The bounty collecting cowboy.
Sekotta, or Seko as he liked to be called, dismounted in front of the Gold Strike Saloon. Brushing some of the trail dust away, he tied his horse off at the hitching rail, then began looking at the other horses that were there, lifting the left hind foot of each animal in turn. His action seemed a little peculiar and some of the pedestrians stopped to look over him. What they saw was a wolf who was just a bit over seven feet tall with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He was young in years, but his pale golden eyes bespoke of experiences that most would not see in three lifetimes. He was a lone wolf who had worn a deputy's badge in Abilene, ridden shotgun for a stagecoach out of Lordsburg, scouted for the army in the McDowell Mountains of Arizona, and panned for gold in Idaho.
A banker's daughter in Cheyenne once thought she could make him settle down-a soiled dove in The Territories knew that she couldn't, but took what he offered. Seko was a wanderer, always wondering what was beyond the next line of hills, just over the horizon. Most of the time he traveled light, with a Bowie knife, a .44 double-action Colt, a Winchester .44-40 rifle, a rain slicker, an overcoat, two blankets, and a spare shirt,socks,trousers,and underwear. He called Colorado his home, though he started his life in Kansas. Colorado was home only because it was were he had reached his maturity, and Smoke Jensen, the closest thing he had to family lived there. In truth though, he spent no more time in Colorado than he did in Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, or Arizona.
At the moment, Seko was on the trail of Harry and Arnold Baker for the murder of Scott McDonald, his wife,Lucy, and their two young sons, Toby and Tyler. Before he died, Scott McDonald managed to live long enough to scrawl the letters BAK on the floor, using his finger as a pen, and his own blood as ink. McDonald had hired the Baker brothers, not because he needed help, but because he thought they were down on their luck and needed a job. Seko had known the McDonalds well. He had been a guest in their house many times, and had even attended the baptism of one of their children. When the McDonalds were killed, Seko had taken it very personally and had himself temporarily deputized so he could hunt down the Baker brothers and bring them to justice.
One of the Baker brothers was riding a horse that left a distinctive hoof print and that enabled Seko to track them to Burnt Fork. That brought him to the front of the Gold Strike Saloon where he was checking the shoes of the horses that were tied off at the hitching rail. On the fourth horse that he examined, he found what he was looking for. The shoe on the horse's left rear foot had a "V" shaped niche on the inside of the right arm of the shoe. Loosening his pistol in the holster, Seko went into the saloon. A burst or loud laughter greeted him as he stepped inside, and sitting at a table in the middle of the saloon were two bobcats. Each of the felines had a girl sitting on his lap and the table nearby had a nearly empty whiskey bottle, indicating they had been drinking heavily. Seko had never seen the Baker brothers before, so he could not identify them by sight, but the two men resembled each other enough to be brothers, and they did match the description he had been given of them.
"Hey, Harry, let's see which one of these girls has the best titties," one of the felines said. He grabbed the top of the dress of the girl who was sitting on his lap and jerked down, exposing her breasts.
"Stop that!" the girl called out in anger and fright. She jumped up from his lap and began pulling the top of her dress back up. "Ha! Arnold, you done got that girl all mad at you."
They had called each other Harry and Arnold. That was all the verification Seko needed. Walking up to the two murderers he gives them both a smile. "Hello, Harry. Hello, Arnold," he said. "What?" Harry replied, surprised at being addressed by his name. "Do you know us?" No, but I know who you are. I was a good friends of the McDonalds, Seko said. "We don't know anyone named Mcdonald," Harry said
"Sure you do," Seko said. "You murdered them."
The two men leaped up then, jumping up so quickly that the chairs fell over behind them. Both of them started for their guns, but when they saw how quickly Seko had his own pistols out, they stopped, then raised their hands." "We ain't drawin', mister. We ain't drawin'!" Arnold said.
When Seko returned to Green River, Harry and Arnold were riding in front of him. Each feline had his hands in iron shackles, and there was a rope stretching from Harry's neck to Arnold's neck, then from Arnold's neck to the saddle horn or Seko's saddle. This was to discourage either, or both, from trying to bolt away during the return journey.
One week later
The gallows stood in the middle of Center Street, well constructed but terrible in the gruesomeness of its function. A professionally painted sign was placed on an easel in front of the gallows.
On this gallows At teno'clock on Thursday morning Will be hung The murderers Harry and Arnold Baker. All are invited
Attendance is free The idea of a double hanging had drawn visitors from miles around, not only because of the morbid curiosity such a spectacle generated, but also because the McDonald family had been very well liked, and the murders the two condemned had committed, including even the murder or Scott McDonald's wife and children, were particularly shocking. The street was full of spectators, and the crowd was growing even larger as they all jostled for position. Seko glanced over toward the tower clock in front of the courthouse to check the time. it was five minutes after ten.
The judge had said they would be hanged at ten o'clock, which meant that the prisoners should have been brought out by now. Some of the crowd were growing impatient, and more than one person wondered aloud what was holding up the proceedings. Seko began to have the strange feeling that something was wrong, so he slipped away from the crowd and walked around into the alley behind the jail. He was going to look in through the back window but he didn't have to. The moment he stepped into the alley he saw the Baker brothers and the man who had given false testimony on their behalf, Jerome Kelly, coming through the back door. "Hold it!" Seko called out. "It's the law dog!" Harry Baker shouted, firing his pistol at the same time.
The bullet hit the wall beside Seko, sending little brick chips into his face. Seko returned fire and Harry went down. By now both Arnold Baker and Kelly were shooting as well, and Seko dived to the ground, then rolled over and shot again. Arnold clutched his chest and went down. Kelly, now seeing that both Bakers were down, dropped his gun and threw up his hands. At that moment Sherrif Foley came out of the jail, holding his pistol in one hand, while holding his other hand to a bleeding wound on his head.
"Seko, are you alright?" the sheriff called. "Yes, I'm not hit. How about you?" "They killed my deputy, and I've got a knot on my head where this son of a bitch hit me," Foley said. The sheriff looked at Harry and Arnold Baker, then chuckled. "I wonder if you saved the county the cost of the execution, or if we will have to pay the hangman anyway? Or, maybe we can just go ahead and have the hanging, only it'll be Kelly instead of the Baker brothers."
will finish eventually if yall like it let me know