Hi, this is a western story I writing it only the beginning and I don't know if ill carry on writing this story but I hope you all like it anyway. Lwood

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One

The door to the bank flew open "Everyone put your hands in the air this is a robbery" shouted the tall stranger as he stormed in. He was holing two pistols, which gleamed in the sunlight. As he walked in two other men walked in behind him also holding guns. By now everyone had their hands in the air. The ladies started panicking, "Be quite or I'll have to shot and we don't want that do we?" said one of the men politely. He pointed his gun at the people on one side of the bank and the other man kept his eye and his gun on the other side. The first man walked towards the cashier who was on the other side of the desk. "Give me all the money in that safe" ordered the man pointing one of his pistols towards the safe then back to the cashier. The nervous man fiddled with the safe lock and eventually opened it. He quickly grabbed the money and gave it to the stranger. The man span his pistols back into the holster and picked up the money and placed it into a saddlebag, which was hanging loosely over his shoulder. He looked at the cashier who was looking very scared "Pleasure doing business with you sir" the cowboy smiled and nodded at the cashier. "Come on lets go" shouted one of the men behind him. The cowboy turned round and walked out closely followed by the other two men. They walked outside where the rest of the gang were waiting and mounted their horses. The leader turned to the others and shouted "Lets ride" and turned and galloped out of the town followed by the other five cowboys that where firing their guns in the air and shouting. People emerged from the buildings to find out what all the noise was about. The cashier came running out and shouted "They stole all the money from the safe" the street filled with noise as everyone talked about the latest news as the cowboys rode off to the horizon.

The cowboys galloped across the prairie and headed for their camp up in the rocky hills. When they reached the rocks they followed a narrow path, which lead to the other side and to their camp. When they reached the other side they dismounted their horses and tied them up to a temporary rail they had made from rope. They all unsaddled their horses and tied them up on a grass area for the night. Then a couple of the men lit a fire and then they all sat down. "What we going to do with the money Joe?" asked one of the men to the leader that had all the money. "Split it between us" said Joe as he started dividing the money between the six of them. "You can do what you like with it now," he told the rest of the gang. "Hey Joe, we're gonna have to use some of it for food, we're running short," a man informed Joe. "How long will what we've got last us Bill?" Joe asked the scruffy looking man on the other side of the fire. "About a week," Bill replied. "We'll have to leave early in the morning and get some more in the next town we come to. We can't risk going back into that one. So everyone better get some sleep, we need one person on watch at all times incase anyone comes up from the town." Joe told the gang. "I'll go first," Bill volunteered to do the first shift of watching out. The gang ate their dinners and started settling down for the night. Joe decided to get some sleep himself and used his saddle as a pillow and pulled his hat down over his eyes.

Joe watched as the sun started to rise the next morning. The fire was now just a glow and the members of the gang were waking up. There was a stream near by that the gang could wash in, several of them had already made there way down to the stream to get ready for the long ride to the next town. Bill was still asleep on the floor, Joe wandered over and nudged him in the side. He gave a little grunt "Come on Bill, we've got to get going," Joe said as Bill started to move, he sat up and stretched out his hand for Joe to help him get up off the floor. They both wandered down to the stream to have a quick wash. Once they had finished they both walked back to camp and started saddling up their horses. When the whole gang was ready to leave they all mounted their horses and started out on their long journey, they headed down the hill at a steady lope.

They had been riding for a couple of days, the sun was shining down on them with extreme heat. They were all sweating and their horses where weary, the food was getting less and less, and one of the horses had gone lame which slowed the down. It had started to get dark and they where all thinking about stopping for the night when they spotted a town that rested on the horizon. They strolled into the quite town, as they walked past the saloon they could hear the shouting of people from inside and the tinkling of a piano. A bit further up the road they came to the livery. They all slid down from their saddles and lead their horses in. "Can I help you?" a voice came from the office and a man appeared from a room by the entrance. "Yeah, couldn't keep these horses here for the night could you? Most of them need shoes as well, you do have a blacksmith don't you?" Joe asked the man. "Yeah, he'll be here in the morning" the man said as he looked the strange men up and down. Joe lead his horse further into the livery and found a spare stool and took his horse in. The rest of the gang followed Joe and found an empty stool for their horses. Once they had all been unsaddled the men walked back into town to find somewhere to stay. They walked into the rooming house, the room was dark and gloomy the air was a mixture of smoke and dust. Joe walked upto the desk and a young lady appeared at the top of the stairs and started walking down. She was wearing a scarlet dress, her long brown hair flowed over her shoulder. "Can I help you?" she asked Joe as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Good evening ma'am, we where just looking for a couple of rooms for the night." Joe smiled at the lady. She walked behind the desk "How many of you?" she asked him. "There's six of us, we don't mind sharing rooms if you haven't got enough." Joe leaned up against the desk "We've got enough rooms, but I'll need a name?" she picked up a pen and held it poised over a piece of paper which already had a couple of names on it. The rest of the gang looked at Joe, he looked at the lady "Jack Newton," he told her "put all of them under that."

"Fine, you are in rooms five to ten, they're on the top floor" she said handing Joe six keys. "Thank you ma'am" Joe nodded at the lady then walked up the stairs. When they reached the top floor Joe located their rooms. He turned to the rest of the gang and handed out the keys. "While we're in this town no one use their real names," there was a creak of floorboards from down stairs. Joe opened his door and signalled for the gang to go in. He closed the door behind him and continued with what he was saying at a whisper. "As you must have gathered I'll be called Jack, Tom what's yours?" he looked at Tom who was sitting on an old wooden chair in the corner of the room. "Um... how about Mike?" Tom said picking the first name that came to his head. Joe nodded "Okay, Greg what about you?" he looked at a tall man in the opposite corner to Tom. He was leaning up against the wall. The light that came through the window half lit up his face. "Sam" he replied his voice deep and quiet. "Bill?" Joe now turned to the man that was perched on the old bed and staring out of the window "I quite like Cole," he replied turning to look at Joe who was still by the door. "John?" Joe turned to another one of the gang members who was propped up by a door which was along one side of the room just in front of where Tom was sitting. "Patrick, it was my fathers name"

"Right okay, Charlie what about you?" Joe turned to the shortest member of the gang who was standing by the window. "Lew" he said keeping his eyes fixed on something in the street. "Okay, now you all must remember to use those names. We'll stay here tonight, get the horses in the morning, get some food and leave" Joe informed them. They all left Joes room and went and found their own. "Night Jack" Tom said as he walked out of the room. "Yeah night," Joe closed the door as Tom walked into the corridor. He turned and took in his surroundings. The window was open and the warm breeze came in gently moving the curtains. The curtains where dark with dust which showed they hadn't be cleaned or used for a long time. The wooden chair that Tom had been sitting on was very worn. The door that had held John up lead through to a bathroom. The bed was old and looked like it was ready to fall apart. Joe placed his saddlebag, which contained all his personal belongings, which wasn't much, on the back of the wooden chair. He took off his hat and threw it on to the bed. He walked over to the window and pulled back curtain and looked down into the street. A man came stumbling out of the saloon and then staggered down the road. Joe pulled the curtains to and walked over to the bed. He lay down on it and tried to think of the last time he had slept on a bed. The room was dark except for the glow of the saloon light that was leaking through the curtains. He lay there and stared at the ceiling and slowly drifted off to sleep.