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Short Stories & Tall Tales
Revenge of the Prophets
Tim Tobin
When the Prophets caught Sailor Jack, no law existed for a hundred miles. So Matt and Josh Green hanged the sailor in an East Kansas ghost town because Jack murdered their brother for a few silver dollars and his gun belt.
Sailor Jack died denying he killed Noah Green.
***
“Trips, “ he declared. “Aces.” With that pot, Will Wormley won almost $20 on the night. Willie the Worm, as he was known, played poker well and honestly. Willie didn’t have to cheat. He could read a flush just as easily as a bluff.
When Jason Rafferty wandered into the bar and introduced himself the four men at the round table invited him to sit down.
“New money might change the game,” said one of the losers. The Worm smiled to himself at the thought of fresh meat.
But as an hour ticked by Willie’s $20 dwindled to almost nothing The Worm did not actually see Rafferty cheat but there was no doubt that he did. And The Worm was helpless. At six inches taller and fifty ponds heaver than Willie, the card shark outmatched him in every way.
His diminutive stature made Willie leery of fights so he did not carry a gun. But the new sheriff did and he was sipping a whiskey at the bar. So Willie the Worm flat out accused Rafferty of cheating. Sheriff Morris heard the commotion and worked his way behind the suspected cheater.
Rafferty stood up, took off his coat and showed that he was unarmed also.
But Willie’s knees buckled when Rafferty invited him outback to “talk this over.”
Morris eased his pistol out of its holster and nudged the gambler in the back.
“No fights in my town, mister. Anybody see this man cheat?”
When no one else accused the man of cheating, the sheriff ordered him out of town and told Willie to go home.
Embarrassed by losing and mortified by his fear of Rafferty, the Worm’s bad mood followed him back to the shack he shared with his wife Ann. When she asked how he did, Willie just shrugged.
“I can always get another stake,” he growled.
Still stinging from being embarrassed by Jason Rafferty, Willie opened a bottle of whiskey and crawled in. An hour later his words were slurred but his bravado returned.
“Nothing to worry about, my sweet! A poker stake is found money. Just like I found $4 on that horse rancher.” He giggled at his joke.
Ann’s jaw dropped and she stared at her husband. “You killed Noah Green?”
“And if you ever breathe a word about it, I’ll beat you to death,” threatened Willie.
***
The sight of the former Ann Barnett at the Prophets Horse Ranch surprised Josh. At one time they were an item but the rigors of ranch life didn’t appeal to Ann. Besides, the town of Bright Hill was too far from the ranch to make courting realistic.
Ann and Josh spent a long hour in his room. Afterwards he walked Ann out to her buggy and then sat on the porch swing smoking a cigarette. Matt gave him a few minutes and then joined him on the porch. Matt chose the rocking chair, rolled a cigarette and lit it. The brothers sat quietly and smoked.
When Matt finished his smoke, he stood, stretched and looked to Josh.
“Not my business, of course,” said Matt. “But Ann is married now.”
Josh breathed deeply and looked at his brother.
“Ann told me her husband killed Noah, not Sailor Jack. Matt, we lynched the wrong man.”
“Oh, dear God! Is she sure? Why did she tell you?”
“Willie was bragging one night about how he gets his poker stakes. Apparently he threatened to kill Ann if she told anyone. And you know Ann and I were, well, friends.”
Nicknamed The Prophets by friends and neighbors, the Green brothers were named from heroes in God’s own book. The nickname stuck and became the name of the horse ranch owned by the brothers.
Emily and Jeremiah Green were God-fearing people and they taught their sons right from wrong. Matt and Josh were both ashamed as soon as Sailor Jack’s horse walked out from under him.
Yet Matt and Josh hanged the man they were certain shot Noah in the back. Bright Hill had no law and the sailor was a bad man. He confessed to killing a policeman back East and a jealous husband on the trail West. And he killed two more people fleeing from Matt and Josh.
But Will Wormley killed Noah. Jack was innocent of that crime. And his other crimes were not for them to judge.
