Annie Oakley in Double Trouble

    Seventeen year old Annie and her little brother Tagg live in the town of Diablo with their Uncle Sheriff Luke. Annie is not a typical teenage girl, she is extremely smart, brave, and talented when it comes to the outdoors. As a child she was taught by her Colonel father how to shoot a gun with precision, how to track in all settings, and how to defend herself.

    As our story starts out Annie is getting ready for the day. The local school teacher has eloped leaving 8 year old Tagg with an extended vacation. Although Annie is eager for him to continue his studies she agrees to let him have some fun and takes him out to a stream to pan for gold. While there she hears a gun being fired and upon investigation sees a stagecoach being held up on a nearby road by two men, one short and mean and the other tall and somewhat polite. 

    Annie knows that Deputy sheriff Lofty is coming in on that coach with an envelope containing some very important papers for her uncle regarding local criminals. When the men take the papers Annie knows she needs to step in. With the help of Tagg she sneaks up on the men and shoots a gun out of the tall man's hand who then flees. While Lofty wrestles with the short man over possession of his gun she takes after the tall man, he reaches where their horses are and Annie jumps on one of the bandit horses and continues to follow. She makes a clean shot at the mans reins and he goes flying off the horse and becomes unconscious. While Annie is grabbing something to tie him up with he is able to sneak off with both horses. Lofty and Tagg soon arrive with Annie's horse Target in tow so she won't have to walk all those miles back.

    At the sheriffs office the short man, Adams, is refusing to talk but the lawman are convinced he'll be willing to talk in a few days when the Tumbleweed Wagon arrives. The Tumbleweed Wagon is a prison wagon that goes around from town to town collecting criminals from the jails and taking them to prison in which ever large city it winds up at.

    Meanwhile a lady from the stagecoach holdup is sitting at the hotel lobby awaiting for her brother to arrive. Blair Murdock had found an ore claim and sent for his sister, Melinda, to come to Diablo to join him. She had sent him a telegram confirming her arrival date but Annie soon finds out the telegram had never been received. Unaware where her brother is and with all her money having been taken during the hold up Melinda doesn't know where to go. Annie invited her to be a guest at their home while Uncle Luke gets her appointed as the new school teacher.

    Over at the saloon we're introduced to Tex Chantry, a card sharp and confidence man who would be much desired by authorities if they knew who he was. His picture was among the papers stolen from Lofty in the hold up. With the help of Sam Gillis, who works at the hotel, Tex was able to learn about the incoming papers and hired some outlaws to steal them. Tex and Sam now have to break Adams out of jail before the Tumbleweed Wagon shows up.

    The next morning Sam gets up early and heads out to Halfway House, a notorious outlaw hideaway. There he meets with Bill Welton, the tall outlaw Annie had chased after. He trades $200 of gold dust for the envelope. After he leaves Bill goes inside and while talking with the cook we learn that Bill Welton is a man with no past. Not long ago Adams had found the stranger Bill unconscious from a bullet wound to the head. He carried him to Halfway House where him and Cook nursed him back to health. Bill has suffered amnesia from his injury and the only way he knows his name is because Adams had found a wanted poster for an unpictured man named Bill Welton folded up and pinned inside the unconscious mans shirt, along side a bag of rich ore. They assume it must be him. Bill is very grateful for what Adams has done for him and is determined to not let the man be taken away in the prison wagon.

    Back in town Sam hands the envelope over to Tex who promptly picks out his wanted paper, burns it to ashes, and makes it clear the matter is over to him meaning he does not plan on breaking Adams from jail.

    Annie has been busy trying to help Melinda track down her brother. She goes to the newspaper office to see if the editor has heard anything about a Blair Murdock and unfortunately he had. He shows Annie an article he had published two months ago which tells how the horse Blair had rented wandered into town alone a week after Blair had left on it, with an Indian arrow still embedded in the saddle and the saddlebags slashed and empty. Blair had apparently been attacked and killed. Annie and Uncle Luke show this to Melinda but she remains hopeful that Blair is still alive.

    A "sociable" is being thrown at the schoolhouse to welcome the new teacher. Tagg is instructed to read a poem the rude Mrs. Gillis has written. After fumbling it he runs out of the party in distress. Annie goes to find him and ends up seeing Bill entering the sheriffs office and realizes it's a jailbreak. 

    She sends Tagg back to the schoolhouse to alert their uncle then runs over to the bandits horses and loosens the saddles. When the outlaws come out they fall off the horses who then bolt. Both men are captured and put in jail. Everyone from the sociable has ran over to see the excitement including Melinda who recognizes Bill as Blair. That night she sneaks out to the jail while wearing one of Annie's riding outfits to find out what Blair is doing. He insists he doesn't know her or who Blair is and she ends up having to make a hasty exist when Lofty hears her. He sees her running off and mistakes her for Annie. Adams then decides to stir up trouble by pretending it was Annie coming to talk to him. On the ride home Melinda is also spotted and mistaken for Annie by Mrs. Gillis who is eager to spread this bit of gossip around.

