Snippet #2636631

Anna's confirmation of what he already suspected sent Horatio into a similar rage. He scowled fiercely, stomping down on the wounded bandit's back in an attempt to relieve his anger, despite the sinner's cried pain of objection. "Damnation! Was this all for nothing, then?"

He couldn't help but swear, his anger getting the best of him. He remembered the presence of the girl though, his eyes drawn back to her as she huddled toward the back of the tent, frightened by the gunshot and Horatio's own shouting.

He felt the embers of fury cool some, a more clinical part of the older Dog's psyche taking over. Whatever happened next...this venture wasn't a waste. Even if the other children were gone, they were still able to save the girl before them. Besides...however unlikely it was, there was the possibility that they might find out where the children were taken to. One of the bandits might know, or perhaps they would find evidence of where they were going among any documents the sinners held. Perhaps in a letter, or some such thing.

"Even if the others are gone....we still have her. We saved someone," Horatio, somewhat begrudgingly, acknowledged, focusing on the dirtied girl huddling in the corner, the young child still clutching Anna's coat tight to her small frame.

The echo of gunfire still clung to the air, but the time inbetween shots started to lengthen, as more and more bandits fell to the onslaught from the posse. Between the sudden stampede from the horses, the ambush from the townsfolk, and the fact most of the bandits had been dead asleep previously....it surprised the Dog little how effectively the wretched sinners were being crushed. It was practically a massacre. Not that he minded in the least, of course.

"I'll stay with her...and our prisoner. You go on out, help the Sheriff and the posse mop up the rest of the bandits." Horatio decided, giving Anna permission to leave. "Go on out...I'll be fine. I have...experience, with children."

In fact, looking at the scared little girl....he couldn't help but be reminded of his own daughter. Evangeline....Little Eva, as he had affectionately called her. So bright and cheerful, so full of life. The sweetest little girl you could imagine. And she'd been...so scared. So scared the night she and her mother died. Her screams...in Horatio's darkest hours, the screams of his frightened daughter haunted his dreams and plagued his nightmares. If nothing else, he remembered the screams of his wife and daughter from that horrible, dreadful night.

If he had any solace from that blackened night, it was that he had been rendered unconscious before Chester Marston and his gang could force him to watch his family die.

However, he could do something now he hadn't been able to do for his own daughter. Comfort her in her hour of need.

"She'll be safe with me...and he's not going anywhere. Moment he tries to get back up, I'll shoot him dead. So if he wants to stay alive, he'll bleed out on the dirt." Horatio added, when he noticed Anna's hesitation. "Now go on out there...and give these bastards hell."