PRECEDENCE
by
Gail Gardner

CHAPTER ONE
"Nicholas Barkley, you have been tried and convicted of murder and now will face death by hanging. Do you have any last words?"

He lifted his head up to stare out over the crowd. The faces he feared to see and the face he wanted to see weren't there. He was - trapped - worse than that, minutes from hanging.

"I'm innocent, but you don't give a damn do you all? You vultures." He snarled fighting the ropes binding him securely.

"Hang ‘im!" Came a shout from the back of the crowd. It was soon echoed and spread causing confusion and jostling. The deputies guarding the scaffold had to push and shove to retain order. The sheriff stood at the edge of the platform and yelled back at the crowd.

"Behave yourselves and we'll get on with the hangin'!"

In the meantime, the hangman had managed to get the rope around Nick's neck. He adjusted it twice securing it tightly around Nick's neck.

"Prepare to meet yer maker." The whiskered gray-haired man said out loud and then whispered in Nick's ear. "Don't fight it or you'll make it worse." He stepped back. "He's all set, Sheriff."

Nick swallowed and again his eyes searched the crowd frantically. "My wife..." He whispered so that only the hangman heard. The man nodded slightly.

The sheriff nodded and the hangman pulled the lever. Nick Barkley's body fell through the trap door. The crowd could see the rope buck and sway for a few moments and then it hung still slightly moving with the unseen dead weight of the body below.