When the four men arrived back at the cave, Emmett was sitting next to Ben. "How's he doin'?" Michael asked as he rushed over to his lover.
"Pretty good, considering. I haven't detected a fever or infection," the gambler said with a smile.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief as he took a hold of Ben's hand. Emmett rubbed his hands together and grinned. "So? How'd y'all do?"
Brian, Justin, and Ted were all holding bags of money. "Don't know. Haven't counted it, yet," answered Brian. Michael stayed with Ben while the other four men sat down around the fire.
Before they started counting the money, Brian looked at Justin. Justin thought that he could detect a hint of pride in Brian's hazel eyes. "By the way, you did good."
Justin smiled, flushing at the praise. He had wanted to make Brian happy and proud, and it seemed he had. He could also still feel adrenaline racing through his body. He was still flying high from the robbery. He could get used to this!
After the money had been devided into piles based on dollar amount, the four men started counting. A little while later, they had all counted their piles. "Okay, how much each?" demanded Brian.
"Four hundred," said Ted.
"One thousand," replied Emmett.
"I have three thousand," said Brian.
"And I've got three hundred. That makes a total of... four thousand and seven hundred dollars," said Justin doing the math in his head.
"Not bad. Not bad at all," said a satisfied Brian. After the money had been divided up, between all of the men, they all laid down to get some sleep.
Brian couldn't help being proud of Justin. He didn't want Justin riding the outlaw trail, but he wanted Justin with him. And, right now, being with him meant being an outlaw. He'd just have to teach Justin how to survive living the kind of life that he did.
Bill Nilwell walked into the Four Corners Bank, the bank that he was the manager of. After opening the bank, he walked to where the safe was located. He always opened the safe, every morning, to check on the money. He loved seeing all of the money first thing every morning.
At first he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Closing his eyes, he kept them closed for a moment. Slowly, he re-opened them. He saw the same thing. The safe was empty! "What the HELL?!" he sputtered. After checking behind the teller's counter, and discoveing the money fom there also missing, he quickly ran to the jail. He knew he'd be able to find one of the seven peacekeepes there.
Throwing open the door, he was greeted by a sawed off shotgun, held by Vin Tanner. Chris Larabee was also there, his hand resting on his gun that was still in his gunbelt. "What are you thinkin'? That's a good way to get yourself shot!" scolded Vin.
Bill was panting a little from his mad dash to the jail. He was too concerned about the missing money to even be fazed by the shotgun. "The bank's been...robbed!" he quickly exclaimed.
"What?" demanded Chris.
Bill explained. "The money's missing from behind the teller's counter and from the safe! You have to do something!"
Chris immediatly knew who was responsable and sighed. Silently communicating with Vin, using just their eyes, he knew what he was going to have to do. He was going to have to go after Brian and his gang. And, he was going to have to use whatever means necessary to bring them back to stand trial.
"Don't worry, Mister Nilwell. We'll get the money back. Just go lock up the bank and keep your mouth shut. We'll hold a town meeting and explain why nobody will be receiving any withdraws today," said Chris.
Bill nodded and left to do as odered. "We've got another problem, Cowboy," said Vin who was looking outside. "The Judge is here."
"Damn, that was quick!" Chris sighed. "Well, we'd best inform him and the others of the news before we hold the town meeting." Vin nodded and followed Chris outside to greet the Judge.