Boots sounded on the floor, and Keegan turned his head to see that Tom Lovely had righted himself and began making for the open door. The Schofield in Keegan’s hand was already cocked, and he shifted his aim and was ready to blow a hole in the man’s back. He would have, too, but Lovely Tom slipped on the blood that had poured out of Titus Bedwell’s body. His feet shot out in front of him, and he landed hard, his head slamming against the floor. He groaned and rolled over.
The only noise came from outside. Slowly the ringing left Keegan’s ears, and he stepped toward the dead hero and the lousy, groaning killer. Church bells—the town’s warning alarms—sang out across the city, and shouts, curses, but no more gunfire, echoed across the street. After lowering the Schofield, Keegan walked slowly to the two men, one dead, one about to be. He felt the urge to put a bullet between Lovely Tom’s glazed eyes, but a figure appeared in the doorway, then disappeared immediately.
“Hell’s bells, boys!” the voice outside called out. “There’s a man in there with a gun!”
“It’s me, ye blithering idiot!” Sean Keegan said, and yelled out his name. That caused a bit of silence. He figured the people in town now wondered if Keegan—the blight of the city, the county, and most of West Texas—had joined up with the Benteen brothers.
“They’ve killed poor Titus Bedwell, boys. Shot him down in cold blood. But the one who murdered my friend is gonna live to face the hangman.”
He waited. Then blew up with a stream of profanity that ended with ”Get your yellow asses in here, boys, and I mean now.”
A head appeared. Then another. Finally two men slowly came into the marshal’s office and jail, keeping their hands far, far away from their holstered revolvers. Another man showed up, wet his lips, and leaned his rifle against the doorjamb. The first fellow had the decency to remove his hat and bow his head as he looked down at the late Titus Bedwell.
“Where’s the marshal?” Keegan asked.
“I don’t rightly know,” said another newcomer standing in the doorway.
“Probably hiding under his bed,” came a comment from someone outside.
“They kilt Titus,” said the second man to have entered the building.
“This, me boys,” Keegan said, “is what you bloody well get when you don’t hang a vermin like Tom Lovely at dawn. When you want to wait to give more folks a chance to see his neck pop and his britches get soiled.”
“Well . . .” some one said.
Another person outside cursed.
The church bells faded into mere echoes, and a moment later, the echoes even stopped. Nothing but silence, except for Lovely Tom’s groans.
“My goodness,” said a woman’s voice somewhere on the street. “They went and shot down poor Mr. Kligerman as he was coming to do his job.”
“Who the hell is Mr. Kligerman?” Keegan asked.
The man in the doorway raised his head. “The hangman.”
“Our luck,” said someone else outside. “Now we can’t hang Tom Benteen.”
“The bloody hell.” Keegan tossed the Schofield onto the marshal’s desk, marched over to Lovely Tom, and jerked him to his feet. The killer’s eyes fluttered then closed from the fist Keegan planted into his temple. The unconscious man flopped over Keegan’s shoulder, and the big Irishman marched him outside.
“We shan’t be waiting till the crowds arrive this bloody afternoon, and we won’t let this piece of filth wait till the county can find another hangman.” Keegan stepped into the street, looked around, saw the gallows behind the courthouse, and made a beeline. “C’mon, boys, ladies, kids . . . you, too, Reverend. The hanging of Tom Lovely—like hell if I’ll call him a Benteen—starts right now.”
“You can’t do that!” A white-haired woman gasped.
“I suspect that the death warrant says this man dies today. It’s today, and he’s going to die today. It might not be two this afternoon in Purgatory City when he swings, but it’ll be two o’clock somewhere.”
The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and Keegan moved like the old soldier he was, a body over his shoulder and fierce determination in his eyes. He rounded the corner and looked for the gate to the courthouse’s backyard.
Purgatory City had become civilized at some point, and no longer let every man, woman, and child, come to see the hangings. These had become private affairs, with invitations extended and tickets sold, and carpenters paid to not only build a gallows but to put up a high fence to keep gawkers from watching a man, or woman, swing.
He stopped long enough to kick the gate off its hinges, turned back, and yelled, “Come on, you yellow-livered trash. Lovely Tom murdered a good man in cold blood, without a care or concern or a moment of guilt, and he’s gonna pay for that. Not for whatever crime got him sentenced to die today—but die today he will. And I want everyone out on these streets to come see him swing.”
He marched into the rear yard, saw the canopies and benches arranged for ladies or the weak of heart, saw a few carts for vendors. How much did the city council charge for those hawkers of peanuts and parched corn? He stopped briefly to look up.
Good. They had already set the noose.
He moved to the steps, and without breaking stride, climbed them. On the platform, he glanced to see several people actually coming into the gated enclosure. Keegan didn’t actually think the people of this town would have the guts to do it, but here they came.
After stepping to the trapdoor, he gently lowered Lovely Tom to his feet. Holding him with his left hand, he slapped the man’s face several times with his right. The eyes finally opened, focused, then dulled,
After another slap, a hard one, Lovely Tom moaned, “Stop hittin’ me, damn you.”
“Can you stand?” Keegan asked.
“Huh?”
“Can you stand on your own without me holding you up?”
“Oh.” Tom’s eyes rolled around. He drooled a bit and eventually made his head bob.
Keegan released his grip, but remained tensed to catch him if Lovely Tom’s knees folded. When they didn’t, Keegan said, “Stay still,” and moved behind the man, grabbed the hangman’s noose, and slipped it over Lovely Tom’s bleeding head.
“What the hell are—”
Keegan choked off whatever else Lovely Tom had to say by quickly and roughly tightening the noose. He pulled it as hard as he could, and when the condemned man tried to reach up with his right hand to get out of the noose, Keegan jerked Lovely Tom’s arm out of the shoulder socket.
Screaming in pain, the killer reached over with his left hand and grabbed his useless right arm.
That should hold him long enough, Keegan figured, and he moved to the lever. He saw men, women, and a couple of kids. Blacks, whites, and Mexicans. Fat, skinny, and average sized. A preacher with his Bible, head bowed. A fellow with bare feet and just his longhandles on with a hat and a gunbelt around his waist. Even some of the boys he had tangled with in the saloon. More people shoved their way through the gate, but Keegan wasn’t going to wait on anyone else.
“Do you have any last words, Tom Lovely?” Keegan called out.
The murmur in the crowd stopped instantly. More people shoved their way into the enclosure.
“What?” Tom Lovely turned his head and saw Keegan’s hands on the lever. His eyes widened. “Wait!” he called out. “No. You . . . Don’t!”
Not