In the Shadow of the Noose
ONE
The sun was high over the parched desert. An arid wilderness of dust and rocks that held a strange majestic beauty within its barrenness. It was an image that never changed. A red landscape that appeared like a painted backdrop to the constantly blue sky. Amazingly beautiful and unreal at the same time.
My heart skipped, thumping in my ears as the young man pulled my arms back. His partner tied them at the wrists with a rough cord. Sweat dripped from my forehead as my breathing became ragged.
"By the powers invested in me by the State of Arizona..."
The Sheriff hadn't even dismounted as he justified my demise for his own peace of mind.
"... I hereby carry out the sentence passed down on you by a jury of your fellow citizens."
Behind him, the prim young woman in the black dress was getting agitated, keen to be on her way.
"Am I getting my reward? I don't wanna have to watch. I don't have the stomach for it."
For a brief moment, our eyes met. Beneath the bun of her hair, she had such a pretty face. Big eyes and lips that seemed to purse naturally. I could sense the urgency to leave.
"Give her 'er money." The Sheriff said with evident frustration.
One of the men holding me went and pulled a bundle of cash from his saddle bag while the younger kid held on to my struggling frame.
"Five hundred dollars."
I saw the money passing hands then with another glance in my direction, the woman mounted her horse.
"We're much obliged to you, ma'am." The Sheriff said.
"You've done justice a big service today."
I certainly didn't see it as justice as I was pulled roughly towards a waiting horse. My feet stumbled over the loose stones.
As the two men forced me to mount, I saw the woman riding away with her money. She was at a gallop, keen to be up into the hills. Five hundred crisp greenbacks sat snuggly in her saddlebag. Payment for leading the lawman and his eager deputies to me.
The rope dangled in front of my face and I gulped back a frightened tear.
"You wanna hood?"
"No." I said trying not to let my voice shake.
I took deep steady breaths to keep myself calm.
"Good, coz we ain't got one."
They laughed. That was all I was to them. A joke to be sniggered at.
The Sheriff brought his horse over and reached to slip the waiting noose around my neck. His hand carefully unhooked my long flame-red hair from it. I started trembling at the feel of hemp on my bare skin.
"Pretty hair. Don't wanna mess that up."
"Oh god." I muttered at my closeness to meeting him.
"Besides. The rope likes to feel the flesh."
I wished the horse would stop shinning around. I was fighting to steady it with my thighs as the rope bit around my neck at the animal's continual insistence on stepping forward.
"Steady. Steady." I urged the beast.
The men were laughing again. They knew it was pointless. When they sent the horse bolting I would swing.
"Don't I get a trial?"
The Sheriff stared me down before spitting his tobacco. His horse snorted and dipped its head momentarily. It was as keen to be on its way as the young schoolmistress had been.
"Ya guilty. A jury already said so. I'm not gonna waste my time dragging your skinny arse back to town when I can just hang you right here and save the trouble."
He had a point.
"Prettiest cottonwood blossom I ever did see." The deputy muttered with an eager grin to see me hanging from the tree branch.
I stared him in the eyes wondering how a human being could delight in this barbarism.
"Ya gonna dance for us, pretty lady." The youngest man said gleefully.
He was equally keen to see himself a hanging.
My heart skipped and set my limbs tingling as he came back closer. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. I rolled the words over in my head, willing for a few seconds longer before I was set swinging.
My eyes went to the hills. More red rocks poking upwards into the pristine blue.
I heard the crisp smack of a hand on the animal's rump.
"Scoot."
"Oh god. Not yet."
The rope snapped under my chin and I was pulled back sharply. The horse slid from under me and I swung back like a pendulum. My feet kicked out instinctively and I span wildly with the full weight of my body painfully stretching the vertebrae in my pretty little neck.
I struggled, twisting and writhing on the end of the rope in a death dance. Everything was going wrong. This wasn't supposed to be happening to me.
My thoughts jumbled and became a panicked rush of imagines overlaid on the flicker of red and blue before my eyes. I was swinging back and forth wildly, seeing rocks, then the sky, then rocks again. All thoughts of keeping myself steady were gone.
The retort echoed amongst the rocks. Horses reared up. Neighing and snorting with fear. I cared about none of it. Only that my neck was stretching and I couldn't catch a breath. Behind me, my fingers flexed as if they'd reach the knot securing them.
The men and animals alike scattered amongst shouts and more shots. Some from them and others spitting up dust at the horse's feet.
