20 - Dead eye Sam

     James was thinking as he traveled. Bob had a big head start. He needed to catch him before they got to the Dudley Clan. But how? There was a decent-sized town between him and Taladega, right near the state line. James didn’t even know the name of it, he’d never been there. But he knew most folks headed to Taladega from Tennessee went through it. It might have a telegraph, and maybe the lines were back up after the war. Maybe they had a constable who could help him. Maybe the train headed south is running again, and maybe, LaFayette was the Marshal in Taladega once more. An awful lot of maybe’s between him and getting Tenny back. But it was his only chance.

     James was feeling some better as he rode in the stock car, with his horse, into Taladega late the next morning. All his maybe’s had worked out. LaFayette was waiting for him when the train pulled into the station.

     James quickly filled in the details for LaFayette.

     “We got to hurry, James. We just might be able to cut him off, if you’re still ahead of him. My guess is, you are. It’s an extra two days by horseback. But we best get movin’.”

     James didn’t feel quite as good after LaFayette briefed him on the way.

     “That Dudley bunch is as bad as they come, James.  I would say, if Bob gets Tenny in there, you will never see her again. We can’t, in any form or fashion, just ride in there and get her. There must be twenty men up there, and they’re all good with a buffalo gun. Even the kids. Everybody in Taladega is scared of them, and I got one deputy.”

LaFayette continued.  “There’s a creek leading back into the mountains, that goes right back in to the heart of the Clan’s land. Most people would go in that way, to keep from having to climb all th’ mountains. We’ll set up there. It’s our only possible way. ”

     They hid the horses at the end of a long clear valley. Sitting in the bushes beside the valley, LaFayette readied his buffalo gun. “This is one of the new models. I can hit a man’s head at 300 yards with this baby. All we can do now is wait. And hope.”

     They waited. It grew dark. Rather than risk Bob sneaking by at night, they took turns watching the trail all night. It was near noon the next day. James was afraid they had missed Bob and Tenny completely. Then, Lafayette brushed his arm.

     “Somebody comin’. Jest a speck, way down there. See um?”