Harriet stopped humming as her reflection disappeared from the window and she could see the snow and the jagged shadows of the moonlit trees. As she watched they moved around took the form of a man with his arms outstretched as if reaching for her. She shivered and peered harder into the night, her hand feeling inside the folds of her dress for the little gun she'd stolen from the judge after she cut his throat.

She was only faintly aware of the excited murmurs from the others as they confronted the sudden loss of light; in her mind the shadow became the face of her husband, Seth, and Harriet felt him reaching to her from the grave with bone chilling determination.

Abner reached out in the dark to check on her location, mindful of the decision to keep an eye on her, and when his fingers touched her sleeve, Harriet screamed, aimed the little gun and fired.

******

Judgement was wrapped in an early morning fog. Nestled as it was against a high mountain of rocks and pine trees, it seemed as if the mist had slid down and pooled around the row of wooden buildings that constituted the main street. Judgement was a mining town, intersecting two rail lines that both led down to larger towns where distribution could spread across the country via a larger network of trains and boats.

Because it was a thriving, profitable center for mining and consequently all the attendant criminal activities, it also had an active judiciary, a larger than average prison and a no-nonsense attitude toward sentencing guilty parties. Judgement was ready for the sentencing of Otis Devlin.

When the train chugged up the last stretch of track and into the tiny station, the reception committee, mayor, his aide, the local sheriff, court representative, and citizen's committee chair watched with mouths agape as the engine with only two cars attached, both with signs of heat damage to their facing ends hissed to a noisy stop, belching a billow of steam.

Carl lowered himself from the cab and leaned wearily on the ladder, his soiled hanky mopping the grit from his tired face. From the last car the group turned to see a tall, lanky man climb down, one arm in a makeshift sling and a rifle clutched in the hand of the other.

"Sir?" The mayor raised a hand as a signal. "Sir, is Judge Tumbler aboard?"

Ryan didn't answer until he was in front of the obviously flustered mayor. "I'm Territory Marshal, Ryan Waites. The judge is dead, sir." The mayor blanched and stepped back, turning to his group for clarification or support. "Along with the government lawyer, Abner Wentworth, Mister James Howden, the victim's advocate, Mister Clifford Williams, one of the victim's relatives, A Mister Seth Dingwall, husband of one of the victim's relative's, my two deputies, the train cook and the porter." The five member committee just gaped, pale faced as Ryan delivered his account. "The prisoner is near done and in chains and I have four women and one other man, the government pathologist, the engineer," he nodded toward Carl. "And Mrs. Dingwall, who is also in restraints and being presented for trial."

The sheriff, a thickset, weathered looking man with a wispy moustache, moved up beside the mayor. "What in God's name happened, Marshal"

Ryan shifted his shoulders, turning to see the others debarking the train behind him. "It's bin' a three day nightmare, sheriff and I can't begin to tell it all standin' here." He waved Peter forward who was holding the rope that bound A muttering, wild-eyed Harriet and told the sheriff to stick her in one of his cells and to be careful handling her then he asked for some help to carry the prisoner off the train and get him to the local doctor.

Sheriff Tollman sat leaning on his desk with fingers clasped and eyes riveted to Ryan as he listened to the story of the train ride. His mouth opened and closed in silent exclamations over the various flukes and bizarre happenings. When Ryan lifted his newly tended sling at the end of his report, Sheriff Tollman sat back emitting a long gasping sigh.

"She managed to do that against the six of you?"

"When she shot Wentworth the train was still dark. The rest of us did as much clutchin' and grabbin' of one another as we did with her. It wasn't until Carl arrived and got one of the lanterns lit that we saw how to pin her down and tie her up. I took the second shot from the Derringer just below the shoulder. Thank the Lord it wasn't a six-shooter, she was yankin' on that trigger the whole time we wrestled her to the floor.

"And you think she's loco now?"

"I know she's loco, sheriff. I don't know why but somehow she thought any money the court might direct toward the victim's relatives was all hers. She might have slipped her bolt when her husband went into the gorge with the sleeping car, although a few of us think she deliberately left him in there when we were tryin' to get it off the bridge."

"What about Devlin now? He's lost so much blood the doc thinks he'll be gone soon as well. Should have listened to you folks and left the boot on. Damn thing spurted like pump nozzle when we pulled it free. Should have seen the mess in the doc's office."

"Seen enough blood for a while, thanks." Ryan stood and stretched. "Will he last long enough to hang?"

"Doc's doin' all he can but we better not waste any time with a hearing."

"Forget the hearing. He was convicted in Triple Creek. Just hang the bastard. I really need a bath and some hot food."

"My deputy'll see you folks to the hotel. Rooms already set up for a lot more so you shouldn't have any trouble getting' firsts on the bath tub. Eliza Heaven's girls are more than able when it comes to bathin' men."

"Eliza Heaven? Is that for real?"

"She sure is, Marshal. Careful she don't take a hankerin' to you. Might have another fatality to list on that train." He chuckled and stood up, shaking Ryan's hand. "I'll get all this into a report for the court and you can look it over before we present it to the judge."

"Seriously, about Otis," Ryan said, as he stepped out of the office. "Get him hung like you planned. He don't deserve to die bein' treated for a simple gunshot wound."