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his
bank at just after two in the afternoon.
    Jed Smith would lock the door
to the bank at four and his staff would leave at precisely five.
At five-thirty, he would leave by the bank’s large front doors
and make his way home, again via the Blue Garter saloon. He would
arrive at his home between six-fifteen and six-thirty. They also
knew that Smith’s daughter never went anywhere without her father
and whilst he worked, she would remain in or around her home alone.
A cleaning lady would spend an hour between nine and ten each
morning and not return to Smith’s home until the following
day.
    It was a routine that never deviated by more
than a few seconds on any day and this was why Malverez knew how
easy their job was going to be.
    They would fill their bellies in the cantina
and then put the first part of their plan into operation.

Chapter
Eleven
    It was exactly four in the afternoon. Each
of their pocket watches chimed as one within their silver cases.
Malverez had organized everything down to the last second. The
bandit pulled up outside the home of Jed and Rosie Smith atop a
newly purchased four-horse wagon with three of his men sitting on
the flat-bed. Four of their mounts were tied up to the tail-gate
whilst the remaining pair of ruthless Mexicans were on the other
side of Cripple Creek watching their pocket-watches and waiting for
the precise moment when they too had to act.
    Malverez pushed his right foot
down hard on the long brake-pole and dragged the heavy reins back
until he was able to wrap them around the pole. The team of horses
instinctively knew that they were not going anywhere until the bandit wished
them to do so.
    Dust swirled over the scene masking the
details of the four men’s actions from prying eyes. But the bandits
knew what their jobs entailed and could have executed them with
their own eyes closed.
    But their eyes were not closed. They were
wide open and aware of everything. Without a second’s hesitation
the four bandits jumped down from the wagon, leapt over the white
picket fence and entered the garden. Before anyone in the street
had time to part their lace drapes and look out of their windows to
see what was happening, the men had all entered the large
house.
    They were like a well-oiled machine as they
moved through the large building, room by room.
    But they had done this so many times before
that it had become almost second nature to the bandits. They knew
how to take their victims by surprise and did so without any sign
of emotion.
    If Rosie Smith had managed to scream out,
the bandits might have been forced to abandon their plans and
hightail it out of Cripple Creek. But Rosie had not had time to
even catch her breath when the four men stormed the house. Malverez
had kicked the front door open and made his way into the large
house at the same time as his three companions came in through the
rear door.
    Rosie Smith had not even been able to open
her mouth when the filthy hand grabbed at her face and hauled her
on to the expensive carpet.
    ‘She is most pretty, amigo,’ one of the bandits
had said, laughing as he held her face down on the floor whilst the
bandit leader tied her wrists and ankles together with wet
rawhide.
    The bandit who was still
nursing the bullet-hole in his right hand knelt on Rosie Smith’s
back as Malverez tied a blindfold over her eyes and then rammed his
greasy bandanna into her unsuspecting mouth before securing
it with a
tight knot.
    ‘ There will be time for
pleasure when we get her over the border and to our hideout, Jose,’
Malverez snapped, dragging the helpless female off the floor as if
she was a rag-doll.
    The remaining fourth bandit tore the velvet
drapes from one of the front windows and wrapped it around their
shocked victim until she completely vanished inside the heavy
material.
    A matter of seconds later all four men
lifted up their precious bundle, marched swiftly into the front
garden and out to the quiet street. They tossed the helpless