Chapter 8

Jenny Hopkins rode into Colter City very early that morning, as was her usual practice, since she had to open up the drygoods store that her father had established 4 years before that accursed war. She forced her mind away from the gruesome reason she was the one opening the store, though she had a hard time doing so. The memories were still vivid, but she tried not to dwell on them. Her mother and siblings all depended on her to earn what little money she could in this difficult time, and she just could not bear to enter the store if she thought too much on her reason for being there. Jenny was the eldest of the Hopkins children, so, when her father was murdered and her mother collapsed from the shock, it fell to Jenny to try to keep the family together, fed, and clothed. Her brother, 3 years younger than Jenny, came into the store to help her run it after he had finished his chores at home, but she was the one who rode into town early enough to get the store open for business each day.

Nearly eight months before this fateful morning, they had just finished breakfast and morning prayers, something her father, Amos, insisted on, when there was a loud pounding on their front door. Amos went to the door to see what the clatter was all about. He opened the door and was grabbed by several men before he had a chance to say a word. They dragged him outside, and the rest of the family went running after him.

Over Amos' protests, his hands were bound behind his back, and he was dragged to face a man still seated on his horse. This man was wearing the uniform of a Confederate cavalry officer, and was, obviously, the leader of these ruffians. The man said, "I am Josephus Lubbock, a captain in the cavalry of the great commonwealth of Texas, an' ya, Amos Hopkins, are a despicable Scalawag! Since ya refused to support Texas in her fight for freedom, ya have sealed your fate as a traitor and must suffer the fate of all such scum! Sgt. Anderson, carry out yer orders!"

Despite her father's protests that he was a Quaker and did not believe in violence in any form, he was ignored and pushed onto his back onto the ground. Four men held him down while a fifth man used his bowie knife to cut away Amos' pants and underwear. A rope was tied around Amos' penis and scrotum tight enough that it could not slip off. Amos was dragged, screaming in pain, by the rope to a large tree in the Hopkins' front yard. The loose end of the rope was thrown over a thick limb, and the men pulled on the rope to raise Amos off the ground. Thus, all of Amos' 153 pounds was supported by just the loop of rope around his cock and balls.

Once Amos was hoisted high enough off the ground, a short length of rope was looped around his neck and tied to his feet, forcing him to arch his back as he tried to keep from strangling himself. However, the torturers had deliberately made the rope so short that, no matter how far Amos tried to bend, he could not relieve the choking pressure on his throat.

Amos was left in this position as the attackers climbed onto their horses. They then sat and watched as Amos slowly strangled himself while suffering excruciating pain. At the end of 10 minutes, the men simply rode away, leaving Amos hanging, dead, from the tree limb. Jenny's brother ran to get a knife to cut their father down while Jenny and her sister tried to help their mother, who had fainted. It was at that moment that Jenny abandoned all thought of remaining a Quaker!

The faces of the six men who had murdered her father were engraved into her memory, and she knew that she would never forget a single moment of that morning's ordeal. Once her father was cut down, Jenny and her brother carried their mother to her bed, and she had been there ever since, except to get up long enough to use the chamber pot.

It had fallen to Jenny to handle the arrangements for her father's funeral, which she had managed to do, despite her almost overpowering grief. One of the things that had hurt the most was that all of the people in the town were so afraid of Lubbock that they would not attend the funeral. Jenny read a funeral service and led them in a prayer, before the three children had to shovel the dirt into the grave. Amos' body had been wrapped in a shroud fashioned from a sheet, since the undertaker was too fearful to sell them a coffin.

Jenny had provided the sheriff with descriptions of the murderers, but he would not arrest them. Jenny knew that vengeance would have to be hers, alone. There were no guns in her house, but she was able to purchase one from a store in Colter City, and she practiced with it until she was a better than average shot, though she would never be a "quick draw" artist. She carried the gun with her at all times in hopes of getting a shot at her father's murderers.

Thus, when she rode into Colter City that morning, she knew what she had to do when she saw three of the murderers with 5 other men riding out of town. On the spur of the moment, she decided to follow the men, not knowing what she would do, but hoping to do something. She followed the men at a safe distance; that was easy, since the men made no effort to hide, nor did they look to see if they were being followed.

Jenny hung back as they approached the house and watched with interest as the gun battle developed. She wanted to watch in hopes that some of her enemies would be killed, but she stayed out of sight during the whole episode. To her surprise, she found the wait to be boring at times, but her interest perked up when the two men ran out the front door and hid in the brush. She was not sure what they had in mind, but they did not seem to be trying to escape, so she kept a particularly close eye on them. Jenny was able to follow their progress around the house, because she knew what she was looking for, and she almost gave herself away by cheering when all those men burst out of the house for the final shoot-out with the last of the gang.

Jenny assumed that Lubbock was in the house, since she had heard that he had been gravely wounded. Like everybody else in Colter City, she had no hard information, but rumors had him close to dying. When she didn't see him as the lawmen rode away from the house, she guessed that he was still in the house, but dead. However, she wanted to see for herself that they were all dead, so that she could rest, too.

She decided that, while there was still plenty of light, she would check on those outside, first. She walked the circuit of dead renegades and was satisfied, until she came to one who had been wounded, but faking a fatal head wound. He had also been shot in the leg, so he was not going anywhere for a while, so she left him to check on the rest of the outlaws. Once she had assured herself that all the others were dead, she made her way back to the wounded man. She was particularly pleased to see that he was the one who had tied the ropes to her father, so she made sure that he knew who she was. As soon as she had made herself known to the man and stepped astraddle him with a boot holding each of his arms, Jenny used an appropriate stick she had picked up to poke the man in the eye. She made a point of moving slowly so that he would get the full effect of the stick penetrating his eye and then into his brain. She stirred the stick around some, once she was sure she was in far enough. When she was sure he was dead, she walked toward the house.

Something about the house frightened her, but she couldn't put her finger on the cause. She drew her pistol; it made her feel a hell of a lot better! There was still plenty of daylight, it was only mid-afternoon, but she had a feeling of foreboding, as if it were midnight and as if she were creeping through a cemetery. What the hell was making her skin crawl?