I was working as a stable-boy for the Haynesville Livery Service the time the Stranger rode into town.
The Stranger went about his affairs so mannerly that it seemed that hardly anybody - other than me -
even took account of the fact that he was there at all.
I remember asking any number of the customers who came into the livery stable who the Stranger might be
and why he was here in Haynesville, but no one seemed to know a thing about him,
and most didn't seem to recall seeing him at all.
I didn't know then and I don't know now whether they were telling me the truth
or just trying to brush me off as I was just a no-account kid at the time.
Anyway it could have been that the good folks of Haynesville had more to worry about
than a bunch of foolish questions from some curious youngster no matter whose kid he may have been.
Miguel Garcia and his gang had decided that Haynesville provided them with a hospitable base of operations
from which they conducted forays across the border into Mexico where they were reputed
to have wiped out the entire population of several small villages.
The gang's reputation proceeded their arrival in Haynesville of course as word like that tends to get around.
But the gang behaved themselves for the most part and so the people of our fair city
all heaved a sigh of relief and let them go about their own affairs.
I spotted the Stranger as he made his way around town.
He seemed to be either unobtrusively looking for someone or something
and I took it into my head that he was some kind of lawman ... or maybe a bounty hunter ...
or perhaps either a hired gun or a member of one of the murdered families come up out of Mexico seeking revenge.
As it turned out, I don't believe now that the Stranger was any of those things although to this day you couldn't prove it by me.
All I know for sure is that one morning the Stranger arrived at the Haynesville Livery Service
and asked the price to lease a wagon for a few days.
I'd been stacking hay up in the mow when the Stranger arrived as business had been pretty good
and about all our wagons were in service somewhere in one way or another.
I climbed down out of the loft to wait on him but about all we had left in the way of a wagon
was an old caisson the calvalry had left behind when old Fort MacCready was abandoned back before my time.
The only man in town who had ever leased the caisson from us was the Undertaker
and that was only if he had an old veteran to lay to rest,
so I wondered about him all the more when the Stranger nodded grimly and allowed as how that would do just fine.
The Stranger leased the caisson as well as a draft horse to pull it and he was about to head along his way
when he leaned over and offered me in his quiet way what turned out to be a sound piece of advice.
He said that I'd do well to keep silent and well out of sight until I saw him again.
And then he added something that I didn't quite catch the meaning of ... something like ...
your time will not come this day ... or at least it was something like that.
I didn't know who she was until some time later when it was all over,
but it was hardly afternoon when Maria Velasquez rode into Haynesville in the company of two other women.
Maria was the sole survivor of a raid the Garcia Gang had made on the Velasquez Hacienda just beyond the border in Mexico.
Not being the kind of woman who wished to see the massacre of her entire family go unpunished,
Maria Velasquez had enlisted the aide of two other gun-toting females
and the three of them had come riding into Haynesville gunning for Miguel Garcia.
There's two kinds of luck, you know, and I'll leave it for you to judge which way mine was running that day for,
as luck would have it, I was doing my best to jolly one of the Garcia gang
who took it into his head to hang around the Livery Service that afternoon.
And it was around the same time that Maria Velasquez left her two companions talking to the fellows
in the Silver Slipper Saloon and came moseying her way along the boardwalk
to perhaps have a word with the kid in the local livery stable.
I had no idea who she was but the gang member sure did and as I started to head outside to see if I could drum up some trade,
the fella lay ahold of me by the arm, yanked me back inside the stable and flung me down all in a heap by the manure pile I'd shovelled up.
The fella ducked for cover but I must have let out a yelp or something
because Maria Velasquez drew her gun as she made her way cautiously into the stable.
I guess if I'd been any kind of the hero I always dreamed of becoming, that I'd have taken a chance and yelled a warning to the Velasquez woman.
But as it was, I was scared stiff and so all was silence as Maria Velasquez made her way into the stable.
I told you before that business had been good and so we didn't have so much as an extra horse to paw the ground or nicker or nothing.
Maria Velasquez turned her back on us as she looked around the stable ...
And it was then that the no-account Garcia varmint shot Maria Velasquez in the back!
The slug must of took Maria on or under her shoulder and spun her around!
And then as if he hadn't done her damage enough ...
That miserable low-down sidewinder went and shot Maria Velasquez right in the chest!
I'll ask you to excuse me if I use any foul language, but I'm telling you,
this fella - and what he went and did to poor Ms Maria - it upset me some!
And then, just out of pure cussed meaness as far as I can figure ...
He went and plugged the dying woman in the gut!
My teeth were still chattering at what I'd just witnessed ...
But I guess the killer must have forgotten about me as he moved out into the open to check out the corpse.
"Now look eet all the trubble you has caused me, Maria Velasquez!"
"Wut a vay to show your gratitude after I was foolish enough to spare your life at the hacienda!"
"Vell ... Now I must get meself to the cantina an' alert Senor Miguel Garcia of the arrival of your gang ...
As well as of your most unfortunate demise!"
Then the gunman must of figured he'd done his part 'cause he got up and tore off running out of the stable as fast as he could go!
About this time I found that I still had a voice and I let out a yell that I figured
was about loud enough to raise the dead and got up and ran outside to give chase!
What I was thinking of, I don't rightly know but I got outside and must of kind of stood there gaping.
Jenny Haynes had heard the sound of gun shots coming from the stable and she came charging out of her place toting a rifle!
Whether Jenny Haynes lived long enough to fire a shot in anger, I don't rightly remember ...
