IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
(IM SCHATTEN DES TODES)
by
LARAMIESTAR
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION (HattieLynn)
This is a translation of LaramieStar's story rather than a second publication of her original German story.
IM SCHATTEN DES TODES (IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH) was originally written in German by LaramieStar and was posted on the Laramie FanFiction Archive on July 14, 2004. It is the very first story in the Archive. It is an AU as explained in LARAMIESTAR'S INTRODUCTION. The main changes are: Mike's background, his legal relationship to Jess, a part of Jess' background, and the ranch house expansion into a two-story house with a laundry room, an office, and a kitchen with a door between it and the living room.
With LaramieStar's written permission (see emails below), I (HattieLynn) have translated Google's English translation into something that is hopefully more readable to those of us who can't read German. I don't speak or read German at all and have relied heavily on German to English translation sites for words and phrases that were tangled up and meaningless in Google's translation. I have also "Westernized" the dialogue to sound (hopefully) like the language we heard on the show in the United States. Because of my limited skill and time, I have condensed the story a great deal. I summarized parts of it and (very rarely) added a phrase not in the original story to make sense of my summary or condensation. I always tried to convey LaramieStar's meaning as best as I could. I think she wrote a wonderful story and wanted it to be more accessible to the Laramie fandom.
To repeat: IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH is LaramieStar's story. It is her plot, her new characters, her action and her dialogue. I just translated it from Google and other resources, condensed it and Westernized the dialogue.
LARAMIESTAR'S PERMISSION TO TRANSLATE IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH AND PUBLISH IT ON THE LARAMIE FANFICTION ARCHIVE
Dear LaramieStar, I've been reading Google's English translation of your Laramie story IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH published in 2004. It is great! The story is great - the Google translation is understandable but very rough and literal. Would you give me permission to rephrase the Google's translation into regular English? I think the LARAMIE fanfic folks would love it. Let me know. Thanks! (May 16, 2016)
Dear HattieLynn,
Thank you for your nice mail. Alas, my English is not good enough for translating such a long story. It would sound horrible and last 100 years - at least. Therefore, of course, you have permission to do a translation for other fans. You have to mention me as author of the original German story and yourself as translator. OK?
Greetings from Frankfurt in Germany
LaramieStar (May 30, 2016)
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH BY LARAMIESTAR
Hello and Welcome to the Laramie Story
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
by
Laramiestar
This story is meant to be a kind of homage to the unforgettable western series LARAMIE, which ran on German TV in the sixties under the title AT THE FOOT OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. Also unforgettable are the heroes of the story, Jess Harper and his friend and partner, Slim, who had many adventures together.
Of course, the two heroes and the other main characters have not sprung out of my imagination, but are only on loan from the creators of this series, but the following story and the other characters in it are my own creation.
In this story, Slim and Jess are slightly older than in the original series, somewhere around thirty years old. The characters have a slightly different setting than the original series but that's not too distracting. It's just my own way of seeing it. This story also takes place a little later than the original, about 1878, but even that is not too disconcerting.
Although the finished story turned out to be a little long and it is not packed with constant action, it nevertheless still has good dialogue about friendship, companionship and family cohesion, which are key elements of the original series.
There is of course some violence and bloodshed but neither are glorified.
Rating: PG (PG-13 maybe for Chapter I)
The story is dedicated to all those innocent victims who feel alone and without hope.
In addition, the story is dedicated to Robert Fuller, who with his incomparable expressiveness brought Jess Harper to life and portrayed this figure better than anyone else could have ever done.
Have fun reading!
Laramiestar
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
CHAPTER 1
A Bullet for Jess Harper
Mike was unusually cheerful Monday afternoon when he got home from school. Scattering clacking, indignant chickens out of his way, he raced into the yard of the Sherman Ranch on his pony and skidded to a stop in front of the ranch house.
"Yippee!" he shouted, whirling his bundle of textbooks around his head as he stormed onto the porch and ran into the house. "Yippee! No school in the morning!"
Daisy was standing in front of the living room table with a stack of plates in her hand. "There's no need to shout like that!" she exclaimed.
"Sorry, Aunt Daisy, but I'm so happy that I just had to shout! There's going to be a circus in Laramie tomorrow! Miss Finch is letting us go! We don't have to do homework tonight!"