    While Melinda is out Tagg has come into Annie's room to tell her he heard the horses acting up and can see from his window that the stable doors are open. Annie goes out to close them just as Melinda arrives home and the truth comes out about Bill being Blair. Melinda asks Annie to not tell Uncle Luke otherwise it will get around town and she will lose her teaching position.

    The following day is Sunday and Mrs. Gillis wastes no time in spreading her fresh gossip. She tells everyone Annie seemed to be up to mischief the previous night but after one woman accuses Essie of trying to stir up trouble she doubles down and tells everyone she has inside knowledge that Annie was up to no good. She of course has told her husband Sam about it and he becomes convinced that Annie, Bill, and the Sheriff are working together. He tells Tex who decides the only way to keep Bill from talking is to break him out of jail. 

    Sam sets a fire in an abandoned stable and while everyone is distracted he slips a gun to Adams through his cell window. Annie was left in charge of the jail while her uncle is helping with the fire. She's used the time to talk to Bill and almost has him convinced he's Blair when Adams pulls the gun on her and both prisoners escape.

    Annie tells her Uncle about the escape while he is among all the men who helped put out the fire, including Sam. Sam then loudly announces he believes a gun must have been slipped to the prisoners during the night and remarks that Annie had been in town late last night. Privately Uncle Luke admits he knows it was really Melinda out last night but the rest of the town appears to have become suspicious of Annie.

    Now that the truth has come to light about Bills real identity things have changed between him and Adams. Adams now is suspicious of him and desperate to get his hands on Blair's ore claim which Blair had promised him half for saving his life. But unfortunately Blair still can not remember it's location and Adams is losing his patience. Blair realizes that he's now in a bad situation because if he tries to leave the Halfway House he won't get far before he is caught and brought back as a captive. So he is pretending to stay friendly with Adams but hoping he can get in contact with Melinda.

    Annie remains bothered over Sam Gillis trying to make her look bad among the townspeople so she decides to talk things over with him. She goes to the hotel but is told by Jake that Sam has gone fishing at Lost Lake. Annie is suspicious of this since Lost Lake has become dried up. Jake also tells Annie Sam left his fishing pole and then shows her where Sam has been doodling his name as "Sheriff Sam Gillis". He also informs her that Sam and Tex have become thick as thieves.

    Meanwhile Sam is out at Halfway House again after being instructed by Tex to try and find out where Blair's ore claim is. Him and Adams harass Blair trying to get him to remember and when that doesn't work they force him to write a letter to Melinda trying to get any information from her that they can.

    The letter is left outside the schoolhouse for Melinda. It instructs her to bring the letters she has received from Bill to a road outside of town at sunset. In a hurry to do this she rides off from the school forgetting to bring Tagg with her. She's also left in such a hurry that she did not lock the schoolhouse. Seeing this Tagg goes inside to get the spare key from her desk, sees the note, and decides to bring it home to her.

    He gives the note to Annie when he gets home and since she can see the signature is from Blair she decides to read it. She's concerned Blair wants to see Melinda to tell her he is going to keep up his life of crime so she decides to go see if she can convince him to turn himself in.

    When she arrives at the road she finds Melinda's horse and buggy alone on the side of the road and quickly sees signs of a struggle. After studying the footprints she deciphers that it was most likely Adams and not Blair who had taken Melinda against her will. Since uncle Luke and Lofty are gone for the day Annie knows she has to follow the trail to find Melinda at once as night is quickly approaching. 

    

    Tagg soon shows up on his horse begging to come along which Annie allows. They follow the tracks down an old, out of use road which leads down where Annie had chased Blair after the stagecoach robbery. She's long suspected this leads to the outlaws hideout. In the distance she can see a horse with two riders and knows she's on the right track. 

    Soon she hears hoof beats approaching from behind and quickly pulls her and Tagg off the path and behind some boulders. Sam and Tex go riding by and as they pass Tagg's horse snorts and stamps. The men continue on but up ahead they hide off the side of the trail to see who had been spying on them. As Annie and Tagg approach Tex draws his pistol but Annie had already seen the marks where the men had stopped and realizes they're about to be ambushed. She grabs her rifle and, with Tagg, jumps off behind some rocks on the other side of the trail. 

