Posted by Dutch on May 31, 2000 at 22:50:14:
I've been reading when and where I can with only four more chapters
to go. Good thing too, since tomorrow is June 1st and the start of
Sackett. Although I have not gotten to the end where Sunday is shot
by Orrin (I think someone said Orrin and not Tye), I have no doubt at
all that he committed suicide the same as some criminals make a cop
kill them today. From what I have read I am sure that, of the three -
Orrin, Tye and Tom Sunday - Sunday was the fastest draw and deadliest
shot. Cap was tough but nothing was made of a fast draw for him so he
was out of the running. After Sunday shot the loudmouth Ed Fry who
was calling Tom a cow thief (who incidentally, Tom didn't draw and
shoot until the man's gun was coming up), Cap recounted the incident
to Sheriff Sexton, Orrin and Tye. Here is the exact wording - "No man
ever had a better chance." Cap Said, "Tom, he just stood there and I
figured for a minute he was going to let Fry kill him. Tom's fast,
Tye, he's real fast." (then Tye thinks for the reader)- "And the way
he looked at me when he said it was a thing I'll never forget." That
tells me all I need to know of how Tom Sunday bit the dust. I also
have to wonder why Tom felt so strongly about Orrin getting the
Marshall job and making good. I have to think it may have been the
same story for him a number of times in the past, perhaps from
childhood. He always had the credentials for the job, but not the
demeaner or ability to get along with fellow humans, a mean streak
probably. After all, it couldn't be an inability to speak, he was
well educated and had no problem peeling off a string of impressive
words. This thought also brings me to something else I wondered about
as to why Tye and Orrin didn't ask themselves a question when first
teaming up with Tom Sunday. It is the same question they asked
themselves about Jonathan Pritts, to paraphrase, if he was so great
and important back East what was he doing here? Turned just a bit,
Tom Sunday was an educated and inteligent man, he could be a success
in the East, why was he punching cows and enduring the hardness of the
West? Had he also been run out of better places as we suspect Pritts
had? Every time Tom was about to make good, did his mean streak show
itself and someone else got the job? Was Orrin just another example
in a string of Tom's failures to make good? Another guy who got the
job he should have had? So in the end, did he not blame Orrin but
instead, understood that he (Tom) was his own worst enemy and allowed
Orrin to beat him to the draw? I don't think he hated Orrin for
getting the job as much as he hated himself for NOT getting it - and
who knows how many other positions of success in the past. Sorry this
got so long.
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Subject: Re: The Daybreakers
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