The Deadliest Coward, Part I

Ned Shepworth lived in a small, frontier town, that just three years before had been empty ground, he tried to keep up with the latest style, and worked as a clerk in the mercantile. Now Ned was in love with fair Hattie McGwinn, but she had already said no to him, Ned was nothing special, that was the word, didn’t carry a gun, a real coward. And nothing to look at, the women said, could barely afford a place to rest his head. Hattie was a beauty, with her choice of men, but pitied Ned and said that they could ‘be friends.’ Hattie had two suitors sniffing around, Elton Call owned a ranch, outside of town, Jay Myers own the town’s biggest motel, with either of them a girl could do well. But Hattie was like so much of her sex, using her charms to keep the two men vexed, until she could take the time to decide which of the two men she would let inside. When she saw Ned she would chat idly, about the two men that she wished to see, though Ned kept his cool, inside he did burn, and in his head dark thoughts began to churn. Then one day Ned came to Jay’s back office, said,”Hattie sent me, told me to say this: She made her decision, an she wants you, but she fears finding out what Elton would do. “But at four she’ll be at the livery, wants you to take her to Stillwell to marry, she thinks Elton will try to interfere, that’s why she sent me to find you here.” Jay got up quickly and began to prepare, Ned took his leave and went right out of there to a horse he had waiting, away he went, rode to Elton’s ranch, his mount was half-spent. Ran to the corral, where he nearly fell, and to Elton this breathless story did tell: “Hattie’s in trouble, Jay has kidnapped her! He proposed marriage, she laughed at his words! “So he locked her up behind his bedroom door, said she’d be his wife, or she’d be his whore! You cannot just let her suffer this fate, please, you must help her, if it’s not too late!” CONCLUDES IN PART II.