m a little worried about this young Captain Gately,” Roper said.
“What about him?”
“He was too young to be in the war. I think he might be looking for a way to prove himself.”
“Given the chance, then, he might make the wrong decision,” Clint said. “I think what we’re going to have to do is take that decision away from him.”