40 miles from Shortchange, at Summit Crossing, the steam whistle sounded again, to far from anywhere to be heard.

Prunella Prude. School marm. Severe looking, hair tight to her scalp and in a knot on the back of her head. Always dressed in unadorned black dress, buttoned to a high neck collar. Her body was completely covered from neck to wrist to ankles, and very sensible type matron shoes. The only skin that ever showed was face and hands.
       She heard about the Doc incident and was outraged. She organized her own group to take the Doctor and fix him good. She had no idea what that meant, and she didn't care. Her group joined with Buster's group and to the jail they went, as a mob; to get the Doc.
       the sheriff checked the cells. All 3 asleep. He left to check the town one more time before going to sleep himself. He opened the door and stepped into the night and everything went black.
       The mob entered the jail and rushed the cells. Doc's cell door was slammed open and the mob rushed in and each one grabbed a piece of the Doc. Hands, arms, legs, feet, and head. Prunella was among the first into the cell and she grabbed for his waist. With all the people jamming into the cell and the Doc struggling, she missed and only got his shorts and with the banging back and forth she ended up pulling his shorts down to his knees, exposing a very imposing sight. She lunged at the Doc and grabbed the imposing member with both hands, and did things that had nothing to do with getting the Doc out of the cell.
       The Doc put up a heroic struggle that took everyone's effort to control. The mob surged one way then another, everyone pulling in a different direction, except Prunella who was taking advantage of the situation and just pulling.
       Sarah, a late comer in entering the jail, observing the situation, grabbed a broom from the corner and swung the handle at Doc's head. The mob surged, the handle missed, but got Prunella solid on the side of the head sending her unconscious to the floor. With her out of the way the mob lifted the, now totally naked, Doc over their heads and out of the cell and the jail. Into the night.
       Rain, warm and allot of it. The streets were becoming awash with mud. The mob made up of different groups with different objectives tried to go in different directions. First a fight then a riot, with Doc in the middle.

       50 miles up track from Shortchange, Karl is reminded of an incident that happened at this spot. Karl and Dutch were called upon to settle a drunk who was getting mean. He had pushed his wife and kids around and thrown a punch at the conductor and was now getting nasty and threatening the other passengers. The Bully Boys had picked him up by the arms, high enough so his feet didn't touch the floor and walked him to the back of the train. The train came to a stop and then started up again. When the Bully Boys returned, the wife asked after her husband. They told her he decided to walk to the next station.
       There were no roads, no houses, no people, just railroad track, and the next station was 50 miles away.

In the jail, the Badarse brothers picked up the keys that had been knocked into their cell, opened the door and dragged Prunella, feet first so they could look up her dress, into their cell. Locking themselves back in they threw the keys over near the main door. Then removing every last stitch of Prunella's clothes they threw them after the keys. When she came to she found them staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths. Prunella had a very nearly perfect body. The boys standing there in their shorts were exhibiting their appreciation of this fact. Prunella's eyes were locked on their display of appreciation. The bulges were quite large.
       The heavy rain brought the sheriff around. He staggered to his feet. Saw the riot moving away from the jail. He entered the jail to see if anyone was left. He saw Jack watching Prunella doing her best to satisfy John and her own urges. That will keep them out of his hair. He locked the cell block door and left.
       A faction of the mob, men whose objective was to use the Doc in a sexual fashion, had got the Doc into O'malley's barn, and by lantern light was preparing for some fun. Doc was draped over a bale of hay with his butt in the air. Peter Gay with trousers around his knees and his member in his hand, ready to start the fun. Prunella's group, sans Prunella, burst into the barn, lifted the Doc over their heads and left. They were unstoppable, because all the men in the barn had their pants around their ankles. The surge of the mob knocked a lantern into a hay pile. By the time everyone got their pants up the barn was engulfed in a furious blaze.

The whistle could be heard in Senseless if anyone was listening, but nobody was. To busy beating the crap out of each other.

       The rain continued, but was not enough to save the barn. By dawn it would be a smoking pile of ashes. The rain was a good thing; it kept the sparks from burning the rest of the town down.
       Three distinct groups. A group of men who wanted the Doc naked, a group of women who wanted the Doc naked, and the third group was a mixed group who just wanted to string the Doc up, naked or not. This third group, not the biggest, but the meanest now took control. Charging from between two buildings, they punched, kicked, and in general caused physical mayhem to everyone, male, female even to each other. Drunk, every one of them, to the point that violence was all they wanted. Taking control of Doc they headed for the freight yards. There was a loft they intended to throw the Doc out of, with a rope tied firmly around his neck. By the time they got to the yards the other two groups had combine and themselves turned mean. All three groups met at the yards. The drunks were passing the pig pens with the Doc held aloft, when the other two groups hit them in mass. There was kicking, gouging, clubbing, biting, scratching. It became an all out physical riot. The Doc had disappeared from everyone's thoughts. He was out of sight, being knocked into the pig pen, and being naked, looked just like another pig.
        The sheriff had tried many times to break up the riot. The women jumped him and took his pants with the intent of using him, but to many women and to much mud. He got away and went back to the jail for another pair of trousers. In the jail he saw John watching Prunella doing her best to satisfy Jack and her own urges.
       Back on the street a group of men tried to get his pants off. He was able to fight them off with a couple of well placed knees. The third group just pounded him into the mud and walked over him. He decided to let the riot run its course and watch from a distance.