Matt faced Josh and reminded him of the new sheriff in Bright Hill.
“We have an obligation to talk to him, Josh,” said Matt.
“Are you nuts, Matt? Confess to murder? We’ll hang!” said Josh.
“Josh, we are murderers.”
***
Matt and Josh went about their business the next morning with heavy hearts. Mrs. Thelma Lewis picked up two fillies for her visiting nieces, ages ten and twelve. And Grover Smith rode in and paid for the ponies he needed to replenish some nearby trail hands. Matt fired up the forge and made a dozen horseshoes that Josh nailed onto the thick part of the hooves of three horses promised to a buyer.
By the time they repaired the large corral, the brothers were ready for lunch. Josh lagged behind Matt deep in thought. Matt knew his brother to be impatient and impetuous and he also knew what was coming.
“Matt, we have to go see the Worm.”
“Look, Josh. I know how you feel. But we can’t just ride into Bright Hill and kill Wormley. Like you said, we‘ll hang.”
“No, no we can’t. But we can sure scare the crap out of him.”
That evening Matt and Josh lured the Worm onto the trail leading to their ranch with the promise of a temporary job. Wormley hated real work but he needed another poker stake.
About ten miles out of town, Matt and Josh Green pulled their pistols on the Worm. Matt told him that they knew he killed Noah and he was going to hang for it.
Matt tied Wormley’s hands and held his horse. Josh looped a noose around the murderer’s neck and tossed the rope over a tree limb. The brothers watched as the Worm wet himself begging for his life.
When Matt slapped the horse, Wormley tumbled to the ground shrieking in terror. Josh tossed the loose end of the rope down to Willie.
Josh dismounted and dragged the Worm to his feet.
“And if you ever touch Ann, I’ll kill you for real,” said Josh. Then they left the Worm alone, tied up and on foot ten miles from town.
***
A couple of cowboys found Willie in the morning still almost five miles from town. When they dropped him in front of his shack, Willie didn’t even bother to thank them.
Willie was still broke and furious enough to kill Ann for telling Josh Green about Noah. But he needed something from her first.
He barged into the shack and found Ann asleep.
Willie sat on the bed and pulled her into a sitting position.
“Where is it?” he demanded.
“What?” she said but Willie knew a bluff when he heard one. And he knew he cold beat it out of her. But if he beat her she might not be able to talk to him.
Instead the Worm’s threats and intimidation provided him with a $100 stake, every penny Ann Barnett saved working in the general store for five years.
***
Josh knew he and Matt frightened the Worm badly. But uncertainty tugged at his heart. He asked himself over and over if Willie would really leave Ann alone. So that next night Josh rode alone into Bright Hill, ordered a beer in the saloon and watched.
Josh was astounded and concerned when Willie strutted in and lay $100 on a poker table. Willie could not have stolen that much money without anyone knowing. Ann was the only person where Willie might have gotten it.
Josh took a swig of his beer and left the bar. A few minutes later Josh knocked on Ann’s door.
Willie dealt first and his shaking hands surprised him. And when a straight beat his two pair he was astounded.
Between the Prophets and Rafferty, the Worm’s confidence evaporated. He could no longer read his opponents and bluffing terrified him.
He began to lose.
For hours Willie the Worm endured the worst losing streak of his life. And when he lost, he drank, a lot. So after dropping most of Ann‘s $100 in a game of five-card stud, Willie used his last $10 to get drunk. Somehow he found his shack on the edge of town and stumbled through the door.
***
Even though Ann feared for her life, she waited for her husband in the rocking chair.
She heard the door open and watched the Worm stagger and fall to the floor.
Ann sighed, got to her feet and helped Willie to his.
Trying not to be sarcastic she asked him how much he lost.
Willie chuckled and blabbered, “All of it.”
“Oh, Willie! Not everything? Really? How will we eat?”
He held on to the side of the table and snickered, “We can sell your cute little butt, sweetheart.”
