Jim Lockhart had rested in his chair, feet up on the desk, so he was working the stiffness out of his bones as he crossed the jail to stand in front of the cell. Bright sunlight was coming in through the windows and he could feel the heat starting to gather. He roused the sleeping prisoner.
‘Looks like you’ve got a nice day for your hanging, boy,’ he said. ‘Now push your hands through the bars so’s I can sort you out.’
He removed the manacles from Luke’s wrists, replacing them with a length of rope he tied on tight. Luke stared at Jim with unconcealed displeasure.
‘That was good try you made,’ Jim said, pleasant enough. ‘Got to give you that. But it just weren’t good enough. I had a feelin’ you might pull somethin’ and by damn I was right.’ He allowed a soft chuckle to escape his lips. ‘You sure gave Carl a beating. But that boy is so dumb he deserved it. If there was a way for him to follow you to hell he’d do it and hand out some more licks of his own.’
Jim stepped back as he opened the cell door, watching Luke closely, allowing no chance for his prisoner to get close.
‘Puzzles me some why you didn’t finish Carl when you had the chance.’
Luke said, ‘Because I ain’t no killer. Your brother forced that fight in the saloon and I protected myself. Ain’t no more to it than that. Same with Carl. I ain’t in the habit of killing people.’
Jim shook his head. ‘We done been through this enough times. You killed Ace and there ain’t no way you can talk your way out, so save your breath…you’ll sure enough need it when that noose snaps around your neck.’
He pushed Luke ahead of him as they stepped outside onto the street, where Carl and his men were herding the townspeople into a nervous bunch in front of the gallows. They moved reluctantly, and it was plain to see they were not happy being forced into watching the hanging, but still cowed by the armed presence of Jim Lockhart and his men. Luke scanned the set faces, hoping for some kind of sympathy, but no one would meet his gaze. The bright glare of sunlight made Luke narrow his eyes. Over the heads of the assembled crowd he could see the stark silhouette of the scaffold and the rope. Truth be told it was the last thing he wanted to see.
‘Keep moving, boy. Don’t figure it right to keep your audience waitin’,’ Jim said.
Luke walked ahead of him along the street, Jim keeping him covered with his revolver. Despite the situation Luke found himself thinking of better times. He’d never had much in the way of responsibility, and it suited him that way. It allowed him to come and go, taking jobs when he wanted. Other times he simply drifted through the days, taking in the wide and wild countryside at leisure. He’d had his good times and his bad…yet none of them were as bleak as his present situation. It was not of his making. Just the trap he had found himself caught in and as far as Luke could see there was no way out. Surrounded by armed men, hands tied, and nothing but a noose waiting for him up ahead. A hell of a way for any man to die, especially seeing he was innocent of the crime Jim Lockhart had accused him of. This was not the way he had expected his life to end.
Briefly he considered making a break for it, giving them no choice but to gun him down rather than hang him. But he wasn’t about to give his captors the satisfaction of seeing him shot down like a dog. If this was the way it was going to end he would at least show them he was no coward.
Luke straightened his back and stiffened his shoulders.
Heads down, the townsfolk cleared a path as Luke walked through, closely followed by Jim. Carl and the deputies followed until they stood between the crowd and the gallows.
It was then a broad figure appeared, walking out from a side alley to stand just ahead of the watching Vermijo citizens.
It was Frank Tyler.
Luke, recognizing his grandfather still alive, felt his emotions rising.
‘Enough,’ Frank called, getting the attention of everyone else on the street. ‘It’s time this was brought to a finish, Lockhart. There ain’t about to be a hangin’ today.’
Jim expressed his surprise as he recognized Frank, unsure of himself before his confidence returned.
‘Thought we left you for dead, old man.’
‘Figured so myself until I found I was still breathin’.’
‘We can still change that,’ Carl yelled through his bruised, bloody lips. ‘Mebbe we can have a double hangin’. What do you say, Jim?’
‘I say shut your damn mouth, Carl.’
‘See, that bullet went right through me just above my hip,’ Frank said, touching his side. ‘Left me sore is all and madder than a wet hen.’
‘Then go tend to that wound,’ Jim said. ‘We got law work to do. Unless you fancy standing next to your kin.’
Frank stepped forward, shaking his head.
‘This ain’t law work by any stretch, Lockhart. You just want revenge for your dead brother, and to make an example for the folk in Vermijo. But you can’t fool anyone. I been here long enough to hear how you got the town too scared to stand up to you.’
‘You talkin’ foolish, old man.’
‘Not the way I understand it. You got this town bottled up so’s you and your bunch can do pretty much what you want. Make these folks pay protection money. Threaten them if they don’t. Use your bully boys to keep ‘em in line. If they stand against you they get beat up, or their property gets burned down. I been hearing the story.’
