15 Western Short Stories — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

by J JAMES SHAFFER “\HE SLANTING sun was lengthening the shadows in Tumbleweed City. It threw grotesque silhouettes of the false- fronted buildings across the thick dust of the main street. It splashed crazily off the deputy sheriff's badge >> ty, |The gallows was ready | | for the hanging. The sher- | | iff wasn't, though, and 1 neither was _ the aimed to the shirt t of Joe Kirby, And it threw a long, gaunt shadow of the gallows across the town. Joe Kirby was standing on the side- walk in front of Moore’s Mercantile; and as the sun slanted downward, the shadow: of the waiting noose settled around the shadow of Kirby’s head and shoulders. The deputy moved a few feet. He’d tested the gallows that afternoon. They were ready for the hanging. * ~ TIME $ HONORED | WESTERN CLASSIC The rancher moved towards the cell door as Kirby brought his gun around. copyright 1943, Western Fiction Publishing Co., Ina, 90 COMmiclooolk CO