It was already quite dark when Laura Simpson arrived in Crinkly Town. She was tired and longed for a warm bath. The sheriff saw her coming and thought, ‘She looks familiar to me.’ Laura stopped at the hotel and dismounted.
She went inside and asked, “Do you have a room left for one person?”
The receptionist looked at her and said, “Yes. Sign here please.”
She did that and she got the key of her room.
After a warm bath Laura felt much better. After a meal at the restaurant she went to the saloon. When she came in it was deadly quiet at once.
“This ain’t no place for ladies like you so you do good on going away”, Joe, a loud gambler, said.
Laura wagged her tongue and asked, “This is certainly a place for loud little boys like you?”
Joe knew nothing to say back but was heavily insulted. Laura walked to the bar and ordered a whisky.
The bartender said to her, “You must watch out for Joe. He doesn’t like it to be insulted by a woman. It became about time that someone put him into his place.”
“I am used to a lot of men”, Laura answered calm.
After a while Joe came to her and began to become very aggressive.
“Keep your hands to yourself creep”, Laura said.
“Leave her alone. Or I will throw you in jail” Joe heard then a voice behind him saying.
He let her loose and looked at in the eyes of the deputy-sheriff Jeff Simpson.
“Help me Jeff”, Laura said to her brother.
“Come on to the office of the sheriff ”, Jeff said only.
While they walked to the office of the sheriff said Laura, “I came for your aid. Ole uncle Harry has grabbed the ranch. He doesn’t know that I have escaped.”
“So ole Harry is free again? This time he will not get his way. My boss, sheriff Clark, will help us, however. Where do you sleep? In the hotel I guess?”, asked Jeff.
Laura nodded.
Sheriff Clark listened to the tale of Laura and said, “That ole Harry is very dangerous. Go back together tomorrow.”
“Okay”, said Jeff calmly but not rested.
His uncle was the black sheep of the family.
That night Jeff stayed by his sister. The next morning they went back to their ranch very early. On the way Laura became very quiet.
At the Simpson ranch Harry was busy making it his own. The ranch was very neglected and hardly worth anything. Hands were absent and the ground around it was very bad. Though Harry didn’t know this. He had just been in prison for seven years for a train robbery which happened to be empty. His life was existing from pure failed robberies. He wasn’t very smart either. Never had been. But he surely was dangerous to life. Especially after a few drinks.
In a few hours of the morning Jeff and Laura arrived at their old ranch. It was there deadly quiet. They dismounted and carefully brother and sister entered the house. At first sight Harry was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly Jeff heard saying, “Hands up nephew. Or otherwise your beautiful sister is gone.”
He turned around and saw that Harry was holding Laura under gun shot.
“What do you think to accomplish by this? The ranch is worth noting anymore. There are no hands and the ground is bad”, said Jeff said carefully.
Harry looked at him and said, “I certainly must believe that? I surely won’t. Joshing your old uncle.”
“Do you see us laughing? This is the only thing we have left of our parents”, Laura said then.
Suddenly she knocked him out and tied him up. Then Jeff saw that Harry had placed sticks of dynamite everywhere.
He said to Laura, “Come sis. Let’s make sure that we get away from here with the horses. The place can explode any moment.”
Very quickly they made sure that they were at a safe distance. Just in time they had escaped from a terrible death. Quite soon the house was on fire and Harry lost his life with it.
“Everything is alright now. You go with me to Crinkly Town. What we don’t have there yet is a nice teacher. You seems to me suitable for that and you have the qualifications for it”, Jeff said after a while to Laura.
“I do it. Maybe I can calm down Joe”, she said.
“He is not as loud as people think because later he apologized. I think that he likes you and the other way around. Come, then we go home”, said Jeff.
They mounted on their horses and rode together to a new future in Crinkly Town.