The noose was put over my head and drawn firmly down until the knot pressed into my neck right above the collarbone. I croaked,
“Hangman. Hangman! Hold on a little while.”
“…why.”
“I see my friends coming, they can pay you, pay you well to let me free.”
“umpft.”
As Jack rode up, I could tell from the sore look on his face that he wasn’t going to be much help.
“Jack! Do you have some silver? Do you have some gold? Please pay the hangman. Keep me from the gallows pole.”
He just shook his head and said “I ain’t got nothing. I’m too poor; all I can do is wish you peace.” Then he rode on.
“You bastard,” I shouted, “damn your eyes!”
Then I felt the Hangman behind me again. His shadow made me cold.
“Hangman! That man I killed, he deserved it. You know I’m ri.. wait. Not yet! That rider in the distance is my brother, I know it. He’ll convince you to free me.”
The Hangman said nothing, but leaned against the gallows.
“Brother, I’m to be hanged. Can you have me freed?”
My brother looked at me impassively and said “I’ve brought some silver, some gold, a little of everything. All that we could find to save you. The Hangman took the bag from my brother, hefted it, shook his head and looked at the lever.
“Ass! You didn’t bring enough, Go to hell!”
My brother’s eyes went hard and he rode off. The Hangman came and looked in my eyes. Waited. I swallowed roughly.
“Hangman, look. There is my sister.
Sister! Sister, I’m to be hanged. Take him, please sister, take him to a shady bower and save me from the wrath of the Hangman.”
The next half hour almost never passed. When the Hangman and my sister reappeared, I was certain I was free.
“Hangman, tell me that I am free to ride. Let me go.”
He spoke, “I have been given gold and your sister has turned my blood from cold. None of that is enough, though, to save you from the gallows pole. Then he pulled the lever.
“Damn yrr.…”
-based on “Gallows Pole” and “Sam Hall”
Yeah, its crappy, the songs are better, which is why they are songs in the first place, but I was bored.