Man with No Name- Road-Agent Switch

Using the cushion of Rip’s body for a springboard, the hunter bounded off and to the side, crouched, the forty-four in his hand, his left palm posed above the hammer. The other three outlaws on the other side of Jigger’s wagon came charging around the heads of the mule team, their guns drawn and cocked. At the same instant, the three followers of Much-Belly came charging across the front of the Conestoga, also ready for action.

In the ensuing moment of milling confusion, the hunter’s hand brushed the hammer of the forty-four, the shots forming a deadly drumroll of sound. The mules were leaping and plunging, not only at the violent sound but at the smell of death from the bodies piling under their hoofs. Both Garff and Jigger had their hands full trying to quiet them and prevent runaways.

His forty-four empty, the hunter executed a flawless “Road-Agent Switch,” tossing the empty into his left hand at the same instant he drew the reserve gun from his waistband underneath the poncho. Up above, the darkly-furious face of Much-Belly appeared around the canvas top of the Conestoga, the rifle bearing down toward the hunter.

The Man With No Name fired from the hip. The rifle flew out of Much-Belly’s hands in two pieces, its stock shattered by the slug that struck just above and behind the trigger-guard. The outlaw yelled and fell back out of sight.

The hunter went up and over the front wagon wheel like a monkey. He reached the Conestoga’s seat in time to see Garff, his revolver free of its holster, taking aim at Much-Belly’s broad back as the outlaw leaped down the other side and ran toward his horse. The hunter lunged forward and brought the barrel of his pistol down on the balloonist’s head.

Garff collapsed on the seat as Much-Belly clambered into the saddle and spurred off at a wild gallop. The next moment, Rip charged after him on his own horse, the two racing off toward the mountains, leaving six of their number behind, five of them to contribute generously to the bounty hunter’s badly depleted bankroll.

- The Million-Dollar Bloodhunt, chapter 5