Chapter 2
Sam enters Bell town and gets some food into her by going to a nearby inn. Satisfied, she walks over to the Train Station, buys herself a one-way train ticket to Boston, due to leave that very night. Shortly after that, she makes her way to the Bank and instructs the bank official to specific instructions to give undisclosed amount to a person in the town.
Still very much raw from the death of George she walks back to the inn in a more relaxed frame of mind until she sees, a handbill nailed to a post with a crude image her face on it.
SAMANTHA DAVISON
wanted DEAD or ALIVE
for the crime of Grand Theft Robbery and
Murder of a Federal Deputy
Reward of Ten Thousand Dollars
Authorized by the Court of Austin
She realises her handbill is everywhere. Though crudely drawn, someone could still recognise her. To her, the town has become a death trap.
Fear unlike anything fills her. There's no George to tell her what to do, or where to go. She feels abandoned and totally alone. No one to care if she makes it through or not. No one to weep for her if she were gunned down on the street. Every face in the town could be a hunter. She wasn't a person, she was a bag of easy cash.
Afraid, she gets on her horse and rides for the only place she has felt safe, her small shack by the Guadalupe mountains.
She uses, not the main road, but a circuitous way. Through a series of passes, and rock formations, she makes her way home. Just when she thought she could no longer suffer any more misfortune, she sees her home, alight with fire in the distance.
Behind her, she hears the clatter of cowboys closing in. She realises she is about to be captured.
Django and Dr Schultz shadow Samantha cautiously, far behind so that she won't sense that she's been followed.
They speculate on her actions in the town.
—Why would she buy a ticket to Boston?
—She could be setting her sights on bigger heists, Django. She can be quite ambitious, I imagine. Perhaps Texas is beginning to bore her.
—And the cash she left in the bank? Who is that for?
—It could be for her accomplices. Maybe a bribe. Who knows? We'll find out soon enough, reassured Dr Schultz.
In the distance, Django sees an orange glow on the guadalupe mountain. Dr Schultz sees it too. Without thinking, Dr King whipped his horse Fritz with the reins and sent his wagon careening toward the burning shack. Django following closely behind him.
A chill ran up the the Doctor.
Lawmen had surrounded Sam, and having divested her of her cash and her weapon, chased her into a field of Firethorn bushes they had set as a trap. Her fear had gotten the worst of her, and she ran head long into them. Thorns as long as men's fingers dove into her fair flesh, filling her with indescribable agony. Unable to struggle, she collapsed, entangled in its bloody embrace.
The cowboys pulled her by the hair and laid her down on the sand. They raised her skirt and were getting ready to ravish her.
Dr Schultz raised his pistol and took careful aim. The first one, fell back dead. Django fired on another. A blind fury over came him the doctor. He dismounted his wagon and went methodically to shoot each man. Using pistols in each hand to dispatch them. When he ran out of bullets, used the guns of his victims. But the last one, a salty gunslinger, shot Dr King in the side, bringing him down. But King finished him off. He fell, not too far from Samantha, who had seen his heroic deed, but was still terribly injured.
She saw that she was saved by these two men. She got up to assist the one with the beard, who had been shot. He held his bloodied side to stem the flow. She saw the button of the court of texas on his lapel. He was a lawman. The other one had ridden off, far away in pursuit of the others on horseback.
—Aaah, he gasped in pain, as she tried to help him.
—I know a doctor, Not too far from here. she told him
She sees the doctor's wagon and puts his arm over her shoulder to help him get inside. He is growing pale and the bleeding hasn't stopped.
She rides the wagon East to Clear Water farm, where doctor Hodges lives. On her way there, she was rejoined by Django, the tall dark man who helped save her.
—Where's the doc? he asks her.
—Inside, he's been shot, I'm going to Doc Hodges, you know him?
—A bit.
—Ride ahead and get him ready to receive us.
—alright, miss. He took off like a shot.
At a crossroad, she saw the road leading back to Bell Town. She remembered the ticket in her pocket and her hope for a new life. But that meant unhitching the horse, and leaving the bearded man to die so she could ride to Bell Town and make the train.