"Well, Miss Finch is being very kind," Daisy said with a smile. "Now go and take care of Browny. Lunch is almost ready. Then you can tell us all about it."
She didn't have to say it a second time. Bursting with excitement, the boy took Browny to the barn to unsaddle him. After he tended to the pony's needs, he hurried back inside. Slim was already sitting at the table and Daisy had just brought in the stew.
"Hi, Slim!" Mike said, sliding into his seat. "Do you know what's happening tomorrow?"
"No," Slim said, "but I'm sure you're going to tell me all about it." He glanced at Daisy and winked. She'd filled him in about the carnival while Mike was in the barn.
"First, eat your food," Daisy told Mike. "Stew doesn't taste good when it's cold."
"Yes, ma'am," Mike said and shoveled the stew into his mouth as fast as he could. When the last bite disappeared, words started bubbling out of him like water from a spring. "Guess what, Slim! There's going to be a circus in town! They have somebody that can swallow fire! And there's a dancing bear there, too! Do you think Jess will go with me? Where is he anyway? I still haven't seen him."
"He rode over to the north pasture this morning to check on the fences. The horses broke some posts down," Slim said. "I don't think he'll be back until sometime tomorrow afternoon."
"Aww, shoot!" Mike's face fell, but then he looked at Slim. "Will you go with me?"
"I can't. I got a list of chores up to my neck."
"Oh, that's too bad!" Daisy said, knowing Slim really didn't want to go anyway. "But I can go with you, Mike - that is, if you help me with all the chores I have to do. You could even get your room cleaned up for once. How's that?"
"That's great!" Mike exclaimed. "I'll do everything you want me to if you'll go with me to the circus! It starts tomorrow at two o'clock."
The next morning the boy worked hard to make sure his room would pass Daisy's inspection. He'd just put the last bits and pieces of his things in a closet near an open window when he heard hoof beats outside. Maybe this was Jess coming back from the north pasture! Now his foster father could go with him to the circus and win some prizes with his good marksmanship! When he looked out the window, he was disappointed to see two strangers in front of the house instead of Jess.
Mike usually ran downstairs at once when visitors came but today he stayed at the open window. There was something he didn't like about these two men. After a second or two, he stepped aside and hid behind the curtain. From there he was able to watch as the horsemen rode closer. They were looking around as if they were afraid of being seen. Guiding their horses to the side of the house and leaving them there, they walked around to the front porch. Both wore wide gun belts and held Winchester rifles by their side.
Mike saw the two men step onto the porch and disappear beneath its roof. He scurried out of the bedroom to crouch behind the upper railing of the steps that led directly down to the living room. His instinct warned him to be careful. Something was wrong with these strangers.
From behind the railing, Mike had a good view of the entire living room, including the front door and the large window beside it. Through the window's clear pane he could see part of the porch and a small piece of the yard. At the moment, there was no one in the downstairs room. Slim had gone into his study to work on the account books and Daisy was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. Mike crouched lower behind the railing as the front door banged open. The two men stormed inside and stood with legs akimbo in the middle of the floor.
Slim heard the noise. He came out of his office to see what was happening. "Who….?" he started to ask.
The words died in his throat and he stopped in his tracks. One of the men had the barrel of his Winchester pointed at him. The other one went to the window to watch for anyone coming into the yard.
"Who are you?" Slim demanded, finding his voice. "What do you want?"
"I'll ask the questions!" the man with the rifle barked out. "You the rancher here?" he asked and motioned with the gun barrel for the rancher to raise his hands.
"Yeah," Slim said. He reluctantly lifted his hands over his head and even more reluctantly let the man search him.
Just then, Daisy walked out of the kitchen. "Slim, what…." She broke off in mid-sentence when the man at the window turned his Winchester on her. Daisy stared at him but seemed to have no fear of him - at least not any that she showed to him. "What is this?" she said sternly.
"Shut up!" The man strode over to her and forced her into the living room.
The one pointing his gun at Slim asked, "Is anyone else in the house?"
"No," the rancher said curtly.
"Hal!" the man yelled. "Check the house!"
Leaving the window, Hal immediately obeyed, going through all the rooms on the ground floor. Then he climbed the stairs to the second floor while the other man kept his gun on Slim and Daisy.
