CHAPTER 21
 

Cody rode slowly down the street until he spotted the bank. He thought, “This must be a successful bank. All the hitching rails in front are full.” Cody stopped, dismounted and tied his horse in front of the saloon just to the right of the bank. 
 

He heard shots and a woman’s scream from inside the bank just before the front door was flung open and three armed, masked men appeared. One stood on the wooden walkway peering down the street in the opposite direction from where Cody stood.
 

A second was slowly backing out the door, his gun covering whoever was still inside. The third and closest to Cody, was on the walkway starting to turn toward him. Each man had a bank sack bulging with money in one hand and a gun in the other that swayed back and forth as they looked in all directions.
 

The man was now staring directly at him and was almost in position to fire his gun. Cody quickly drew both his pistols and shot him. He watched in slow-motion as his bullets puckered the man’s shirtfront on each side of his heart. Small dust clouds rose up and out from holes, and blood spurted for several feet in a gruesome crimson display. The man crumpled backward and fell dead on his left side on the walkway, but not before his gun finger spasmed and sent a bullet into the wooden planks.