Ahead of the Press Publishing

Time and trouble wait for no man. The time had been set for Rudy Blake’s execution and the Federal authorities in charge of the city knew there would be trouble if the hanging did not take place. The provost-marshal, had been given an assignment: find a charge and make it stick. It was finally decided Blake would be tried for his participation in a duel dating back to 1849 when facing a man on the Field of Honor was illegal. The trial had been short and to the point. One month from the day Rudy was found guilty, he was to be taken to a tree and there hanged by the neck until dead. An article appeared in the Mercury on the morning in question. Entitled Justice, the author, identified only by the initials R.B. not only argued for the sentence to be carried out, but called upon all individualists involved in the twenty-seven other duels fought between 1849 and the present year of 1866, to be strung up alongside him. Evocative and coming out of the blue, the demand threw the city into turmoil. Well aware the stipulation could not possibly be carried out, inasmuch as other participants were wealthy favorite sons, incite riots in the expectation that Rudy Blake might either be killed or charged with murder and arson. Personally witnessing the fact he was innocent of complicity, Captain Adams orders Rudy and Rose into hiding until order was restored and Rudy could be legally released from custody. Accompanied by his memories and the spirits of his past, Rudy takes Rose on a verbal tour of his childhood, describing events, both sad and tortured, that he endured as am unloved boy, including a search for pirate treasure he had buried long ago. In return, Rose recounts the details of her first solo command across the Atlantic in her mad dash to rescue him from impending death. When finally released by the provost-marshal, they exchange one birthplace for another, traveling by train to Manhattan. Unexpectedly discovering her own ghosts resurrected, the couple decide the best way to restore their conflicted emotions was to put a new confidence game into action. Building on the fact so many former masters were searching for the ways and means of restoring their birthright, Rudy and Rose create a fictitious enterprise called the South American Relocation and Benevolent Land Company, offering tracts suitable for Southern gentlemen seeking to recreate the Old South on foreign soil. Parceling out and selling property which they did not own, they have a high time fleecing those eager for the days of crinoline and slavery.