Sawyer was making his second trip across the great plains, heading from St. Louis to California. The load on his stagecoach was heavy even with only two passengers. Ms. Abigail, the aspiring bride of the owner of one of the largest mines in California had multiple chests full of the things she just had to have. There was barely room inside the stagecoach for the two passengers with all the luggage that had to be put inside with them. Lucky Charlotte, his second passenger, only had a few items in a carpetbag. He had talked to them only briefly during their stops, for the most part, they got their food and set off by themselves to eat before going to bed. Neither had been very friendly with each other even after riding in the stagecoach together for the last thirteen days. Ms. Abigail looked down on Charlotte's way of earning money, and Charlotte rightly thought Ms. Abigail was a stuck-up snob. Though Charlotte had told him that if he wanted to spend his money at night her services were for sale.
It had been a quiet trip so far, just how he liked it. No sign of trouble of any kind. Maybe that was why he was letting his mind wander that day, thinking of how Charlotte walked and her silhouette against the canvas wall of her tent at night before she put out her lantern. He was thinking that just maybe it might be worth spending some of his hard-earned money for a night with her before the end of the trip when the crack of a rifle jerked him from his thoughts. He quickly cracked the reins across the back of his six horses to get them running before even looking around to see who might be shooting at them. More shots rang out from the left side of the stagecoach, the bullets were coming close enough that he could hear them snapping as they flew by him. He could see four people on horses coming on hard, aiming their guns and firing as they rode.
He heard Ms. Abigail scream as one of the bullets hit the side of the stagecoach, missing the women but throwing wood chips from the side of the stagecoach in on them. Sawyer slapped the reins against his horses again, glad he had six instead of the normal four. He knew their only chance was if the raiders' horses were already tired and they could outrun them. He pulled a six-shooter out of his holster and aimed across his body to return fire. Riding on top of the bouncing stagecoach aiming across his body he knew he didn't have much chance of hitting any of them. He was trying to make them duck or even better have second thoughts about trying to take them. He heard more screaming from inside the stagecoach, it seems Ms. Abigail isn't finding the experience of being shot at a comforting one. He sees one of the horses go down from a shot that wasn't his, looking back and down he sees Charlotte pull her hand and gun back inside the stagecoach. Looking back up he sees that the first horse that went down has taken two others with it, and the last had pulled up to help. Sawyer goes back to pushing more speed out of his horses knowing that if he can put enough distance between them before the raiders get back on their horses, they might get away.
Sawyer spends the rest of the day pushing the horses as hard as he dares, taking them farther north off the trail once out of sight of the raiders so they will have a harder time following them if they decide to. Sawyer drives the horses as long as he can, much later into the night than before. Finally, when it is too dark to see, and he is more afraid of breaking one of the horse's legs, he pulls them to a stop.
As soon as the stagecoach stops and he jumps down, Charlotte bails out and runs up to him excitedly, "Did you see that shot? Took his horse right out from under him!" she exclaims.
Sawyer hugs her and swings her around her feet, leaving the ground. "Sure did, you most likely saved our lives with that shot," he says as he puts her back down.
Charlotte leans into Sawyer's as he sets her down, the excitement from surviving the day still lights up her eyes as she runs her finger down Sawyer's chest. When Sawyer looks down at her she pushes up on her toes and locks her lips onto his, thrusting her tongue into his mouth, determined to take what pleasure she could this night, because as the bullets coming in through the stagecoach had shown, her life could end at any time.
As Sawyer pulls his lips away from Charlotte's he hears a muffled sound come from the stagecoach and remembering her says "Ms. Abigail," running up to the stagecoach's open door he looks in to see Ms. Abigail clutching one of her bags to her chest, pushed as far back into the corner as she can get. "Ms. Abigail, are you alright, did you get hit, do you need help?" he asked.
Ms. Abigail looks at him incredulously, sinking further back into the corner. "You need to get us out of here Mr. Sawyer, they could be on us at any minute. I almost died today; I can't die I have too much to live for. I haven't even..., well you never mind about that, but you need to get us out of here now" she says in a quiet, high-pitched voice.
Sawyer says, "Ms. Abigail we have gone as far as we can tonight anymore and risk breaking a horse's leg then we really will be dead out here."
"But you don't understand Mr. Sawyer, we have to go, I'm to be married, and I haven't even been with a..., I just need to go" Ms. Abigail replied.
"Well, we are staying right here until first light, Ms. Abigail, now let me help you down," Sawyer replied.
