Mark and I rode over to the Muchen Ranch to delivery some barley seed.  When we got there we didn't see Volney, Mr. Muchen's hired hand around anywhere.  I told Mark to go ahead and put the seed in the barn and I'd go ahead and tell Mr. Muchen.  I knocked several times but no answer.  I opened the door and called to Eban.  I noticed he was slumped down on the rocking chair and Volney was just setting there, dazed.  "Volney, what happened, who killed him? You hear me Volney, who killed him?"  I asked Volney if he did it?  He said he didn't.  "What difference is it gonna make. Think anybody's gonna believe me?"  Asked Volney.  Just then Mark came in.  He asked what had happened.  I told him Mr. Muchen had been shot.  "Who did it, Volney?"  Asked Mark.  I didn't know who did it, but I wasn't gonna jump to any conclusions. It wasn't gonna be easy for Volney, he already had a record.  I told Mark to go on to school but not say anything until we found out what happened.  I noticed blood on Volney's finger and his nails were torn.  He told me he must had done it when he tried to stop the man who killed Mr. Muchen.  "You see, I was out in the barn. I heard a shot. No...a lot of shots. I came running in here and there was Mr. Muchen on the floor."  Said Volney.

I took Volney into Micah's office.  Just as we got there Ellie Aikens came over to see what Volney was doing in town.  I told her about Mr. Muchen.  We then went in to tell Micah Volney's story.  I took the strong box along in.  Muchen kept his money in the strong box and hidden behind a loose stone in the fireplace. While we talked to Micah, Joe Hanna was listening outside of Micah's office.  "What's that?  Old man Muchen dead, murdered?" Asked Hannah.  He took off to spread the word.  Volney couldn't tell Micah anything more.  Micah went on out to Muchen's Ranch to check Volney's story. 

Hannah was already spreading the word.  He sure was getting the town riled up.  "I tell ya', I saw it with my own eyes. Lucas McCain brought him in. Volney killed old man Muchen. He shot him for the money he got for the sale of his cattle last week.  Why they even have the empty strong box with them."  There was a medicine man in town by the name of Simms.  He sure wasn't helping matters any.  He just kept putting his two cents in and causing more trouble.  He walked over to Hannah and told him he was shorting his life with all the excitement.  He then had him take a drink of his elixir. Simms told him he'd bless the day he found it. "Does taste good.  Got quite a zing. Go ahead hangman, try it. I feel better already,"  said Hannah.  "I don't want any.  My name is  Harold Tenner, not hangman."  "Sorry Tenner. You heard about the killin'. Volney Adams killin' Muchen? Looks like your gonna have a hangin'."  Tenner walked away.

I had gone home.  Ellie came out to my ranch to talk to me.  She and Volney are sweet on each other.  She was crying.  "Ellie, Ellie, no ones saying for sure that Volney killed Muchen." I said.  "Then why is Micah holding him Lucas?  Why doesn't he let him go?  Lucas, his reputation is against him. He's already been in jail."  I reassured Ellie that Volney's reputation had nothing to do with it.  That Micah went out to the Muchen Ranch to check on Volney's story.  Then after the facts are presented there will be a trial.  He would be treated just as fair as anyone else would.  She was crying.  "Maybe they won't wait for a trail Lucas. I heard them down by the medicine man's wagon. Their saying Volney's guilty."   She was scared.  She told me that if anything happened to Volney, there would never be anyone else for her.  She then went home to cook Volney his supper.  She didn't want him eatin' any of that jail food.

  Mark was washing up at the pump.  The pump broke, I had just fixed it last week.  "Are we goin' into town tomorrow to visit Volney in jail?" Asked Mark.  "Maybe."  "Everybody thinks he did it.  I mean that he killed Mr. Muchen and stole his money," said Mark.  "What do you think?"  "I don't know.  Mr. Muchen was awfully mean to him," said Mark.  "That gossip in town makes him guilty, huh?" I asked.  "I didn't say that. I was just telling you what  the folks are saying in town. Doesn't mean that I believe it myself," said Mark.  "I know that son. Gossiping about something as important as a man's life can be very dangerous thing. You can become prejudiced without even realizing it. We got laws to protect us and one of those laws says a man is innocent until he's proven guilty."  I told Mark to get to bed.  "Pa, ain't ya' gonna tell me what you think?"  "Well son. I don't  think anyone gentle enough to see the real beauty in Ellie Aikens could raise his hands against another human being."   "That's what I think," said Mark.  "Well, if that's what you think then you should stick to it."