Jim’s teeth showed in a sneer. ‘The hell you say. Me and my brothers put the lid on a dozen towns just like this one. Cleaned ‘em up. The town council here asked us to come and do the same for Vermijo. They asked us, Tyler.’
‘That’s as maybe, but whatever the reason, it got lost along the way and you strayed off the line. Decided Vermijo was ripe for plucking. That the way it was, Lockhart? Got yourselves real settled here. Saw your chance and took over. By then the town had no heart to fight back.’
‘Vermijo needed us.’
‘Mebbe so. And maybe you started out doing what they wanted. Only along the way you saw a chance to make yourselves to home. Take more than you had a right to.’
‘Old man, you talk a damned streak. Let me put you right. Vermijo got what we promised and more, then started gettin’ uppity once we tamed it. Folks decided they didn’t need us anymore. Figured they could just have us move on. They didn’t appreciate us any longer.’
Frank’s own smile was cool, then the corners of his mouth turned down with disdain. ‘Blaming the town is a coward’s way, Lockhart. What I’d expect from a bully. You and your brothers have done your best to take this town for everything you can. Turned out to be lawmen gone bad. Usin’ your badges for your own ends.’ He shook his head pityingly. ‘In my book, that makes you just about the lowest kind of critters there is.’
Jim squared his shoulders. ‘And who the hell are you to tell me that?’
Slowly Frank dug into his jacket and when his hand came back out it was holding something that reflected the sunshine. He tossed the object at Jim and it hit the dust between Jim’s feet.
It was a badge.
‘Frank Tyler,’ said Frank. ‘Ex-US Marshal. The man your brother there shot and left for dead. The man whose grandson you figure to hang. The man who’s goin’ to burn you down, Lockhart.’
Jim seemed unconcerned by the threat. ‘You reckon, huh?’ he called.
A thin smile showed on his lips a fraction of a second before his hand dropped to his holstered Colt, sliding it from the holster and firing a single shot that put a slung in Frank’s right leg. As Frank dropped he let go his rifle, grasping at the bleeding wound.
‘Son of a bitch,’ Jim snapped as he pushed by Luke, gun arm extended. ‘Who’s down now, Tyler? I’m lookin’ at a dead man who don’t know it yet.’
‘Don’t do it, Jim!’
It was Eve’s voice, reaching Jim as she pushed out of the crowd and faced him.
She was holding a gun in her hands, and it was pointed in his direction.
‘The hell you playing at, girl?’ he demanded. ‘You put that gun down now, you hear.’
Eve struggled to hold back the tears filling her eyes. She was visibly trembling.
‘That there man is right,’ she choked. ‘You, Ace, Carl…all you’ve done is bully Vermijo. Scared the people and bled it dry. It’s like that man said. You Lockharts are rotten. All of you. Now you just want to hang this boy here to keep us in line.’
‘Eve…’ Jim’s voice had turned heavy, threatening.
‘No more, Jim,’ she said, speaking over him. ‘Time you heard the truth about the shooting. Something you don’t know.’
‘So tell me,’ he growled, sounding like he didn’t want to hear it.
‘Luke didn’t kill Ace,’ said Eve. ‘I did.’
Aside from the sighing of the wind, the street was silent.
‘What you sayin’, girl?’ Jim said.
‘The morning Ace died, he beat me for the last time. I’d taken his hand too often and told myself I wasn’t gonna take it no more. I’d had enough of his cruelty.’
It was mid-morning as Eve stepped out of the cabin, still trembling from the beating, face bruised. In her slim hand she carried a heavy Colt .45 Peacemaker. She stood for a moment, making a decision, aware it was going to change her life, then walked away from the cabin and headed up town…she paid little attention to her surroundings as she moved with stolid determination…
‘…Ace was no real husband. Just as bad as the rest of you. Worthless. He beat me because he didn’t know any other way to control me. Just like the way the three of you did for this town to keep it in its place. I’d made up my mind I wasn’t going to let that happen to me any more…I was going to settle with Ace once and for all.’
Luke Tyler was already inside the saloon at the moment Eve walked by, stepping along the boardwalk, and she saw her husband at the bar, a drink in his hand, and seeing him there her spirits sank. A hollow seeming to form in her stomach, the revolver in her hand, held tight against her leg in the folds of her dress, suddenly feeling like a dead weight. She was aware of the hot sun on her back, the noise of the townsfolk going about their business, paying her no attention. It was simply seeing Ace there, oblivious to what he’d done to her. She doubted her resolve. She was no cold killer. Able to end someone’s life. Even though she had cause to hit back she simply stood and stared…
‘You want the truth?’ she said. ‘I hesitated. Almost lost my chance because I wasn’t like you Lockharts. Ace was there in front of me, arguing with this here Luke Tyler. He was pushing for a fight, just like he always did. He was an easy target but I couldn’t bring myself to shoot right then.’