But I stood there like the dumb kid that I was while that miserable bastard
from the Garcia gang pumped a slug into poor Jenny Haynes' belly!
I think Jenny managed to get off a shot with her rifle but by this time her aim was way off
and I heard the bullet skitter harmlessly through the branches of the trees.
Jenny's gun fell from her grasp and I knew that the pretty lady was doing all she could to hold on to what remained of her life.
The killer had now gunned down two women while I did nothing other than to stand by and watch!
Jenny Haynes sagged to the floor of the porch on her little house while her killer rode off scot free!
And then Jenny fell down her face to the floor and I just kind of stood there with the tears running down my face ...
'Cuz I'd always been partial to poor Jenny Haynes ...
She'd been awful good to me ...
Taking in a lonely orphan boy an' all ...
And I knew that there was no way that she was ever gonna get up and be nice to me ever again ...
Not knowing quite what else to do, I made my way back into the stable
to see if there was any chance at all that the Velasquez woman was still alive ... ?
And there to my surprize I found the Stranger kneeling down beside the dead woman ...
And it seemed to me that he was almost as upset by what had just happened here as I was.
I felt kind of ashamed for him I guess on account of his not doing anything to stop the women from being killed ...
He being a grown man and all ...
And I guess that I must have sniffled and said something to that effect ...
You might think that he'd get mad and offer to cuff me or something but he didn't.
Instead he lifted Maria Velasquez as he rose to his feet
and paused on his way outside headed toward the caisson I had rented to him.
I'll never forget what he said to me that day in that soft-spoken voice of his ...
"Son, you must understand that I would have given a great deal were this not to have happened ...
But at the same time you must know also that it was entirely beyond my power to prevent it."
And then as he lay Maria Velasquez down to rest in the caisson ...
"I fear that it is not yet over and done this day ..."
I found my legs and went high-tailing it down the boardwalk toward the Silver Slipper to fetch the Town Marshall ...
But the Stranger had been right and I was already too late to do any good.
The mangy polecat who had killed the two ladies at the stable had beat me to it and had come running into Haynesville proper
hollering and shouting a warning to Miguel Garcia.
Miguel had been picked up earlier in the Silver Slipper Saloon by one of the two women who had ridden into town with Maria Velasquez.
The chesty Mexican gal had been making nice with Migel ...
But when she heard the shouted warning, she pulled a knife and went after him brandishing its blade!
Miguel didn't put up with any of that sort of thing and he didn't take kindly to the thought of being stabbed
by a girl he had been thinking of stabbing with something of his own.
Garcia dodged the knife and shoved the woman away and she fell to the ground ...
Then Miguel pulled his shooting iron and put a slug into the Mexican girl's stomach ...
I was about emotionally drained after watching Jenny Haynes eat a bullet
and so instead of feeling sorry for the Mexican girl as would have been proper,
and even though it kind of embarrasses me to admit to it,
I found myself admiring the way her bosom swelled up almost out of her blouse as Garcia's bullet punched into her!
It's kind of strange the way things cross your mind sometimes, but I couldn't help it and there you have it.
The Garcia gang had all mounted up and were making tracks out of Haynesville
when the last of the Maria Velasquez trio appeared from inside the Silver Slipper Saloon.
Why she didn't stay inside and keep her head down, I'll never know for sure ...
But she was a light-haired girl after all,
and I guess you all know by now what they say about blondes? Redheads too, I guess? I dunno.
All I know is what I could guess, and I'd have to say at a guess that this girl
didn't have much of anything in the way of worth while experience in handling a gun ...
And the Garcia Gang wasn't about to let her gain any either!
At any rate, she came out of the Silver Slipper and fired off a couple of rounds
which I don't believe threatened any of the Garcia Gang in any way.
The Garcia boys were in no mood to brook any such nonsense and one or another of them fired a slug
which I guess must of broke the girl's shoulder from what I could tell ...
Kid fashion, I figured that she had taken enough punishment ...
But one bullet is never enough for some fellows it seems ...
I think she might have been better off had she crawled back into the Silver Slipper myself ...
But she still managed to hold on to her gun in spite of her wounds ...
And who ever thinks straight in times of crisis?
I was of a mind to holler at her to keep down and to crawl for cover ...
But it was then that Garcia came out from the barn in time to get off a shot on his own account ...
And still another bullet thumped into the girl as she tried to get to a horse that was standing nervously at the hitching rail along the boardwalk.
It may have been just my imagination,
but I could swear that I heard the sound of the bullet as the slug tore into her body somewhere ...
That girl went down for good and all ... And all the menfolk gathered 'round to admire her cleavage.
And meanwhile, the Garcia gang galloped away and as far as I know they all got away scot free!
I saw the Stranger again as he went about his business of attending to the bodies of the dead women.
He saw me among the onlookers and nodded his acknowledgement but didn't have anything further to say to me ...
And to tell you the truth, in a way, I was kind of glad he didn't.
I still don't know to this day whether anyone else in Haynesville either saw or took note of the Stranger ...
But if anyone did at all, then I guess they supposed that he was only there to help the undertaker.
The Stranger came back to the Livery Service to return the caisson but I told him that if he had need of it,
then it would perhaps be better were he to take it with him.
He nodded and thanked me kindly, smiling that tight smile of his ...
Then he touched the rim of his hat in a kind of salute, clucked to the horse, and drove slowly away into the setting sun ...
To this day I have never seen the Stranger again even though I know that one day I must ...
But to tell you the God's Honest Truth ...
Even the age I'm at these days ...
I can't say that I'm looking forward to it ...
No Sir ... Not at all.
