Legend: Birth of a Legend
Now the plot thickens! Ernest and Professor Bartok reach town and find the sheriff in the saloon. (Where else?) Bartok has already told Ernest that he’s willing to confess his role in the trickery, but, he declares, it won’t do any good.
The sheriff is talking to a stranger from out of town: a journalist from Denver. He’d be happy to get to the bottom of the story!
Which version it be: the dime novel hero Nicodemus Legend actually helping the oppressed farmers? That’s a great story! The reading public will love it! Or the dime novel writer Ernest Pratt pulling a self-aggrandizing stunt to overcome the weak sales from his last book? That story will work too.
Ernest grits his teeth and backs down. He admits to moving the river.
The sheriff’s all set to arrest him again, but Bartok steps in, declaring that Legend would never have broken the law! Therefore it will be proved in due course that no laws have been broken. While the sheriff is still reeling from that double blow to the brain, Ernest and Bartok get ready to slip out . . .
. . . but their way is blocked by Silas Slaughter, Vera’s son. According to Bartok, he was ‘deprived of oxygen at birth’. He’s an ox-brained blowhard, but he’s a heavily armed blowhard.
Now, for the first time, we discover Ernest’s actual genius. He is, after all, a highly successful professional novelist. He has a truly active and vigorous imagination. And he can spin a whopper story like you won’t believe.
With nothing more than a chatty demeanor and a flow of patter, he has Silas squirming over being in his mother’s shadow, doing her dirty work. The charm and smarm are marvels to behold.
Silas is so befuddled that Ernest almost gets out of the saloon before the kid wakes up and tries to draw on him.
Professor Bartok zats him strikes down Silas with the Bartok Electro-Fulminator (patent pending).* Special effects FTW!!
Everyone is Most Impressed. Especially Ernest.
*As mentioned before, the Professor's genius does not extend to coming up with good names for his inventions.
The sheriff is talking to a stranger from out of town: a journalist from Denver. He’d be happy to get to the bottom of the story!
Which version it be: the dime novel hero Nicodemus Legend actually helping the oppressed farmers? That’s a great story! The reading public will love it! Or the dime novel writer Ernest Pratt pulling a self-aggrandizing stunt to overcome the weak sales from his last book? That story will work too.
Ernest grits his teeth and backs down. He admits to moving the river.
The sheriff’s all set to arrest him again, but Bartok steps in, declaring that Legend would never have broken the law! Therefore it will be proved in due course that no laws have been broken. While the sheriff is still reeling from that double blow to the brain, Ernest and Bartok get ready to slip out . . .
. . . but their way is blocked by Silas Slaughter, Vera’s son. According to Bartok, he was ‘deprived of oxygen at birth’. He’s an ox-brained blowhard, but he’s a heavily armed blowhard.
Now, for the first time, we discover Ernest’s actual genius. He is, after all, a highly successful professional novelist. He has a truly active and vigorous imagination. And he can spin a whopper story like you won’t believe.
With nothing more than a chatty demeanor and a flow of patter, he has Silas squirming over being in his mother’s shadow, doing her dirty work. The charm and smarm are marvels to behold.
Silas is so befuddled that Ernest almost gets out of the saloon before the kid wakes up and tries to draw on him.
Professor Bartok zats him strikes down Silas with the Bartok Electro-Fulminator (patent pending).* Special effects FTW!!
Everyone is Most Impressed. Especially Ernest.
*As mentioned before, the Professor's genius does not extend to coming up with good names for his inventions.