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looked up at him. “Well, jolly good for you.”
    “Smartass.” Beck muttered.
     
    Meanwhile, Carroll, the hardened, brash bandit leader, the wizard, and Carroll’s gang of roughly thirty bandits rode down the countryside road. They chased after the coach as it headed into the forest. Most of the bandits had bandanas covering their faces, and they were armed with blunderbusses, pistols, and swords.
    Inside the coach cab, Beck nodded at Greg’s case. “So you’re taking those bonds to the bank at Dosile?”
    Greg shifted in his seat, shielding the case. The guards stiffened, glaring at Beck and clutching their sword hilts. Beck froze, realizing he had committed a serious faux pas.
    “What’s it to you?” Greg said.
    At that moment, the attendants on top of and hanging behind the coach, now traveling through the forest, spotted the bandits chasing after them and shouted in alarm. The coach driver whipped his horses in a frenzy to gallop faster as the attendant sitting next to him clutched his musket.
    Inside the cab, the passengers heard the commotion and the guards sprang into action, like they were paid to do. One guard set up a post by a window, aiming his musket outside the cab.
    The other guard climbed over Beck, nearly tripping, to set up his post at the other window, aiming his musket outside. Both were ready to defend the Lavonya firm’s bonds and personnel they had been entrusted with or die trying. They were paid enough.
    Greg huddled down, curled into a ball, partly to shield himself and the bonds. Beck sat up a little and strained to look out the window over his guard’s shoulder, wondering what was happening.
    Despite the coach speeding up, the bandits urged their horses to move faster, galloping down the forest road. The wizard raised his staff and chanted a spell. Suddenly the bandits’ horses got an extra spurt of speed, thanks to the wizard’s power, and started gaining on the coach.
    Meanwhile, Tarn rode a horse of his own down the countryside road, following after the coach and bandits. He had resorted to stealing again, which he had promised he would never do. But maybe it was worth it to save another man’s life.
    At that minute, the attendants on top of the coach aimed their muskets at the bandits and started firing. The guards inside the coach cab, leaning out the window, also aimed their muskets and started firing at the robbers.
    Several bandana-wearing robbers and horses were hit by the bullets and fell. However, Carroll, the wizard, and the majority of the bandits remained seated on their horses and continued chasing after the coach. They were in close enough range now to start firing their guns at the attendants and guards on the coach.
    The guard closest to Beck was hit by a bullet and slumped over, mortally wounded. Greg shrieked in terror and shirked away, guarding his case.
    Beck, however, put aside his bag of gold coins and slinked forward to take the guard’s post. He gingerly picked up the musket from the dead man’s hands, uncertain what to do as he aimed it out the window, and attempted to fire it at a bandit.
    The attendant hanging off of the back of coach had pulled out his sword. He tried to fend off the bandits close enough to the coach that they were attempting to board it.
    However, one of the bandana-wearing bandits fired their pistol at the attendant. Mortally wounded, the attendant let go of the coach and slipped off, trampled underneath one of the galloping horses.
    The bandits started jumping off of their horses onto the coach and started to board it. The guard, Beck, and the other attendants, including the one seated by the driver, continued firing their muskets at the bandits.
    Farther back along the forest road, Tarn still rode his horse, chasing after them. He hoped that he might be able to catch up, but what would he do then? And what were those shadows he kept glimpsing off in the distance? It couldn’t be Carroll and his gang, they were ahead of