Characters

(in order of appearance)

• Art Croft – narrator, posse member
• Gil Carter – Croft’s partner, posse member
• Monty Smith – town bum, posse member
• Canby – saloon owner and bartender
• Moore – Drew’s foreman, posse member
• Bartlett – small rancher living in town, urged posse formation, posse member
• Jeff Farnley – Kinkaid’s buddy, works for Drew, posse member
• Osgood – ineffectual, cowardly minister
• Rose Mapen – Gil’s former girlfriend, left Bridger’s Wells, married Swanson
• Drew – biggest ranch owner in area
• Larry Kinkaid – murder “victim”
• Davies – town storekeeper, believed in justice and law, posse member
• Joyce – Davies’ young helper
• Greene – young man who reports Kincaid’s “murder,” posse member
• Bill Winder – stage driver with grudge against railroads, posse member
• Gabe Hart – Winder’s helper, posse member
• Risley – sheriff
• Judge Tyler – local judge who is not respected by the men
• Mapes – Risley’s deputy, eager lyncher, posse member
• Sparks – African American man, respected for his deep faith, posse member
• Ma (Jenny) Grier – woman who runs a boarding house, posse member
• Major Tetley – Confederate veteran who assumes posse leadership
• Gerald Tetley – Major Tetley’s sensitive and intelligent son, posse member
• Amigo – Tetley’s Mexican cowhand, claims to have seen rustlers, posse member
• Carl Bartlett – son of old Bartlett; posse member
• Nate Bartlett – son of old Bartlett; posse member
• Frena Handel – woman in Bridger’s Wells urging on the posse
• Mark – Tetley’s cowhand
• Alex Small – stagecoach driver
• Jimmy Carnes – stagecoach guard; shoots Art in the shoulder
• Swanson – Rose Mapen’s cultured, self-assured husband
• Donald Martin – young man who bought cattle from Drew
• The Mex – Martin’s helper; suspected of being a notorious outlaw
• Alva Hardwick – old, feeble-minded man traumatized by the Civil War