'frontier justice' -cont.

'frontier justice' -cont.


"it means i'm about ta make my fortune", he replied coldly , drawing back the colt's hammer with his thumb --his gunhand moving towards the direction of the watch chain man and the engraved , ivory handled "wild bill" revolver.

" your honor", whiskey loosening his tongue, the kid began his explanation --his voice rising as if in imitation of an attorney making his final courtroom summation , "you see here before you sir , one carter lee hays --outlaw."

their jovial mood gone, the stunned judge , bartender , gambler and saloongirl --all listened --frozen in their skins . the watch chain man was unshaken , but stopped chewing and stared hard into the 'hayseed's' eyes .

"in my pocket , your honor , i present to the court one wanted poster --says there's a $500 ree-ward offered by wells fargo--this bird's wanted dead , or alive in the state-uh-kansas for robbery an murder . and i sure as hell aim to collect ."

"boy , my name's thaddeus wilson bell , you must be drunk--holster that pistol before you cause trouble where there wuhh-din't none. "

the older man , his irritation beginning to show , had tried to remain calm while speaking-- the extended part of his watch chain barely glittering from his shirt pocket .

already he was, from long years of habit--habits grown from having survived much wilder, tougher places --evaluating his options --estimating whether suddenly throwing the expertly crafted knife concealed in his boot , or up-ending the table as a diversion for pulling the engraved , ivory handled colt ,or some combination of the two would result in killing the kid quicker--if he had to.

at the same time , the decades of increasing weariness constantly tugging at his soul made him hope he wouldn't have to kill this fool kid--at this point in his life ,there was more than enough blood already on his hands --"blood of more dangerous men than this likkered-up shit-kicker ever could dream to be."

of course , there had been the useless carnage of the war between the states --horrific slaughter like the world had never seen before as modern weapons accurate to 200 yards were foolishly combined with outdated lock-step slow-marching tactics from the musket era of the napoleonic days when rifles were only one sixth as accurate .

shortly after the war--with nothing left anymore to keep him at home, he had gone west to the plains where there had only been more fighting . sometimes to the death with leather-tough killers like 'mad tom' beauford -- who at point blank range -- took 4 blasts to the left side of the chest from the ivory handled colt before dying back in 68'

and 'big' mickey leeds , having spurted out enough blood to drench them both in red before he finally died after having his throat cut as they struggled for the bowie knife on the hickory-wood floor of el paso's 'little angel' saloon.

then there was old curley boy lane who was still on his feet and shooting back with a .44 in one hand while holding in his own entrails with the other after a deliberately low shot from an old sharps .50 caliber rifle --scattered pieces of curley boy's genitals all over the prairie.

with no time to reload the single shot buffalo hunter's gun , the engraved ivory-handled colt dispatched old curley with two clean hits --splattering chunks of his wide forehead all over his buckskin shirt .

among the others, there was benny trumbil --the self proclaimed " best rifleman of the staked plains" , who had to be bludgeoned to death with a large rock after benny --from ambush had shot the horse out from under the man calling himself thaddeus wilson bell.

benny's pride in his skills with the long gun kept him from carrying a sidearm--a thing he bragged he never needed . luckily for bell ,trumbill's brand new springfield rifle --as that model would increasingly become known to do--misfired on the next shot --leaving the weapon hopelessly jammed.

with the ivory handled pistol gone from its holster during the horse's fall and bell's rifle pinned under the dead animal --it came down to a fight--man to man. in the battle that included two large skinning knives ,and a jammed springfield rifle held as a club-- the final outcome was eventually settled with a stone .

the years it took to for the faces of the lives he had ended --not to go away, but to at least finally call truce-- made thaddeus bell reluctant to draw bead upon another man again--especially someone as green --and as young-- as this 'hayseed kid' .

wanting to be both alive and able to sleep at night , bell hoped for a peaceful outcome . meanwhile his old habits also strongly urged him to attempt to gauge the depths of the boy's volatility .

momentarily holding back his more vicious and reactive impulses , the older man decided to briefly wait before making his move ,clearly endangered but still patient-- like a treed cougar sizing up an escape path through the crazed hounds before the hunter could arrive-- studying what he could sense of the boy's weakness--weaknesses besides of course , the 6 shots of whiskey the boy had drunk .

as much as his rage made him want to kill the gun-pointing fool --his reason also struggled within --struggled to hold bell's anger in check , in hopes the old judge and the others could persuade the kid to stand down .