Paco Valdez

AS

Backing away slowly, you try to sound calm as you tell the deputy that you'll swing by when the Sherrif returns.

"Wait a minute," He says, "You seem in a' awful hurry."

"I'm fine, thanks." you say before turning around to walk to the door.

"Suit yerself," you hear him call after you, though it sounds more like he is talking to himself than to you.

You step out of the door onto the porch which stands in front of the sherrif's office and are confronted by three Vigilantes waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs.

They don't look very pleased with you.

One of them is a big fair skinned man in a brown hat, he has a chest like an ale barrel. He cracks his knuckles and stares at you with eyes that tell you he is hungry for your death, thirsty for your blood. The other two are slender older men with very little difference in appearance. One of the older men has a patch over his eye and wears a brown hat; the other's hat is black.

The big man has his gun half drawn and speaks with a Texas drawl. "Let's go nice," he says to you with serious eyes.

There are three of them and one of you. You remember that you don't have a gun when your hand instinctively reaches for it. You are certain to be a goner if you resist, but you don't want to go back to Paco's barn and wait for death there.