The Marshal of Morgan County

Take one man who rides alone, add a voice in the night in the bargain sealed in the hot flash of gunfire. That's our story, the Marshal of Morgan County, taken from the files of John Steele, Adventurer.

This is John Steele. Each week we get together this time for an old-fashioned session of yarn space. Sometimes they're about places. But this one is the story.

I first met this fellow out in the big lonely prairies of Texas. And to this day, I'm still not 100% sure I know where he fits in. Maybe you'll be able to figure it out.

What's his name? Well, the other lines out for the hills. I never have known rightly, but ever since I was a young and I found it easiest and best to move alone. Living by somebody else's law is all right for them as likes it.

But I always had a mind to own myself. I've got to take care of yourself. You just don't get along. It's just as simple as that. He learned to let the other fellow do the talking while you do the watching.

He learned to respect the split second between a word and an action. And you learn a lot by looking at a man's eyes. Of course, any man, even a frightened one, can be a killer.

Well, that's how I'd move for a big piece of my life and no complaint, sneerly. And one night I rode into Abilene was spring, and the snow on the mountains was beginning to thaw, and the cricks was beginning to raise.

The riders was stringing out toward the horse country, and the air was clear as spring water. Things was move. And it was good to be alive. Good to eat. That's tough, but he's that tough.