Jeb threw open the door to the mine and walked out into the sunlight, gun drawn, slowly waving back in front of him. He swept the horizon with his pistol quickly, hoping to take out anyone that jumped from behind cover to blast him. No one jumped out though. Jeb started quick walking toward the group of trees he'd left his horse with Betsy close beside. They hadn't gone but twenty paces when rounds started whizzing past them and kicking up dirt at their feet.
“They're shooting at us,” Betsy said. “I can't even see where the shots are coming from.”
“That's the name of the game, sweetheart,” Jeb said as he broke into a run.
Jeb had a good idea where the shots were coming from, though. A grassy knoll about one hundred yards away where he reckoned the other entrance was hidden at. While he ran Jeb let off a few shots in the general direction of the knoll. He only paused a few times to take well aimed shots, and that was when the rounds coming down around them got a little too close for comfort. Betsy didn't stop though, and made straight away for the small group of trees that Jeb had told her his horse was at. Betsy was fast and agile, and it wasn't long before she had pulled away from Jeb's running, sometimes shooting, form. Jeb looked ahead and saw her disappear into the cluster of trees. His heart panged when he thought about her leaving him high and dry, just taking the horse and taking off. Jeb had told her he wouldn't feel wronged if she left him, but he'd meant in the case that he got winged and went down, or if he got taken prisoner. Something of that nature where not taking off meant undertaking some kind of grand quest to retrieve him, or facing down harrowing odds that would surely mean her demise.
The rounds rained down around Jeb as he made it the last twenty yards to the trees. He looked around wildly for Betsy and his horse. For a moment his heart sank into the pit of his stomach and he cursed himself for telling her not to just follow him. He could have led her to his horse and she could have followed. That way there would have been no opportunity for Betsy to leave him high and dry. Just when Jeb was about to give up hope that Betsy might have stuck around he heard a whistle and peered through some trees to the dusty desert beyond. There was Betsy standing beside his horse with the reins in hand. Jeb sprinted out to her.
“Let me have the reins and hop on the back,” Jeb shouted as he ran. “We've got to get out of here. Without me to return fire there's nothing to keep their heads down. By now they've broken cover and are headed in our direction.
Betsy handed him the reins and did as Jeb instructed, hoping up behind him when he was firmly in the saddle.
“Why didn't you leave me?” Jeb asked.
“Well, I would have felt badly after the fact,” Betsy said. “That, and your horse wouldn't let me mount him. Damnedest thing I've seen in awhile. There wasn't anything I could do. The horse's mind was set and there was no swaying it, no matter what I did.”
As Jeb steered the horse away from the mine and brought it to a gallop he couldn't help but run the words Betsy had just said through his head. What did she mean there was nothing she could do to change the horses mind? It made him think of the talk in the tunnel, about how the female they had captured had some kind of magical powers.
“Yeah, lady,” Jeb said. “My horse can be a real bitch.”
Bullets started snapping by them as they road. Jeb was making straight for the highway that ran around the mine, but knew their problems wouldn't stop once they got to it. The highway was little more than a dusty trail used by the locals to get across Black Hawk County. There would be no help from the travelers on it, and in fact Jeb worried about being way laid on the road. If the bandits were smart, and from what he remembered being talked about in the tunnel there were at least a couple smart ones in the bunch, they would have put a few people by the road to keep an eye out for trouble.
The road loomed large in front of them, spanning the width of the horizon. They would make better time once they got to it. Just when Jeb thought they had been able to outrun the bandits a group of them came out on horses, appearing form a small group of trees across the road.
“Well I'll be God damned,” Jeb said. “They are smarter than they seem after all!”
Jeb drew his rifle and road hard toward the bandits.
“What are you doing?” shrieked Betsy. “There are too many of them. You can't fight allof them!”
“The hell I can't, lady,” Jeb said. He leveled his rifle at the group and fired, then swung the rifle around by its lever to eject the spent shell and chamber a new round one handed—a skill that came in very handy whenever Jeb had to ride and shoot at people at the same time. Bullets whizzed by them from both directions now.
“Betsy,” Jeb said. “If there is anything such as magic and you can pull some of it out from under that pretty skirt of yours, now would be the time.”
The group of bandits in front of them charged head on into Jeb's fire just as Jeb charged into theirs. One of the bandits horses reared up, neighing loudly, and tumbled to the ground. The rider was thrown wildly and didn't move. Jeb's hat flew off his head as if yanked by a rope. The bullets were coming to close for comfort as they closed with the charging bandits they would meet at the road between them.
“Pull my pistol and start shooting when we get close,” Jeb said, panic in his voice. “I think this is it. I'm finally going to be put an end to.”
Jeb urged his force forward at a faster pace, as fast as the horse could gallop. It was apparent that Jeb planned on going down swinging, that they wouldn't be taken prisoner as long as he drew breath. It was also apparent that the bandits planned on killing both of them like stray dogs at the first available opportunity.
“Pull my pistol. Damn it woman,” Jeb said. They were closing on the road and the inevitable clash with the bandits. “Pull the pistol and start shooting or we don't have a chance in hell.”