Ann whirled around and smacked him across the face, hard.
“How dare you!”
The blow staggered the Worm and he fell heavily into a chair. He also seemed to sober up a bit.
“Now look!” he shouted back. “I’ll get another stake. Won’t take long at all.”
“How, Willie? Kill another cowboy?” The words still hung in the air when Ann realized her mistake. Her husband’s face darkened and his head bobbed up and down.
As Willie struggled to his feet and snarled at her, Ann ran towards the door. Willie got there first and blocked her escape.
The one-room shack offered no place to hide so she pushed the table between them. Willie shoved it aside and grabbed a frying pan.
Josh stepped out of a shadow and said, “Willie, leave her alone.”
Willie staggered and stumbled but remained on his feet. He lurched towards Ann with the iron skillet. Josh shoved Ann out the door but took a blow to his head with the heavy pan. Josh fell to his knees where Willie hit him again, this time in the face.
As Josh lay bruised and bleeding on the floor Willie loomed over him with his leg raised ready to stomp him. Still very drunk, Willie lost his balance and fell on top of Josh.
He smelled his sweat, cheap whiskey, and tobacco and tried to shove him off. Although diminutive in stature, The Worm possessed a strength only a drunk knows. He managed to sit on Josh’s chest and got his hands around his throat and squeezed.
Desperate for a breath, Josh wriggled, squirmed and kicked until Willie lost his balance again and fell off. He struggled to his knees and searched the debris in the shack for a weapon, any thing at all to fend off the next attack.
He saw a butcher knife across the room and lunged for it. Grabbing the knife in his left hand, Josh rolled on his back and held the knife out hoping Willie would see it and leave him alone. He couldn’t be sure if Willie, in his drunken state, even saw the knife or if he if cared about it, but he fell on top of Josh again.
The wide blade of the knife plunged into Willie’s throat severing his cervical spine. Josh shrieked and heard Willie gurgle in surprise and pain.
And then Willie the Worm fell dying, his eyes bulging from his purple face.
***
“Sheriff, will they hang Josh?” sobbed Ann Wormley. “He was only trying to protect me.”
“I’m not the judge Mrs. Wormley. But as I see it, Josh interfered in a private matter between husband and wife. So, yes Ma’am. Josh will probably hang,” replied Sheriff Morris. After a pause he continued, “And even if not, he’ll go to jail for a very long time.”
Ann watched the sheriff remove the chains from Josh’s wrists and heard the iron bars on his cell clanged shut. Blood from the fight with Willie caked his face. Josh managed a wry smile for Ann as he sat on a filthy mattress stained with the sweat and worse of dozens of drunks. The stench from the piss pot made her wretch.
Ann wept in deep heaves.
***
The church clock struck 3:00 A.M. as Ann Wormley waited in the woods near Bright Hill. She gripped the reins of the wagon and looked to the deserted streets of town. Startled by the sound of a breaking branch, Ann whirled around and saw Josh’s brother Matt step out from behind a tree.
“What the hell are you doing, Ann?” asked Matt.
“Damn it, Matt! I almost fainted. And what are you doing here?”
“Answer me Ann. What are you up to out here?”
Ann explained that a simple jailbreak would free Josh. She would put a lasso through the bars on the window and use the team of horses to pull them from the building. Matt just shook his head and told Ann she’d wind up in jail too.
“And, after all, he did kill your husband,” said Matt.
“But Josh saved me from Willie. He was going to kill me, Matt” said Ann.
Matt shook his head. “So, Willie took it out on you and Josh killed him in self defense.”
And yet Josh was standing trial for murder in the morning.
When the church chimed the half-hour Ann mounted the wagon and Matt got on his horse.
“Matt, please. I have to do this,” said Ann.
“Yeah, I know,” said Matt. “And Josh is my brother. I had the same idea so I’m coming.”
***
As Matt and Ann approached town they were certain every citizen could see them in the bright moonlight. But they reached the alley behind the jail without incident only to find the wagon too wide for the alley.