She moved along the boardwalk, stopping at the alley that ran along the side of the saloon as the raised voices from inside reached her. Ace’s harsh tones and the quieter voice of Luke. She was able to see them through the open side window of the saloon. The exchanged words were lost to her in the blur of action. The thrown punches, the pair moving back and forth as the argument increased. Ace falling back, bloody lipped, face wild with the anger Eve knew only too well. She saw Luke prepare to snatch at his holstered pistol, lifting it to fire, and Luke having no choice but to pull his weapon as he lay on the floor.
It was the expression on Ace’s face that she recognized, the cold, vicious gleam in his eyes that came just before his temper exploded into brutal violence. It was the look she knew too well and seeing that Eve acted on impulse, knowing Luke would be too slow, lifting her Colt aiming and firing. It was only a split second later that Luke’s gun fired, his bullet angled off target, the bullet striking the distant corner of the room. The twin shots came so close they almost merged. Eve’s shot hit Ace in the face and he fell back against the bar. The anger in his expression turned to confusion. Hurt as he realized he had been shot, and he slumped back, head dropping as if he was studying the blood oozing from the ruin of his eye and then became still.
Eve stepped back, letting the hand holding the gun drop to her side. She found herself moving along the alley, away from the street and didn’t stop until she found herself on the trash-strewn back lot. She braced her hand against a wall, leaning forward and vomited into the dirt. When the retching ceased she pushed the revolver back into the folds of her dress and made her way along the back lots until she was some distance from the saloon. She rejoined Vermijo’s main street at the tail-end of the people rushing towards the saloon, no one noticing her as she emerged…
‘So that’s what you got wrong, Jim. It wasn’t this boy who shot Ace. It was me. I saw the look on Ace’s face and knew he was going to put Luke down. I knew because I’d seen that look so many times before when he beat me. I shot him for what he was…a cowardly bully who never would have changed.’
Now it was Jim who was staring at her with that familiar coldness in his eyes.
‘That was the way of it?’ he said softly. ‘Why Ace never got off a shot? You fired first and the second shot was the kid’s. Son of a bitch, that was why there were still five shots unfired in his gun.’ He pushed Luke aside, his gaze fixed on Eve. It was as if Luke didn’t matter any longer. ‘Hell, it looks like I’ll be hangin’ a woman instead today.’
Eve reacted to his words, leveling her gun at him. But before she could fire Carl triggered a shot himself. The bullet slammed into her shoulder, turning her and she fell heavily, her revolver slipping from her grasp. A collective murmur of disapproval came from the gathered townsfolk.
‘You don’t cheat the rope that easy, Eve,’ Carl said. ‘Not after what you did to Ace.’
The distraction offered Frank his chance. Ignoring the pain in his leg wound he snatched up his rifle and fired at Jim, but the shot was too hasty, and missed.
Jim ordered his men to stand down as they turn their guns in Frank’s direction, the townsfolk hurriedly scattering from the center of the street.
‘Leave him alone,’ Jim snapped. ‘This son of a bitch is mine. All mine.’
Carl, sensing a change in the situation, turned to confront Luke. In that one brief flash he saw that Luke had worked the ropes at his wrists loose and was coming at him with the clear intent to kill or main.
Carl triggered a panicky shot that missed the mark. A split second later Luke smashed into him and knocked his gun aside. They stumbled across the street, each attempting to gain the upper hand, slamming into the horse trough close to the corral beside the gallows. The force of their struggle tipped them across the trough and they came to their feet again, throwing pouches that marked their faces around the damage done by their earlier fight. Clawing at each other’s shirt they dragged themselves upright, still fighting, landing hard, heavy blows that sprayed blood as they staggered around. A telling punch from Luke sent Carl back against the corral posts where he hung, his resistance wavering. It offered Luke his opening and he sledged in blow after blow to Carl’s face and body, unmindful of his own condition. He only stopped when Carl, still clinging to the corral post, hung limp and unresisting, blood dripping from his battered face…
…the street was suddenly filling with townsfolk, armed now and ready to face Jim’s gunmen. The deputies, seeing the way the tide was turning, offered no more resistance, and just backed off as they saw their livelihood ebbing away.
Still defiant, however, Jim Lockhart was determined to take Frank with him. He moved forward, revolver rising, and Frank still fighting back the pain from the wound in his leg, picked up his Winchester and made to fire. The lever refused to move, jammed. He tossed the weapon aside, gripping the holstered Colt with his blood-slick hand.
Moving forward Jim faced the downed man, sure of his claim on his victim.
‘Last words, old man?’ Jim said, a grin forming.
Frank’s eyes went flat.
‘Only so long,’ he said.
Then he tilted his Colt up a notch and fired it through the open end of the holster.