My eyes bulged as my mouth opened wide to draw in air that didn't come. Instead, my lungs burned with exertion and my struggles became a blind panic. My legs spayed out and set me spinning with the sunlight catching my eyes between the trees. Things began to blur into a kaleidoscope of light and dark.
Another shot that I didn't hear and I was falling. I landed hard and my trapped breath was forced out with a loud rasping gasp. I stayed down as more shots rang out, sending the Sheriff and his men scuttling. They were on low ground. They knew they were disadvantaged and fled for safety.
I lay in the dust gasping breaths I'd thought I'd never breathe, still fearing the Sheriff would return and haul me back skyward until my feet could find no ground. An experience so horrid that I would do anything never to repeat it.
Minutes passed. Then I saw hooves in front of me. Calm ones that moved almost without disturbing the ground. A second set followed close behind. Socked ankles that I recognized.
I sat up, twisting hands that remained tightly bound behind my back. The noose was still around my neck, only now it hung from me rather than me from it.
The woman who'd betrayed my whereabouts to the Sheriff. The woman who'd sold my life for a reward of five hundred dollars sat with a rifle in hand grinning down at me.
"What took you so long?" I demanded.
It hurt a little when I spoke and there was a rasp to my voice that hadn't been there before.
"That damn kid deputy was standing in the way. I had to find another high point. Now stop yabbering. You're fine aren't you?"
Alive yes. I wasn't so sure about fine. My neck hurt like mad and I could feel the burning where the skin on my throat had been scuffed away by the rough noose.
"Three times." I protested as she dismounted.
"Three times I've been the one on the rope. How about I take the shot next time?"
A knife sliced the cord holding my hands cleanly and I rubbed them profusely to recover circulation.
"Yeah. Like you're as good a shot as me."
Annie was right. She was the sharpshooter. I couldn't hit a rope from that distance. It'd been a miracle she had once I was swinging, even with that heavy-hitting Hatfield rife she nursed like it was her child. The idea was to slice the rope with hot lead before I swung. This time, that saving shot had been late. But I was just airin' the lungs if I said anymore. It was what it was, and I still breathed. Here in the West, that was to be treated as a blessing each and every day.
"Never mind."
Five hundred bucks. That was the reward for me. The value of my life. And I was still alive to spend it with Annie. I recovered my hat and shook the dust from it.
"Let's just get out of here before the Sheriff comes back with a bigger posse."
I took the reigns of my horse and mounted him in one smooth movement. Annie was already moving and I followed after her, going east along the edge of the desert as we'd planned. It was a spartan landscape of dust and rocks burning under a hot sun with sparse, low shrubs breaking the rugged cracked surface. When I glanced behind I could still see the Tucson mountains on the horizon A territory so familiar and yet desolate.
We rode the horses hard. That Sheriff would be on our trail as soon as he regrouped his men and deputized more. Just another group of angry cheated men out for revenge.
We planned to put distance between us, break the trail and double back before turning south towards the border.
Mexico certainly wasn't part of the plan but it was nice to have if things went south.
We crossed the river and followed it west, keeping our horses splashing along the bank where the water would cover our trail. Then we broke away from it on hard ground leaving tracks that would be near impossible to find.
"The horses need rest. They're baked." Annie protested
They say no hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. Never a truer word when a lynching was the alternative.
"We keep going." I grunted.
I was in no hurry to experience it a second time today."
We needed a new plan for money. I'd risked my neck three times. This one had been a close call I didn't want to repeat. And there was always the risk a future posse might decide I was more entertaining kept alive for a while. I didn't intend some dirty, desert-caked ol' man to take his pleasure giving my hole short shoves before sending me to my maker. Too risky.
It was another hard ride until near sundown. Then even I had to accept the horses needed rest. We made camp near a lake on higher ground as the last rays of the sun dipped low, turning the sky as red as the rocks, and glimmering on the still water. More trees made me wince at the sight of strong branches. But I consoled myself knowing if anyone came after us we'd hear them on the stony ground. And the horses would likely give them away. We set the animals loose to graze and quench their thirst in the lake. I regretted driving them so hard. Some horses are damned mean devils that try to kill you. Others were just fools that'd drive you crazy. Ours were valuable companions. Docile and forgiving. And they could outrun almost any horse in Arizona.
"No fires." I said seeing Annie collecting wood.
She looked at me for a moment before deciding I was right. They might not track us over the river, but a big orange glow in the night sky would attract attention.
