Western justice is not always as swift as we now think it was but it had its way of reaching the right conclusion in some cases. This story by Elmore Leonard starts out with swift justice gone badly and uses the correction of that misused justice as a western story of rectification of a wrong that is righted.
When Bob Valdez killed Orlando Rincon as his attempt to defuse a stand off. The deputies keeping Orlando in his cabin, by force of over whelming firepower, were not supposed to fire. Valdez was trying to get him to surrender with out having any more shots fired. The plan fell apart as shots were fired as Orlando exposed himself and with the raising of Orlando’s gun Bob could see in his eyes his death would happen next so he had to move swiftly and the death of Orlando was a miscarriage of frontier justice.
The rectification of a wrong is the base for this story. Bob Valdez would suffer many indignities as he personally struggled against the big cattle rancher to correct the wrong. Then final effort to rectify this wrong drives Valdez to desperate measures as he kidnaps the ranchers woman and tries to use her as a bargaining chip to get the rancher to compensate Orlando’s pregnant wife for the loss of his death. The wrongful death of Orlando based on his word was the driving force. The rancher had no give and he would only see what he wanted to see presenting the true problem. As the story develops things change and the complications drive the story to the ultimate drive to right a wrong.
I recommend this western to all the readers of stories that revolve around the complications of people who need the vision of wrongs righted. Read this story and practice what should be done.