Ellie went to take Volney's breakfast over to him.  She was concerned because he didn't eat his supper last night.  Just as she reached the door of the marshal's office she could hear the pounding of the hangman. She turned and looked.  Micah told Ellie he had some errands to run.  He took her back to the cell, then left.  "What's all that hammering going on outside?" Asked Volney.  "There repairing the roof to the hotel," said Ellie.  He didn't believe her.  He knew what was going on.  He felt no jury would believe him.  "Volney, all my life I've been a lonely woman.  I've had few friends and no one to love.  Since I meant you...I've had something to be proud of.  A man who loved me, who's kind to me, who's given me the strength I never knew.  You've got to have that strength for me.  Please?"  He kissed her hand.  "Ellie, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't care if I lived or died."  "Now you eat Volney, those are nice fresh eggs."  As Ellie was leaving Micah came.  She thanked him for the time alone with Volney. 

As we rode into town we saw Mr. Tenner building the gallows.  "The hangman, working on the gallows," said Mark.  I told him I didn't want to hear him call him that again.  His name was Mr. Tenner, you remember that."  I rode over and talked to Tenner.  He sure seemed anxious to get that thing built.  You'd think the way he was talking Volney was already tried.  I told Mark to meet me at Hattie's after school.

Simms was at it again.  He was getting the town all riled up again.  He even upset Myrtle, the lady that owns the Feed and Grain Store.  She stuck up for Volney.  "Hello Lucas. He's been going on like that ever since yesterday.  Between that, the hammering' and the heat I have a notion to close up until after the hangin'.  "Hangin' Myrtle?"   She was upset with what she had just said.  I gave her a list of the things I need.  I told her I'd pick the stuff up in a few days.  I went over to Simms and told him and the townfolks that nothing had been decided yet about Volney.  No one was gonna destroy anyone.  I walked away.  But that didn't stop Simms.

I went to talk to Micah.  I told him with Tenner building those gallows it was just stirring things up. Then with Simms, I was afraid of a lynching.  Micah told me there would be no lynching.  That Tenner had a right to build those gallows if he wanted to, it was on his own property.  I asked him if he minded if I went over to talk to Tenner, unofficially.  He said I could.

I told Tenner I thought it was a mistake, him starting the gallows so early.  I told him it was having a bad effect on the townfolks.  He thought I was exaggerating things.  He wanted me to help him with a beam. Just as he tried to move it you could tell his arm was hurt.  I thought it funny he was wearing such a heavy shirt in this heat.  He told me the wool soaked up the sweat.  It was cooler that way.  Again he asked for help with the beam. I agreed to help him.  I picked up the beam and moved it into his arm. He moaned.  There was blood all over his sleeve.  He told me he hurt it while working on the gallows.  I wanted to look at it.  I told him he might need a doctor.  He refused.  "Harold, everybody knows that Volney clams he scratched the killer on the arm before he got away.  Are you wearing that shirt because you have to?"  I grabbed his arm and ripped his sleeve.  "You lived in this community for years, why'd you do it?"  "Why, I'll tell you why. I've been hangman all my life.  Every time they wanted to hang somebody they'd come and get me.  They'd pay the fee and I'd spring the trap.  Then nobody would talk to me for weeks.  Wouldn't even look at me.  Or if they did talk to me it was to call me hangman.  Do you have any idea what it's like to be an outcast in your own hometown?"  I told him that was no reason for killing.  "Maybe it ain't.  I've killed so many man on this platform that one more didn't make any difference. Not if it got me away from here."  I told him we were going to see the marshal.  He asked me to let him take one more look at freedom before I took him in.  As he walked away from me he slowly took a gun from out of his pocket.  As he turned I shot the gun out of his hand.  "Don't let them hang me Lucas, Don't let them hang me!"   

Later that evening Mark asked, "Pa, if Mr. Tenner hated being a hangman so much, why did he become one?"  "Well son, sometimes in life we trade into thing we regret later. It's too bad, but hangmen are necessary.  Somebody's got to be the hangman and accept payment for it. But also he's got to know what he's letting himself in for when he takes the job.  Harold Tenner just wasn't meant to be a hangman. It was only a matter of time before he cracked up."  "Before I decide what I'm gonna be, I'm gonna give it lots of thought," said Mark.  "Now wait a minute.  I thought you decided to be a writer a couple of weeks ago."  "I still might be one. I'm gonna think it over a lot first tho."  "You do that Mark."  I asked him if the dishes were done.  He said not yet.  "Alright, tonight you can wash and I'll dry," said Mark.  "Oh, no, no. Tonight you'll wash and you'll dry."