The heavy .45 bullet hammered into Jim’s chest, right over his heart and was followed by a second shot that struck a fraction of an inch from the first. Jim stumbled back, shocked, barely able to comprehend what had happened. He hit the gallows support legs and slid to a sitting position, his fading vision taking in the gunsmoke trailing from the open end of Frank’s holster.
By the time Frank pushed awkwardly to his feet Jim was dead, his own weapon still gripped in his clenched fist.
Luke appeared, half-dragging the bloody Carl alongside him. He hauled Carl to the center of the street and pushed him down. Carl offered no resistance, just lay bleeding into the dust.
Ruby Tucker appeared, dropping to her knees beside Eve. She ministered to the whimpering young woman.
‘You stay with us, Eve. Stay with us, you hear?’ She turned to face the shocked townsfolk, her voice defiant. ‘Don’t stand there like chickens with their heads cut off. Someone get the doc. Do it now, damn you.’
Miller, the bartender, edged forward, eyeing the dangling noose strangely. Then he turned to look at the slumped figure if Carl.
‘Seems a shame to let that noose go to waste,’ he said mildly. ‘After everything that’s happened an’ all.’
Carl, raising his head, realized what the man meant.
‘The hell with you bastards,’ he growled. ‘You ain’t got the guts.’
Miller shrugged. ‘I’ll tell you, Carl,’ he said. ‘When a man’s had a bellyful of you Lockharts, he’ll find the guts.’
Carl struggled to his feet, facing the approaching and determined townsmen. The former deputies, seeing the intent in the faces of the crowd, quickly edged away. There weren’t going to be any more paydays around Vermijo, so there was no loyalty left to Carl as they took their leave.
‘Miserable bastards,’ Carl yelled, seeing his support vanish, leaving him to face the townsfolk on his own. He jabbed a finger at the advancing crowd. ‘You can’t do this to me. Not Carl Lockhart!’
The crowd kept coming.
Carl caught Frank’s eye. ‘You. You used to be a lawmen. Tell ’em.’
Frank only stared at him.
Carl’s eyes went wide. ‘You could stop this.’
Leaning on Luke’s shoulder for support, Frank nodded. ‘That’s right,’ he agreed. ‘I could.’
But he did nothing.
‘You and your brother there were ready to string my grandson up,’ Frank said grimly. ‘You wanted to make an example out of him. Well…I guess these here people want to hang you right now for much the same reason…a warning to anyone else who figures to ride in and take over Vermijo. Kind of justice in there, somewhere.’
Finally the townsfolk clustered around Carl and his final wail of protest rose over their heads as they dragged him toward the gallows…and eternity.
‘You leave me alone, damn you. You…noooo!’
~*~
In the late afternoon, Frank and Luke checked their waiting horses before they rode out, eager to leave Vermijo behind them. Luke, his battered face cleaned up but still looking sore, moved slowly. His body was still hurting and in truth he needed to rest, but like Frank he wanted to get some distance between himself and the town before that. Similarly, Frank was still in pain after having his leg attended to. They looked a sorry pair, but contented themselves with the fact they were still alive.
‘Grandpa, you sure about this?’ Luke asked as he tightened his cinch.
‘Damn right I’m sure,’ Frank replied. ‘Gets a sight lonesome out at my place. I’d enjoy the company, and you can stay until you’re healed up proper and ready to move on again.’
‘It’s just…well, seems to me all I ever done is bring you trouble. I’ll be straight with you. I’ve ridden with the worst before now.’
‘Well, you’re ridin’ with the best now.’
‘Guess so,’ Luke said, managing a weak smile. ‘Mebbe…well, mebbe we can do a little huntin’ like we used to.’
‘Just like we used to,’ said Frank, happy at the prospect. ‘Only this time not goin’ against anyone who can shoot back.’
‘Can’t argue against that.’ Luke climbed slowly into the saddle. ‘I been thinking. If it hadn’t been for Ace’s widow, I might have ended up on the end of that rope.’
‘True enough, boy. But she come through just fine in the end. That was a brave thing she did, outing that no ‘count varmint. Anyway, I always knew you couldn’t have done it.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Hell, yeah. You never could shoot worth a damn.’
Luke smiled — actually smiled, and it had been a long time since he’d last done that. ‘Well I’ll tell you this for nothin’,’ he said. ‘I got me a second chance, an’ I figure to make the most of it. When Eve gets over her shoulder healing, I hope she does, too.’
‘Something tells me she will. Vermijo owes her for what she done.’
As they rode out of town, leaving behind the past few days as fading memories, the sight of Carl’s hanging body, swaying in the breeze was their final image of Vermijo. Luke caught a glimpse of sunlight flaring briefly on the spurs Carl had taken from him and realized again that it could just as easily have been him hanging there. It was a sobering thought and he felt a shiver course through him.
‘Grandpa, let’s go home,’ he said, and turned his back on the town.