THE HOTTEST FOURTH OF JULY IN THE HISTORY OF HANGTREE COUNTY

A sharp, fast tale with a monolithic marshal and double-dyed villains, HFOJITHOHC might have been called simply High Moon. The plot's outline is as familiar as the features of Gary Cooper: three brothers are come to the town of Elbow on the Fourth of July to gun down the marshal, who'd sent one of the brothers to prison for five years. They will kill him by midnight, they say. They toy with his nerves throughout the day's celebration and, come midnight, it's bang bang bang. Following which the marshal gives up his badge and leaves the community! Familiar as Gary Cooper, indeed. What was that picture?