    When Taggs hat gets blown away he reaches out for it and Tex shoots him in the arm. Thinking that Annie will be too busy with Tagg to notice them, they get out of their hiding spot and ride on. However Annie quickly sees the bullet has only grazed the skin of Tagg arm so she quickly puts her attention back on the two men and with precise aim shoots at Sam's hat which flies off his head. Tex and Sam's horses then go flying off but Annie makes sure to grab the hat, which has Sam's initials inside, as evidence. 

    Annie wants to turn back for home but once Tagg realizes he's not severely wounded he is eager to continue on. He's actually quite thrilled and proud that he has been wounded while enforcing the law. They head on but after a bit Tagg becomes woozy and Annie finds he has developed a fever. 

    Annie is able to locate a small cave that appears to have been previously used by a prospector; inside it contains a blanket, firewood, a pickax, and some canned food. There they hunker down for the night.
Meanwhile back in Diablo uncle Luke has arrived home and finding everyone gone and the horse and buggy sitting out in the yard he becomes worried. He waits up the night and at the first sign of day light he heads out to town asking if anyone has seen any of the three. Here he finds out Sam and Tex are also missing.

    The next morning Annie and Tagg continue on the trail and spot Tim, the lookout. Annie is able to use a rock and her bandanna to knock down a hornets nest from above his head which sends him running to Halfway House. Annie and Tagg can then go past and come upon the house. After hiding the horses deep in the woods Annie approaches the back of the house where she see Melinda come out to a well with a bucket. She gets a hold of her and sends her into the woods before confronting Cookie who has come out to see what's taken Melinda so long. 

    He, who likes Blair and can't stand Tex, tells Annie to get her and Melinda as far away as possible as fast as possible because some of the men inside would be delighted to kill her. He then goes back inside and pretends Melinda has run off. Tex doesn't care saying she'll either come back by night or get killed by an animal. They bandits then grab Blair and head out to some unknown destination. Seeing this Annie tells Tagg to get Melinda to the cave they had slept in then hurry to Diablo to get Uncle Luke and a posse. 

    Annie is able to speak to Cookie again who tells her Tex is taking Blair to be set up in a gun trap; he'll be tied to a tree with a gun tied to a tree across from him. The gun will be tied with strips of fresh deer hide which will shrink as the sun dries it out thus pulling the trigger. Annie hurries in the given direction and finds Blair tied up and Sam keeping watch over him. She shoots down the gun which causes Sam, who is terrified of Annie and her skilled gunmanship, to run but she shoots in front of his feet which stops him. She then has him untie Blair and hand over his gun then march him back to Halfway House where she surprises Red and Adams.

    Tagg makes in back to Diablo and a group heads out towards the hideout and wrangle up Tex, Adams, and Sam who are placed on the Tumbleweed Wagon the next day. The next day Essie Gillis also flees town out of humiliation.

    Luke and Annie go with Blair to the county court to testify on his behalf and a judge exonerated him of his crimes during his brief stint as Bill Welton. And of course Blair finds his ore claim; it was the cave Annie and Tagg slept in.

- It's pretty obvious that Bill is actually Blair. I wish that it wasn't so obvious because I think it would have been a great reveal. Although I'm typically not a fan of amnesia driven plots I do think this one is interesting since Blair has taken on an unfavorable identity.

- It's stated that Annie wears a long split skirt for riding her horse and this just seems so uncomfortable and impractical to me. So I looked it up and was very surprised to find that not only did women wear these split skirts but they were actually considered somewhat scandalous. Women riding astride was not considered decent so wearing clothes especially made for a woman to ride astride was definitely considered in poor taste by some. Women would typically wear ankle length skirts to ride side saddle but if they were going to ride astride they would wear either a split skirt or pants underneath a skirt. I wonder how many women at some point said screw it and threw on a pair of their father or brothers pants to go riding.

- No mention is made of what becomes of Cookie so I guess we can assume he went through with his plans to pack up and move along after Annie corners Tex and Sam. He's an interesting characters because he's very kind and wants to help Blair escape from Adams but worries about disrupting his quiet life at Halfway House since he's a wanted criminal. On one hand you like him because he is compassionate, dislikes the bad guys, and helps Annie. But on the other hand you have to wonder what terrible crimes he committed that made him have to disappear from the world and live in isolation at Halfway House.

    I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed it a lot more the first time I read it but I did still enjoy it this time too. I read it faster than I've read a book in awhile. I recall thinking it was the best out of the three Annie Oakley books Whitman published so I'm not sure how I'll feel about those when I re-read them. 

    Also, although this book was nice to read I've found myself horrifically bored re-reading my summary. Maybe I'm just a terrible writer but I don't normally find the book summaries so tedious to read. I think it may simply be that the action in this book does not fair well when condensed so much.