—No, she thought. She whipped the horse and urged on to Clear Water, leaving her last opportunity for a new life, far behind. These men will arrest me for the bounty and I'll hang. I simply can't leave him to die here. He saved me, even if it was from other lawmen.
When she arrived, the doctor was already waiting for her, his lantern in hand.
With Django, they carried him into the doctor's house.
The Doc peeled the blood soaked shirt and assessed the injury. He wearily wiped his brow.
—I have to dig out the bullet, and hope the damage isn't severe. Wait outside, he ordered.
The doc saw her deep bruises.
—Django, theres some river water in a barrel over there, get her cleaned up and bandaged.
—Sure thing.
With that, Django got a small cloth, dipped it in the clean water, and began to wipe her bloodied arms and legs as she sat on the doctors waiting bench.
—Thank you, stranger, she said. I owe you both for coming to my rescue. But I guess you will be paid handsomely for it. she said, referring to her reward.
—Look, wether there was a reward or no, we would have still ridden to get you out. Those men who attacked you, made me ashamed to be a bounty hunter. That man in there, he's a real lawman and a decent human being. Thank you for bringing him in, your quick thinking saved him.
—Whats his name?
—Dr King Schultz.
The next morning, Dr King woke in the living room of Doc Hodges. Beside him, on the floor, slept Sam, the wanted lady. Django, had fallen asleep on the other end of the room, on a wing backed chair, sound asleep.
He looks at his side, and sees that he'd been freshly bandaged. He feels a dull pain in his side but feels his strength returning. A sign that he'll get better. Perhaps it wasn't a fatal wound after all. He thought.
He watched her sleeping peacefully. Her blanket had fallen carelessly, he lifted it up and covered her up to the shoulder. She was a lot more attractive up close. If he had met her elsewhere, like a Saloon or at the Mayor's Ball, he would surely have invited her out for a drink or two. But as a wanted criminal, that was quite out of the question.
She stirred, and gradually opened her eyes.
—Up already, Doc H will be pleased. He told to wake him when you came to.
—Wait. he said, grabbing her lightly by the arm.
—I wanted to ask you, why you helped me. Most outlaws, would have ran.
—You saved my life. I wasn't going to leave you out there to die after what you've done for me.
—Thank you Samantha. Could I ask I ask you something?
She nodded.
— I've been trying to track you for sometime. Where were you earlier this year. Did you have a new hiding place?
— After the robbery I lay low three towns over from Bell Town. Bradieville. There, I took the wrong road, and was caught in the heat of the desert. My horse had died, and I walked to the main road. I was dying of thirst and hunger on the road. A lot of people passed me by, thinking it was a bandit trap. A woman with a baby in a wagon picked me up and took me home and nursed me till I got better. I saw a picture by her cot. It was of her dead husband. A young deputy with a wine stain birthmark on on his cheek. Of all people, I was saved by the widow of the deputy that gotten killed in my last bank robbery.
—All I wanted was a fresh start. Its's too late now. she said. A macabre thought crossed her mind.
—Is it true that hanging is quick and painless? She asked him.
He looked away ruefully.
—That's what they say, he replied.
Tears began to well up in her eyes.
—You're not under arrest, he reassured her, no one's going to hurt you, not on my watch.
She wanted to believe him and his earnest hazel eyes. But she didn't know if she could. After all, who would give up five thousand dollars?
That day, Dr Schultz had to rest, and was in and out of consciousness. By early evening, Django had come to him when Sam was being attended to by Doc Hodges for her firethorn injuries.
He showed Dr King a train ticket for Boston, for the previous night.
—I found this among Sam's things. Look, this train was due to leave yesterday. She gave up her escape to Boston to save you.
Looking at the King realised that this is what she meant by a fresh start. A new life far away. She could have left him to die there and gotten on the train, but she hadn't.
Now she thinks she's going to hang for it.
—Django, I need you to send a message to the Marshall of Bell town. Can you do that for me?
—Of course. Said Django.
