The old man took Duncan into the barn with the shotgun pointed at his back.
“Keep those hands up! Up!” He shouted as they walked into the barn. Dawson growled at him and barked. The barn smelled of old dust and dry-rotted wood. Duncan looked up and could see the stars through a part of the roof near the back. There was a huge square beam in the middle, up to the roof which supported two crossbeams and a hayloft. The old man shone his flashlight over to the support beam. There were old, rusty metal rungs leading up into the hayloft. He motioned with the double-barreled shotgun. “Climb up into the loft up there.”
Duncan hesitated and looked up.
“Come on, climb!” the old man said and Dawson growled at him and barked.
Silently Duncan climbed up into the loft and waited. The old man held both the shotgun and the flashlight under one arm and awkwardly climbed the rusty ladder with the other. Just as soon as he got up far enough he shone the flashlight in his face. Duncan covered his eyes.
“Sit.” He motioned with the shotgun. “Face the wall with your hands behind your back.” Duncan looked up and above him was an old chain fall with a pulley up at the top attached to the roof center beam. Duncan could hear the old man as he finished climbing up into the hayloft.
“I got this here shotgun pointed right at the back of your head,” he said. “Any funny business and there tain’t going to be nothing left for the county to scrape up off’n the wall! Here,” he put the end of the chain into Duncan’s left hand and pressed the double-barreled shotgun muzzle up against his neck. “Put this here chain around your waist.”
Duncan took a deep breath and did as he was told and held out the end of the chain toward the old man behind him.
“Do it again,” he said.
Duncan wrapped the chain around again and pulled it back once more. The old man took the end and tied it around Duncan’s wrists. Then put on a huge padlock through the chains and locked it.
“There. That should keep you! Now sit down and make yourself comfortable.” He laughed. “You ain’t going noplace. Tomorrow, me and Sally are going to go off into Dull Axe City and claim a re-ward for your capture.” He laughed with glee.
“Sally’s your wife?”
“No, she ain’t my wife! I ain’t got no wife! Sally’s my mule!”
“You don’t have a car?”
“Well, don’t you make no nevermind what I got or what I don’t got! You just sit right there all purty-like ‘til they send the deputies out.” The old man turned around and started climbing down the old rungs when one of the rungs broke under his weight and with a terrified cry the old man fell down to the rough-hewn barn floor.
Duncan could hear the old man down on the floor crying out and moaning in pain and Dawson whining.
“Oh, my leg, my leg,” he groaned.
“What’s happening?”
“Nothing! Don’t you nevermind what’s –” The old man panted heavily and moaned. “I’m doing fine.” He whimpered. “Just fine!”
For the next several hours, Duncan could hear the old man down on the floor below the loft moaning and breathing heavily. Dawson whined and padded around next to him. A couple of times both seemed silent for a while, but then the old man woke up and moaned and groaned. Once he thought he heard him try to stand but then he screamed and there was another bump onto the old barnwood. Dawson barked and he thought he could hear him lick the old man’s face.
“That’s okay, boy,” the old man said. “I know’d it. I know’d it.”
All during this time, Duncan was quietly loosening the chains around his wrists and waist. When the old man was tying him up, Duncan puffed up his chest and stomach in the dark so that now, when he let out his breath, the chains hung loosely about him. After a while, Duncan was able to wriggle down out of the waist-chain so that now the only thing that held him was the padlock around his wrists. As the dawn was breaking, he could just see where the chain fall was attached through a large pulley near the roof. The other end of the chain was loosely tied to a metal spike on the other side of the hayloft. Now that the chain was loosened from around his waist, Duncan could stand up and he tried to get to the other end of the chain fall but it was just out of his reach.
“I hear you up there!” The old man gasped. “I can hear you grubbing around, trying to get loose of them chains! Whatever badness you planning ain’t gonna work. It ain’t a gonna work I tell you! I still got me my shotgun down here and Dawson’ll rip your leg off if’n you come near me.”
“I ain’t going to come near you. Don’t worry. I ain’t going to kill you neither,” Duncan said. He looked up at the top of the roof where the pulley was attached to the barn and jerked on it a couple of times. All that happened was some dust and dirt fell down in his face.
“How do I know – that?” The old man groaned in pain. “You might be some murderin’ bastard what strangles honest folks just – for – for fun!”
“I ain’t.” Duncan jumped up and jerked on the chain fall with all of his weight and could hear the wood creak up near the roof. “I didn’t do nothing! I didn’t kill nobody. I’m innocent.”
“Yeah, well – then – then why you wearing them prison clothes for? Tell me that one you liar!”
Duncan took another running leap and jerked on the chain fall with all of his might. This time the wood cracked. He held on as the chain swung back and forth until finally with a loud cracking pop the chain came loose of its mounting in the roof and Duncan fell down into the hayloft. He covered his head as the chain and pulley fell down on top of him.
Leave a Reply