Vengeance Creek: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

23

“My God!” Thomas said. He had stepped over the bodies and into the bank to check on the other employees. He was shocked to find them all dead, either stabbed or with cut throats.

James was still in the office, kneeling over the prone body of Nancy Timmerman.

“They’re dead,” Thomas said. “They’re all dead.”

“Nancy’s dead,” James said, looking at his brother.

“James,” Thomas said, “we know that. We have to be ready for the others outside. And we have to find Cardwell and whoever else was in here.”

James stared at his brother, then said, “You better look out the front.”

“I barred the back door,” Thomas said. “Come on.”

James looked down at Nancy again. Thomas reached down and grabbed his brother’s arm. “Come on!”

He dragged his brother to the front of the bank in time to see four men charging the door.

“Do we wait for them?” James asked.

“Let’s step out and greet them,” Thomas said. “That’ll surprise them.”

James looked back at the bodies of all the employees. He was ready to take some lives.

“Let’s do it.”

Shaye watched from behind the water trough as the robbers gathered and made their plans. There was nothing he could do about it. He was almost out of bullets, having taken the last of them from his belt, and loaded his gun for the last time. If the men charged him, he was done. If they charged the bank, he could fire six shots in defense of his sons, but that was it.

He knew James and Thomas must be inside the bank by now. Since there were no shots, whichever robbers had been inside must have left. He hoped his boys were smart enough to stay inside.

As he thought that, he saw four of the men step into the street, guns in hand, and charge the bank.

A second later the front door of the bank opened and Thomas and James stepped out.

“Goddamn it!” Shaye said, and pointed his gun.

When Thomas and James stepped through the bank doors, the four rushing robbers stopped short, confused. They hadn’t expected the outnumbered deputies to come out and meet them. The moment of hesitation cost them.

“Let’s go!” Samuels shouted, but it was too late.

As the four men began running again, Dan Shaye dragged himself out from behind the horse trough and fired at them. His first shot caught Larkin in the side, spinning him around and depositing him on the ground. His second shot finished the man.

Thomas fired once and the bullet went straight into Ed Hurley’s heart.

James and Bill Raymond fired simultaneously. Raymond’s bullet went wide and smashed a window on the door behind James, while the deputy’s bullet hit Raymond in the shoulder, completely stopping his forward progress. It was Thomas who finished him with another heart shot.

Three of the bank robbers were now dead in the street, and the fourth, Joe Samuels, dropped his gun and put his hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I give up!”

James aimed his gun at the man and would have shot him if Thomas hadn’t grabbed his arm.

“We need one of them alive, James,” he said.

James’s hand trembled, he wanted so badly to fire.

“Besides,” Thomas said, pushing his brother’s arm down, “he didn’t kill her.”

James hesitated, looked at Thomas and said, “Yeah.” He holstered his gun.

“Go and get the doc, James,” Thomas said. “We need him for Pa.”

“But Nancy—”

“Nancy’s dead,” Thomas said. “Pa ain’t…yet.”

“Yeah,” James said. “Yeah.”

He took off running down the street toward the doctor’s office.

Thomas turned and saw several men—town fathers, all of them—running toward him with an assortment of handguns and rifles.

“Can we help, Deputy?” one of them asked.

“Now?” Thomas asked them. “It’s all over and now you want to know if you can help?”

“Hey, we—uh, we had to get our guns, and, uh—” another stammered, but Thomas cut him off.

“Two of you go and take my—take the sheriff to his office. He’s been hit.”

“Right.”

“The rest of you collect the guns from the street,” Thomas said. “I’ll take the prisoner and put him in a cell.”

“What about the bank?” another man asked.

“The money’s gone,” Thomas said, “and there’s no one left alive in there.”

The remaining men—town fathers, merchants, men who had helped to build the town and run it—exchanged glances, and then one of them asked, “The money’s gone?”