The Hanging

It is stone silence out in the street. You would think with a crowd this size that there would be murmer of some kind, but they are waiting for a response... any response from inside the store.

Nothing. The pistol in my back rachets as the hammer is drawn back. I am getting nervous.

"Come on, Lou."
The pistol moves in an inch or two and tries to crack a rib.
"Shuddup you."

My captor waits for a moment or two, then... "String 'em up."

The three of us are hustled over to a row of supply wagons. Some of the men lift the tongues of three of those wagons while others grab rope and fashion quick slip-knots. They begin to tie our hands.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Andy cracks. "Get your FUCKING hands off of me." He twists and turns, breaking away for a moment as the men holding him are left with his arrow quiver and bow in their hands. He is quickly recaptured and gets the first rope around his neck.

One of the men hold up the quiver and the bow, "Looky here, we got us one a them albino Indians."
Andy struggles, stomps, and head-butts those around him until a rifle barrel to the back of his skull stills him.
"You bastards." Is all I get out before a rope is sinched around my throat. I look over at Mike, who is quite and calm... like he might look if he were waiting for a bus on the street corner. A rope is placed around his neck and there is a tick of a smile on his face.

I follow his gaze and see what he sees. The crowd has turned their back on the store for the moment with the exception of two men with rifles who are nerviously shifting their eyes from the store to the spectacle of the hanging that is about to happen. Ollie is already out and scrambling up on the roof of the building, a rifle in hand and one slung over his shoulder. Antonelli is two buildings over, outside of the now empty blacksmith's tent, bandoliered with a couple of cartridge belts and two pistols in hand. At his feet is the scatter gun.

The crowd is stirring now, some of them yelling for the posse to hang us, others start to shout Orlis Keene's name. None of the men with the guns that are set to hang us are watching the store, expecting their associates to watch their backs. This, as it turns out, is a big mistake.

Ollie stands, drawing a bead on one of the two men. As the man looks back at the store, he first sees the shadow of the Aztec giant on the dirt at his feet, and then looks slowly up. At the same time Antonelli steps out from the side of the blacksmith's tent, both pistols at arms length. His man sees him instantly and straightens up for a moment... a second or two of calculation before he realizes that he is seconds away from death. He drops the rifle to the ground. His friend sees the rifle drop out of the corner of his eye and he slowly kneels and sets his rifle down as well.

Now the crowd is ready to hang us. The nooses are around our necks, the ropes over the tongues and ready, three men on each line ready to pull us off the ground.
In the seconds before the ropes are drawn tight I watch as Antonelli gathers both of his prisoners and places a gun to each of their heads as he stands between them. The doors to the store are kicked open, the sound preceeds a rifle shot into the air from Ollie as he stands tall.

"I'M HERE, YOU CHICKEN SHIT ASSHOLES."

The crowd turns and falls silent as they take in the situation. Lou stands in front of the General Store, gun in hand... cigar tucked in the corner of his mouth. From this distance I can't see the look in his eyes, but I know it is the one that would take the legs out from under anyone it is focused on.

"LET THEM GO AND I WILL LEAVE YOU BE. YOU CAN ALL GO ON ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS."

The foul breathed man that was the spokesman for the lynch mob seems to have lost his voice. He turns to face Lou. Before he does he makes sure his pistol is uncocked and tucked back into the holster.
"You... you... aren't in charge here Keene." His voice cracks, taking any authority away in an instant.

"OH... I THINK I AM." Lou takes two steps forward and the crowd around us falls back until it is just the three of us and the men with the guns.

"We ain't gonna let you come in here and gun down innocent civilians, Keene."

Lou steps forward and covers half the ground between the store and the make-shift gallows. Our captors tighten their ranks and those with rifles... their grip, making sure not to make any move that could be construed as threatening.

"Take a closer look. I'm not Orlis Keene."

The spokesman finds his balls. "I ain't gonna let you go, Orlis. Not this time. Now you have your boys drop their weapons and release my deputies."

