A Veritable Cornucopia of Terrible Events

I recently learned of a three-book series written by Richard Telfair, published by as Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks in the late 1950s, Featuring a character named Wyoming Jones, the reviewer mentioned that the first and third novels in the series were so-so at best, but the middle one--1958's Day of the Gun--was quite good.

Since each book in the series was a self-contained story, I decided to ignore my usual obsession with reading stuff in strict order and found a copy online. And, gee whiz, it turned out to be superb.

Though only 141 pages long, Telfair manages to fit an awful lot of story into the novel. 90% of that story takes place in a single day. It's set at the end of the Civil War, with Wyoming Jones working as a deputy in the remote Texas town of Serret. At least, he was working a deputy. He's just been fired by the mildly dishonest sheriff for doing too efficient a job. His pride hurt, he's planning on leaving town, giving up on opportunities to go partners in a local ranch and marry one of the local girls.

But plans change quickly when one terrible thing after another begins to pile up on the small town. A dozen outlaws ride in, take three women hostage, gun down the sheriff, and threaten to kill the women if the town doesn't give up all their guns. The outlaws have a larger plan. They know that a couple of dozen Confederate soldiers will be passing through town later that day. Those soldiers are escorting a wagon containing over two million dollars in gold coin.

But that's not all. The Comanche chief Sanni learns that trouble is brewing and, seeing a long-desired opportunity to burn Serret to the ground, gathers his men together to attack.

And that wagon full of gold is being followed by a super-fast gunslinger named Glade Perrin, who is looking for his own opportunity to steal the wagon.

As I said, there's an awful lot going on here. But Telfair does an excellent job in contructing the plot. The story flows along at a lightning pace, but never seems too crowded nor do we ever lose track of what's going on.

Wyoming learns that, despite his bitterness over being fired, he still thinks of Serret as his home and still cares about the people. He finds himself in charge, though both he and the townspeople have been disarmed. At first, the situation seems helpless:

One of the outlaws looked [Wyoming] up and down as if he were an animal. His right fist shot out and slammed into Wyoming's face. Wyoming went down, stunned. He knew that his nose had been broken. He lay there without moving because he knew that if he did the three women hostages would die. He tried to think of another time, another place, anything, anything from the past; anything at all but what was happening to him right now.

The situation continues to get more complicated. Glade Perrin arrives in town with word of the Comanches. Glade, though his end goal is to get the gold for himself, ends up teaming with Wyoming as they come up with a plan to whittle down the outlaws, then scalp the bodies so that it appears that Comanches were responsible (thus keeping the women from being killed in retaliation). The troopers arrive while this is going on. Plans go awry. A barrage of fire arrows begin to rain down on the town. Good guys and bad guys die as brutal action scenes unfold.

While this is going on, Wyoming and Glade find themselves becoming friends, though the two seemed destined to have to eventually fight each other.

Oh, and don't mess with Mrs. Maggie. The bitter old woman, who lost her family to Comanches years ago, is one of the hostages, but also might be the most dangerous and cool-headed person in town. Just... well, just don't mess with her. It won't end well for you.

Day of the Gun takes off like a bullet and never lets up, filling its pages with action, tragedy, strong characterizations and a satisfying conclusion. It is worthwhile tracking down a copy.