Pulp Fiction, 1955 · page 90 of 101
15 Western Short Stories — page 90: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This page presents the opening of a Western short story titled "Gunsmoke Is a Badgetoter's Glory" by James Shaffer. The text, set in the fictional town of Tumbleweed City, introduces a man named Joe Kirby facing execution by gallows, though notably neither the sheriff nor the killer appears ready for the hanging. An illustration below the prose depicts two men in what appears to be a jail scene, with one moving toward a cell door as the other draws his gun. The page is dated 1943 and credited to Western Fiction Publishing Co.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
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