As soon as Hal began his search of the rooms on the first floor, Mike crept back into his room and hid under the bed. He crawled to the farthest corner, hardly daring to breathe. The stairs creaked under Hal's heavy footsteps; then Mike heard the floorboards creaking in the hallway. Someone entered the room.
The boy held his breath, biting his lips in fear. His heart was beating so hard he was afraid the loud thumping would give him away. He saw a pair of dusty boots shuffling on the floor. They approached the bed an arm's length from him, and then they went away.
Mike dared to breathe only after the man left the room. He listened, frozen in place, as all the doors on the second floor were opened one by one. The footsteps came toward his bedroom again before they pounded back down the stairs. Mike waited a moment before he slid out from under the bed and returned to his observation post. He was frightened but his need to know what was happening drove him out of hiding.
"Nobody's upstairs," he heard Hal report.
"Well then, we'll just wait here," the other one said.
"If you're waiting for the stagecoach, you'll have to wait three or four hours," Slim told them bluntly. "It won't come before then."
"Who says we're waiting for the stagecoach?" the man in front of him asked, taunting him.
"What else do you want? There's no money for you here. I don't have any in the house, not even ten dollars. I don't know what else would be worth all this. So you can just get out of here!"
"Why're you being so unfriendly? We just got here," Hal joked from his post near the window. "Ron, do you want me to gag him?"
"Leave him to me! You just guard the window!" Turning to Slim, Ron growled, "We're just meeting a friend. We told him we would wait for him here until noon. We'll leave when he gets here."
"Why use this house?"
"Because it's too boring out on the range!" Hal grinned, baring his teeth like a dog about to bite.
The following silence was eerie. Slim and Daisy exchanged looks, non-verbally agreeing to offer no resistance, at least for the time being. Slim wasn't about to give up but he realized he didn't have any other choice right now. Hal, in particular, seemed to be a real killer. Watching at the window, he was hunched over, nervously playing with his Winchester. Slim hoped the men really were just waiting for a friend of theirs and would go away when he came. He also thought it was possible they might be here to kill someone arriving on the next stagecoach, even though he wasn't expecting anybody special.
A cold chill ran down his spine. He was expecting someone. Jess. What if these two guys were waiting for him? He tensed. He had to do something, but he didn't know what. The silence stretched out as he stood frozen by the Winchester aimed at his gut.
All of a sudden Hal straightened up. "Ron!" he yelled. "We got a rider coming in!"
Slim followed the man's gaze and saw a horseman galloping directly toward the house. He knew who it was by the way he rode.
"You know that guy out there?" Ron asked Slim.
"That's my partner - Jess Harper." Slim watched for the outlaws' reactions to see if they recognized the name.
"Hal," Ron said, "do you know him?"
"Nope. Not that I know of. Think I ought to kill him?"
"Let him come in a little closer."
"You don't need to shoot him!" Slim yelled.
"I don't," Ron said with a broken-toothed grin. "But Hal can't wait. I know him. If you want to keep on living, I wouldn't try to stop him."
"Jess hasn't done anything to you! You don't even know him!" Slim shouted.
"Bad luck for him. I'm afraid I won't get to make his acquaintance."
"Damn it! He won't bother you if he knows you got us covered! You can't just shoot a man for no reason!"
"Why not? This morning Hal told me he was tired of using empty cans and bottles for target practice. He wants something that's moving," Ron said with cold indifference.
"He's a man! Not a target! A man!"
"That's even better."
"What did you say?" Slim was stunned.
"You heard me right." Ron grinned again. He enjoyed watching the big rancher wiggle like a fish on a hook.
"Are you crazy?" Slim blurted out in horror. "You can't… That man out there is my friend! I won't…" Slim made a move in his direction but stopped immediately as the outlaw drew his pistol with his left hand and aimed it at Daisy.
"If you want to keep this little lady alive you better stay where you are," Ron threatened, shoving the gun toward Daisy.
"You coward!" Daisy cried. "Don't you have any conscience at all?"
"That just slows you down," Ron said, shrugging.
Slim could see Jess clearly now. "Please let him alone!" he asked in a gentler tone, hoping he could appeal to their softer side - if they had one. "He's like a brother to me."
"You know what?" Ron acted as if he were reconsidering things. "I'm not a monster. Maybe I can persuade Hal to change his mind if you can choose."
"Chose what?" Slim said, confused.
