Chapter 32 continues
The story so far: Union heavy hitters arrive by train.
One of the company guards put his gun down and lunged toward Tresca. He punched him in the stomach and kneed him in the groin. Tresca fell to his knees and his face contorted in agony. He did not fight back and his three friends did nothing but watch. When Tresca got back up, the company guard pulled his hands behind his back and tied them together with a rope.
"You are an even smaller man," Sam Scarlett said to the deputy. "Willing to do someone else's dirty work. For what? Certainly not the respect of the other men in this town, men who are willing to sacrifice for something worth more than themselves. Do you know what the real men of this town think of a man like you when you cross them on the street?"
"Shut up, Scarlett," Sheriff Turner said.
Scarlett ignored him and kept addressing the company guard. "Nothing. They don't think of you at all. You are that inconsequential."
"Shoot him, sheriff," the guard said. He was still restraining Tresca. "Can't you just shoot the son-of-a-bitch?"
"Go ahead," Scarlett said. "You think the men in this town are angry now? Imagine what they'll do if you kill me here, with no cause, in front of all these witnesses." He gestured toward Milo and his friends. "Imagine what they'd do to you. To your family. Got any kids? A wife?"
