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Jess, trying to decide if Jess was plumb loco. He believed that Jess was serious about what he said and Manny Welch wasn’t ready to die just yet.
                  “Manny, did you hear what I just said? Either you have a hearing problem or maybe you’re just still trying to decide what to do next, but I ain’t waiting much longer. I’m ready to pull this trigger and take whatever comes next, so either give the order to your men to start shooting or get the hell out of my sight and out of town. Make the decision. I don’t really give two shits either way, Manny.”
                  Manny Welch was totally taken aback by Jess’ demeanor. He couldn’t tell if Jess was crazy or not, but he was pretty certain that Jess meant to kill him with his first shot so Manny quickly came to his senses. “Men, keep those guns strapped down. There will always be another fight and another day. Alright, Mr. Williams, we’ll leave town for now, but mark my words, this ain’t over yet.”
                  Jess smiled at him and said, “I never figured it was, Manny.”
                  Manny Welch and his eight men turned their horses around and rode out of town, quickly. Jess holstered his pistol and watched them until they were out of sight.
                  The sheriff, who had been frozen standing on the porch of his office finally found his voice. “Are you out of your mind or something? That’s Manny Welch and he’s got over two dozen hired guns and most of them are damn good. Those men ain’t going to let up until the both of you are six feet under,” said the sheriff.
                  Jess looked at the sheriff. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on it, Sheriff. I just hope most of those boys have a bounty on their heads.” Jess and Bodine walked over to the hotel to sit on the porch and digest their breakfast. After a few minutes John finally leaned forward in his chair and turned to Jess.
                  “What in the hell was that back there? Are you trying to get us killed before we collect any bounty? You can’t face down that many men at once.”
                  Jess looked at his new partner and smiled. “And yet that’s exactly what we just did. Didn’t you see the look in Welch’s eyes? He ain’t ready to die yet and he knew for a fact that he was going to be the first one to go and the fact that we already took down four of his best men told him that I could and would have done exactly just that. I agree he’ll send men in to ambush us sooner or later so we have to be really careful and watch each other’s back from now on. Also, I want to start taking you out of town to practice a little each day. You shoot straight and true, but you need to increase your hand speed on the draw and the only thing that can do that is practice and lots of it.”
                  “That sounds fine to me. I can’t think of a better man to teach me; but in the future, could you at least warn me when you’re going to do something as crazy as what you just did?”
                  “I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee it. Sometimes there ain’t enough time and you just have to go with your gut feelings.” The rest of the day was uneventful and that gave Jess and John a little time to relax. They did, however, make time to ride out of town and find a place where they could practice with their pistols.
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
                  They rode back into Dodge City in time for supper. Jess stopped at one of the larger banks in and withdrew eight hundred dollars. When he came out of the bank, he handed a wad of money to John.
                  “What’s this for?”
                  “That’s your half of the bounty money on the four men we turned into the sheriff in Abilene. I’ll give you your half of the money on the others as soon as I know the money has been