"You decide! Either the cowboy or the little lady over there."
Slim's heart seemed to stop. He was dealing with madmen. "You're insane," he said.
"Cut out the palaver," Ron barked, his face a mask of sadistic glee. "Watch close, now. You're going to have a chance to see something not many people get to see. You're going to get to watch a friend die."
Jess was getting closer. After a day and a night on the range, he was glad to be home. He rode to the corral, dismounted and led Traveler into the barn to unsaddle him. When he came out, he strode happily toward the house, unaware of the gunman waiting for him at the window.
Inside, Daisy was close to fainting. Slim still had the barrel of the rifle in his stomach and couldn't think clearly. All he could see was the pistol aimed at Daisy and the Winchester aimed at Jess. The mussel of Hal's gun was following his partner's every step.
Driven to desperate action, Slim finally yelled "Jess!" just as Jess grabbed the post near the steps and swung up onto the porch - but the warning came too late. Hal's Winchester fired at the same time Slim shouted, drowning out the rancher's voice. Gunfire burned a hole in the filigree lace curtains and the window burst into a thousand glass shards.
Jess froze in mid-stride. His terrible, gurgling scream of pain mingled with the echo of the fading rifle blast. A bloody red stain spread across his chest. Flung against the porch railings by the force of the bullet, he clung to the canopy post for a moment, then slipped to his knees. He tried to get back on his feet but he was already too weak. He fell to the wooden floor, unconscious.
"Jess!" Slim roared as Daisy collapsed in a dead faint.
"Not so fast, friend," Ron said and slammed the butt of his rifle against Slim's head. "Hal!" he yelled, "Go out there and see if that guy is dead. But be careful. He might just be pretending."
"I didn't miss," Hal sneered. "See that blood? It was a good shot - but my aim might have been off a little." He fiddled with the Winchester's site, eying it closely. Then he got up, drew his revolver and went to the porch to inspect his work.
The gunman approached Jess' crumpled body with caution. He held his pistol to the fallen man's head and studied him before he kicked him savagely in the side. Jess didn't move. The outlaw stuck his boot under him and rolled him over on his back so he could see where the bullet hit. Blood was pouring out of a wound to the left of Jess' heart and was trickling out of the side of his mouth. Hal was finally satisfied, but when he bent to unbuckle the wounded man's gun belt, he noticed Jess was still breathing and shouted out, "Ron! This guy is still alive! Should I finish him off?"
"Do you need to?"
"Nah! I got him good. He's bleeding like a stuck pig."
"Then get him into the house and out of sight!"
Hal grabbed Jess by both arms and dragged him into the living room. "Damn! This guy is heavy," he growled, dumping him on the floor. "I was right about my shot. The bullet went to the right. I was aiming for a button on his shirt but I missed by a hand span! When I see that gunsmith again, I'm going to make him pay for this. The site on that Winchester I got from him is off."
"Shut your trap and get back to the window!" Ron said. "Let me know when you see Alex. We need to get out of here before anybody comes." He checked Slim and Daisy to make sure they were still unconscious, took a look at Jess, then went to stand by his side-kick at the shattered window.
Both men saw the approaching rider at the same time.
"Is that him?" Hal asked, squinting so he could see better.
"Yeah." Ron jammed his pistol back in his holster. "Come on, let's go. But get rid of that gun first," he said, nodding at the gun belt Hal had thrown on the floor after he'd dragged Jess inside.
Hal picked up the belt, pulled the Colt out of its holster and emptied the cartridges into his hand. "This is a first class gun!" he exclaimed. "Clean as a whistle. He might have got me if he'd had a chance."
"Take it with you if you like it so much."
"Nah. I'll stick with mine. I'm used to it." He pocketed the cartridges and shoved the gun under the couch near the fireplace. "Besides, it might have a problem I don't know about - like that Winchester."
"I don't give a damn what you do. Let's get out of here!"
"I'm coming. You're always complaining about something," Hal groused and followed him out the door.
After retrieving their horses from the side of the house, the two men rode out, heading toward their friend Alex. They were supposed to meet him on the road near the Sherman Relay Station but they didn't like the heat and boredom of the open range. They decided to pass the time by invading the ranch house instead. They didn't know Jess Harper at all. Sadistic murderers, they just wanted to have a little fun while they waited for their friend.
END OF CHAPTER 1