Nine points in the law

Om denne boken

Nine points in the law by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. Set in the rough-and-tumble cow town of Piperock, it lampoons small-town boosterism and civic rivalry as locals try to make an “African” movie and secure a menagerie, turning pride and folly into farce.

Narrator Ike Harper returns to find Magpie Simpkins and the self-styled Chamber of Commerce plotting a jungle picture with Scenery Sims’s new camera, which requires circus animals being sold off in nearby Paradise. Rival towns Paradise and Yaller Horse move to block Piperock, while Piperock’s own crew scrape up cash—often without consent—leaving Ike, Dirty Shirt Jones, and Mighty Jones each “owning” a different beast on paper. After threats from Yaller Horse gunmen, Barker the animal man disappears and a botched rescue in Paradise explodes into chaos: cages burst, an elephant rips off a saloon front, a tiger and lion run amok, and Ike’s misadventures peak when he wrestles what he thinks is a lion and winds up with Tombstone Todd. The Piperock boys briefly haul the animal wagon out of town before wrecking it; the Chamber of Commerce crawls out of the smashed cages, the animals and movie dream are lost, and Barker has vanished—yet Ike finds a packet holding all three towns’ option money. With bruises, liniment, and a rueful laugh, Piperock’s grand scheme collapses into comic wisdom about pride, possession, and how fast life can throw a man.