"Deputies?" Lou squints, "I don't see a badge, friend. This just a trading post, not a munincipality."
The man cocks his head like a dog. "I am the law here just the same. Now I will say this just one more time. You and your men will lay down your weapons and we will hold you for the territorial judge. If you got a story to tell you can tell it to him."

Lou is calculating, I can see it. Calculating who he might have to kill, who he can save, who he will mame. We didn't come here to kill anyone... and he knows that.

In the split seconds of judgement we see the lawman's head cut to the right... just slightly. I see the other gunmen as their weapons discharge. In that moment I realize that this is what bolstered this spokesman's hand. He drops just slightly as he draws, but it is the move that brings his death.

Lou drops and turns, three shots ring home in the two gunmen that fall from behind the barber's tent. A rifle shot from the roof of the General Store drills the man that stands before me, passing through him and lodging in the chest of the man behind him. Behind me I can hear a man yell and then the rope tightens around my neck and I am lifted off the ground. With the sounds of war blazing around me, my vision narrows, my heartbeat pounds in my ears. And then all goes black.

I awaken to the sound of Chris' voice, warning people to get back. I am being dragged by the collar of my shirt. I begin to cough and choke and can hear him say, "That a boy... I'm not about to give you the kiss of life."
I try to tell him that he would make a great star in the sequel to Brokeback Mountain, but all I can do is cough.

"Get them inside." I can hear Lou... and feel Ollie as he bounds up and heaves me off of the ground and over his shoulder. This is the first time I open my eyes. When I focus I can see that we are back in the General Store. Mike and Andy are on the floor where Ollie sets me. Mike is bleeding badly from a gunshot wound. Andy has regained consciousness and is kneeling over him.

"It's just a graze, Mike... didn't go in. Just a graze, just a graze." He is busy holding pressure to the wound.

Glass breaks as Ollie creates a gun port for his rifle. Two shots ring out as he holds back the gathering crowd.
"Cuatro más, dos con rifles."

"Four more, two with rifles." Antonelli translates.
"Well... shit." Lou stands with his pistol at the ready, the other hand on his hip and a look of disgust on his face. "I sure as hell hoped to avoid this."
He looks at Andy, then at the Mrs. from the General Store.
"Can you please attend to my friend, Ma'am?"
She scurries around the counter with a cloth diaper and what looks to be a first-aid kit of sorts.

"Andy."
He doesn't move from Mike's side.
"ANDY."
Everyone in the store jumps, including me.
"I want you to go with Chris and bring the horses around back before one of those fools hits that dynamite."

Lou steps up to the Ollie's side an looks out the window, "Ollie, usted los cubre."
The big man nods as he peers down the barrel of the rifle. Lou takes up position on the opposite side of the broken window where the scattergun is leaning against the wall. With a nod to Andy and Chris they begin firing.

Both men bolt from the door of the General Store. I can see them frantically undoing the reigns from the rail as rifle and pistol shots blaze from the window. From the opposite direction the four gunmen try their best to draw a bead on the suspected outlaws as they work to free the horses.

When the shotgun blasts ring out, I can see both men and horses flee around the building through the partially open door before Lou kicks it closed. I find my strength and get my legs to hold me up. I have no gun, but find a rifle at my feet. I join them at the window.

"Jake, go around back and lend them boys some cover. There's bound to be more of them."

I stagger through the store to the back door and as I open it I can see a couple of the posse begin to fire on my friends as they try to find cover behind the store. One of them turns and unloads on me when he spies me in the door frame. The splintering wood peppers the side of my face and I fire back, piercing him with a rifle round at point blank range. The other man turns... I am throwing the cocking lever. A shot rings out from the side of the building as Antonelli spends a round, putting a niced sized hole through the side of the man's head. He falls to his knees and then face first into the dirt.

We have our horses, some supplies, and a whole town ready to kill us where we stand. Mike is shot, we have no idea where to escape to, and I suspect we will surely hear the sound of Cavalry before long. All of this and we are still no closer to getting home. I long for the days of Muerte Verde and a big fat Walker.