So Matt held the team at the alley entrance while Ann attached the rope to the iron bars of the window. So far Josh slept through his attempted escape.
When Ann waved, Matt nudged the team of horses forward. The bars groaned under the pull of the horses but held. Matt eased the tension on the rope, backed up the horses a few feet and then let them try to run. Again the bars groaned, loud enough this time to wake Josh.
But they still did not give.
The sunrise was barely visible in the eastern sky but a few townspeople were getting up and about. The grocer swept his walk and the livery stable opened for early birds who needed their horses. Matt and Ann knew someone would see them if they tried again.
With their plan thwarted, Ann grabbed Matt’s gun from his holster and tossed it into Josh’s cell. Matt gave up and drove the wagon back towards the tree line.
***
Ann sashayed to the front of the jail and sat down on a wooden bench. When Sheriff Morris arrived Ann asked him if he could see Josh before the trial. Recognizing Ann’s voice, Josh called out to the sheriff.
“Sheriff! Please empty this pot. It’s vile.”
“Coming, coming,” replied the sheriff. “And you have a visitor.”
Josh greeted the sheriff with Matt’s six-gun pointed at his belly.
The young couple locked the sheriff in Josh’s cell and fled out the front door. But the grocer saw them and raised the alarm. Josh pushed Ann towards the woods and slugged the grocer with his gun.
Ann ran to the woods unseen and found Matt with a team of horses and the wagon. Someone must have released the sheriff because he came around the corner with a rifle. Trying to give Ann a chance, Josh ran down the street away from the woods.
The sheriff yelled at him to stop and, when Josh kept running, he gave aim and fired.
Josh became the second of the Prophet brothers to die from a gunshot in his back.
Watching from the cover of the woods Ann instinctively ran towards Josh. Matt grabbed her around the waist and held on until her struggles gave way to sobs.
Matt’s own emotions drove him to tears also and they held each other for a long minute.
The sheriff and a posse ignored the woods and rode out of town in the direction Josh ran.
Ann mounted the seat of the wagon and Matt handed her the reins.
“Where will you go?” he asked.
“West, I guess,” Ann said.
“Let me know where you wind up.”
Ann nodded and Matt knew he would never see her again.
***
Matt trotted through the gate of the Prophets ranch in the heat of the noon day sun. He rode to the small knoll where Jeremiah and Emily Green rested next to each other.
Matt dismounted and paced around the burial spot. Both physically and emotionally exhausted, he sat on the ground between his parents and leaned back on a tree and cried.
“Mom? Dad? I’m so sorry. I promised you I’d look after them but I failed miserably. Noah murdered. Josh killed. And I lynched an innocent man.”
In the depths of despair, Matt begged his parents for forgiveness.
A magnificent orange sun blazed high in the sky and a gentle breeze rustled through the trees. Matt’s reverie gave way to sleep and to vivid dreams.
He dreamt of an innocent man strangling at the end of a rope, his face purple, his eyes bulging from his face.
He saw Noah lying in a rain soaked ditch, shot twice, once in the back and once in the heart, his few dollars and gun belt stolen.
And then Matt stood in Ann Barnett Wormley’s shack, Willie the Worm dead at her feet, her butcher knife in his throat.
And in his dream his heart broke when Sheriff Morris shoot Josh dead.
He awoke to the moon shining directly overhead with stars sparkling in the dark heavens. Emily sat next to him in her rocking chair holding her Bible. Instead a of decayed corpse or the battered and beaten body the Indians left, the lovely, gentle woman who walked him, fed him and told him stories rocked slowly in the moonlight. His father stood quietly behind her.
Matt reached for her dress with a groan. The breeze blew it just out of his reach. He thought the specter of his dead mother spoke to him. One of her words might have been “love” but the rest blew softly into the trees and died unheard.
Now fully awake, Matt’s dream spilled from his memory just as sand runs out of an hour glass.
The last prophet took his horse’s reins and led him towards the ranch house. There was work waiting and a lawman to deceive.
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