HELL HATH NO FURY (A Jess Williams western novel) by Robert J. Thomas Page A

that,” replied Samuel.
                  Jess went through their pockets and between the two dead men, he found almost one hundred dollars. He kept fifty of it and gave the rest of it to Samuel who thanked him repeatedly. Then, he went through their saddlebags and to his surprise, he found three thousand dollars in bundled bills that looked like they came from a bank.
                  “It looks like these two must have robbed a bank somewhere,” said Jess, as he handed Samuel one bundle of the bills, which contained two hundred dollars.
                  Samuel did everything but kiss Jess. “I’ll be able to fix up the saloon a little with this,” exclaimed Samuel.
                  “Well, if I can find out where they stole this money from, I’ll return it. If not, I guess I’ll just wire it to my banker in Black Creek,” said Jess, as he climbed into the saddle.
                  “I guess you can add that money to the pile you already have,” said Annie. “You know, you’re going to have to spend some of it before you finally get yourself killed.”
                  “You might be right, but I don’t seem to run out of men to hunt, so I guess it’ll have to wait a little longer,” replied Jess. He started to head out of town toward Clarence, Kansas, but he stopped at the end of the street. Annie stopped her horse and looked at Jess.
                  “What are you doing?” Annie asked.
                  “Well, I was going to head for Clarence to turn in these two, but Black Creek ain’t too far from here. I think we’ll go there and turn them into Sheriff Fowler and have a quick visit with some friends of mine there. Sheriff Fowler might be able to find out some information about Cliff Hunt for us, too. Plus, I’ve got something else in mind in regards to you,” replied Jess.
                  “What about me?” asked Annie.
                  “I’ll tell you after we get there,” replied Jess.
                  “If it concerns me, I want to know about it now,” insisted Annie.
                  “I have to wait and check on something first before I even tell you,” retorted Jess, as he turned his horse around in the other direction.
                  “You’d better tell me now!” demanded Annie.
                  Jess simply shook his head. “Yep, this is going to be another long ride,” Jess said under his breath.
                  “I heard that, don’t you take that tone with me,” retorted Annie.
                  Jess shut up and rode and Annie didn’t stop nagging him for a whole hour.
     
    XXX
     
                  They made camp about five miles out of Black Creek, and Jess shot two rabbits, which Annie quickly cooked up in a skillet with some beans. She also made some pan bread and they filled their stomachs with the food. After that, Jess gave Annie another shooting lesson and she was indeed getting much better than before.
                  “Annie, you sure are getting faster and your aim is much better, too,” said Jess, when they were finished.
                  “I just pray that when we catch up with that miserable Cliff Hunt, I’ll be able to summon up the courage to face him and kill him,” replied Annie.
                  “It’s been my experience in life that if a person can’t do it the first time, they never will; but I suppose it could happen,” replied Jess. “If you can’t do it though, I’ll be right there at your side and I won’t hesitate to put several bullets into his sorry ass.”
                  Annie poured them both a cup of hot coffee. “Jess, did you hesitate when you had your first confrontation with a man in a gunfight?”
                  Jess thought back to Red Carter, the first man he ever faced