“Go ahead and sack that up for me,” he said.
“I will,” Sam said. “Just don’t hurt anyone.”
He opened the box and shifted the money from it to a burlap sack. The tall man watched him intently.
“Is that all there is?” he said.
“All I’ve got,” Sam answered.
“No, there’s more. I saw how busy you were today. Where is it?”
“Took it to the bank just after noon,” Sam said. “I don’t like to keep that much cash lying around.”
“You didn’t. I kept a close eye on the place. It was too busy, you never went anywhere. Should I ask one of these nice ladies where it is?” He tilted the gun’s barrel in Ellen and Jenny’s direction.
Ellen’s throat tightened. She remembered only too well how Clive, her abusive husband, had threatened her.
“No need for that,” Sam said.
“Then where’s the rest of the money?”
“I’ll show you,” Sam said. He took a step toward the back of the store. It took him clear of the gun’s barrel and he grabbed for the tall man’s wrist.
Instead of wrestling for the gun, the tall man struck Sam’s head with his fist. Sam’s head snapped back. He fell, but continued to claw at the tall man’s gun hand.
The door swung open again. Another man stood there, shadowy and dark, but just by his outline Ellen knew him. The newcomer shouted for Sam to get clear.
Distracted, Sam took a solid punch to the temple and fell. The robber raised his gun and turned toward the door.
“He has a gun,” Ellen tried to say, but the words caught in her throat.
The newcomer’s gun was instantly in his hand. He snapped off two quick shots. The tall man faltered. He took a staggering step back. He wiped a hand over his chest. It came away bloody, and then he fell down dead.
Jim was beside Ellen in a moment.
“Are you alright?” he said.
“I…I’m fine,” she said and nodded.
Sam still lay motionless on the floor. Jenny was kneeling over him and crying. Ellen went to help.
“I’ll move him outside.” Jim took hold of the dead man’s boots and dragged him through the open door. A swath of blood stained the floor. Then he looked in from the outside.
“I’ll go find the doctor for Sam. Ellen, block this door after me.”
“I will,” Ellen said. When he was gone, she pulled over a chair and wedged it under the door handle. Then she went back to Jenny’s side. “I’m sure he’ll be fine, Jenny. Jim went to fetch the doctor.”
“He should have let him have it. He should have let him take the money.” Tears ran down a reddened face. “Oh, Sam. Why did you have to try and be brave?”
* * * *
Doctor Sinclair said Sam would have a nasty lump on his head, but otherwise should be up and on his feet in a couple of days. Jenny thanked Jim and Ellen profusely, offering Ellen a job for as long as she wanted it.
Ellen was happy to accept.
There was little Jim could do in a store. His reading and writing weren’t the best, and he had no interest in fetching supplies. He spent the better part of a week looking for work and coming up empty. He found a few odd jobs helping folks out after the flooding. None lasted more than a day, but he earned a few dollars.
The store kept Ellen busy. Three days after they’d come down from the mountain, Colton and the freighters headed out for the new gold camp.
After so long in town, Jim grew restless. He and Ellen stayed in the hotel. The owner raised prices twice. Between the flooding and the gold strike, everyone wanted a room. Everything was more expensive than it should have been, but at the end of the week he and Ellen rode home with more dollars than they’d started with.
“When do they want you back?” Jim asked.
“Monday,” Ellen said. “They closed down early because we’d sold out of salt, flour, and coffee.”
“They have more coming in?”
“They do. They’d likely pay you to help them unload it all,” Ellen said. “It might turn into a permanent job. Handling freight, I mean.”
“Freighters would want me to go with them,” Jim said. “That kind of work moves around. I won’t leave you and everyone else behind.”
“You may not have a choice.”
“The town’ll need timber to rebuild. I thought about dropping a few trees and hauling them down. Would Sam be willing to sell them for me?”
“I think so. Right now I expect he’d do most anything to help you after you took care of that man at the store.”
“I wouldn’t want to take advantage of him,” Jim said.
