Second Harvest

Breathing hard, Roy thought, darn it all Roy, you're not twenty anymore. Waiting for a few minutes, Roy finally kneeled and peered over the back edge. On the east end of town, Roy spotted two riders making their way toward the center of town but using the second street from the main road. Roy bent over and ran toward the front of the building. He hid behind the parapet front façade and he saw another pair of mounted riders using the second street from the main road and working their way toward the middle of town. At the same time, the large man Roy encountered in the tunnel was riding down the main road with two other riders. Seven men; I've dealt with worse odds, Roy thought.

Roy quickly moved to the roof of Dillard's general store which placed him diagonally across from the bank. He stayed hidden behind the façade and waited. Frank tried the bank doorknob, but it was locked. In a swift move, Dix kicked the door in with his boot, smashing the door and glass into pieces. Roy thought he heard someone scream inside the bank. He peered over the edge of the parapet wall. Roy chuckled. You're such girl Buddy. You're locked inside the bank vault with handcuffs. Roy watched Dix and two other men enter the bank.

Roy sat down but took his rifle and quietly pulled the hammer back into the firing position. I'll wait until they come out. It seemed like an eternity but Roy did not want to jeopardize his hiding position, so he resisted the urge to look over the edge again. Roy strained to hear any sounds, but the voices were muffled. Looking up into the sky, Roy could see that dark clouds were building from the south, in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. Roy shook his head. Years past, those clouds meant rain was coming. He dismissed the thought.

Immediately Roy heard the sounds of hooves running on wood and then an enormous crash. Risking that he would betray his position, Roy rose up and peered over the wall. Dix had tied a rope to the bars of the vault door and the other end to the horn of his saddle. Galloping hard out of the bank, when the rope tightened the bank safe bars ripped off the walls. Well, so much for keeping my money safe in this bank. Roy witnessed Dix ride out the bank's front door dragging the damaged vault door to the street.

After untying the rope from the twisted bars, Frank made a noose at one end and walked back into the bank. A few seconds later he and Henry dragged Buddy out with the rope tightly coiled around Buddy's neck. Darn it all, Roy thought. The two men pulled so hard that Buddy fell down, but they continued to drag him into the street since his hands were still handcuffed. Lashing the noose over a beam protruding out from the top of the bank, Frank and the Henry struggled to lift Buddy off the ground by his neck. Buddy screamed again, but it quickly shifted to a raspy gurgle.