Again the train whistles, but now not so far out of town. It was answered by a second train whistle from the other direction.

The sheriff was watching the freight yards when the south bound passenger train pulled in and two men got off. They politely questioned the sheriff about the events. He gave them a quick run down about the Doc and the mob.

The whistle screamed as the freight from Shortchange pulled in.

       The two men met the freight train. One of the men addressed the men that got off the freight, pointing first at the yards and then at the town. Two of the men from the freight headed for the yards and two others for the town.
       The fighting moved back towards the town, the sheriff followed. If he would have stayed he would have seen the pigs being loaded on to the freight train and two men carrying what looked like a wounded pig and dumping it in the cattle car with the other pigs. Also he would have seen two men come from town driving, later to be reported as stolen, a delivery truck.
       The truck was loaded with boxes, bags, barrels, and crates. Anything that could be found to pack Doc's possessions, medicines and medical equipment in.
       As the freight pulled from the yard the rain increased to a blinding torrent that ran the rioters off the streets. The sheriff spent the remainder of the night cleaning the people off the streets who could not do so on their own. Mostly drunks and some that were hurt.
       Just before dawn the sheriff let Prunella and the Badarse brothers out of jail with instructions not to ever give him any trouble or he would announce at the Sunday prayer meeting what went on in that cell tonight. They never did give him any trouble. They had found a way of channeling their energies. They met twice a week for many years, channeling that energy.
       So ends a night of riots, rape, pillage and destruction. Let's look at that again. Destruction. Yep! Starting with O'Mally's barn, also windows, street lights and anything else that got in the way of the mob. Rioting. Absolutely, everywhere you looked. Pillage. Nothing. Everyone was to busy pounding that crap out of each other. Rape. Well, there were a few attempts but none of them truly successful. Peter Gay's unsuccessful attempt on the Doctor in the barn.
       The reverend Holywater was going to penetrate a young man that had the hots for him, but they were in the stall next to where the lantern landed in O'Mally's barn. They didn't even have time to get their pants on. Also the reverend's wife, Marsha Holywater had it in her mind to be penetrated by two young men at the same time. They were in the hay loft of the same barn. The Holywater's are still trying to explain to each other how they ended up at their front door at the same time, bare ass naked.
       Then there was old lady Rasputin, age 73. Rioting did not occur on her street, but a lot of people ran passed her house on the way to and from the rioting. She opened her door and through a cloth over a lamp, which was the only light on in her house. She stood well back in the room so the subdued light would only be on her from the waist down. She was stark naked. In this manner she was able to entice 3 men off the street. The first man left after 20 minutes, with a satisfied grin on his face. The second man lasted only 10 minutes. The third man didn't come out for over a hour. He looked worn out but the satisfied grin was there. Old lady Rasputin claimed she had the soundest sleep in 40 years the night of the riots. She also had a perpetual grin on her face for the next two weeks and would tell no one why.
       So no rape.

       The rain finally stopped. The sun was up when the sheriff left the jail with a gun strapped to his hip. Objective. Buster Deaton. The only thing the sheriff had on him was the punch in the Doc's face, but he knew Buster was behind all the rioting. So the worst he could do was arrest him for assault, even though he would rather just kick the crap out of him.
       He found the front door of Buster's house open. He called out as he entered, heard whimpering from another room. Entering a bed room ho found Buster's step daughter naked and tied spread eagle to the bed. She had been sexually abused and beaten, that was plain to see. He untied her and got help for her immediately. A search of the house found blood in another bedroom and a trail of blood leading thru the kitchen and out the back door. The back of the Deaton property was a steeply sloping hill. All the rain the night before had caused a slide. In the mud they found the half buried body of Buster's wife. Her head was encased in a plastic bag tied firmly around the neck. Her hands were tied behind her back. The body was naked and showed the same abuse as her daughter.
       It took 2 days to figure out that Buster left town on the south bound passenger train the night of the riots.

The freight train pulled into Shortchange and Frank Witherbone was helped from the cattle car, naked, cold, wet and covered in mud, blood, and pig shit. Frank was taken to a building in town that was owned by the railroad. Later he would occupy an entire floor of this building. Apartment in back and an office in front. He now has a very successful practice in Shortchange, even if occasionally he has to take payment by accepting eggs, chickens or an occasional pig. Sometimes he accepts personal service, like he gets from Mary Toemain. He is a good doctor and successful. No one ever claimed he was ethical. You see Mary is married and------Well that's another story for another time.

       What about Buster Deaton you ask? He was found in the desert in Arizona. He was totally naked and his body had been slammed, with some force, face first into a giant Sequoia. His arms and legs were tied around the cactus and his body was wrapped with a rope to hold all parts of his body firmly in contact with the cactus. Evidence showed that he was alive like this a long time. He had been dead about a week when he was found. Cause of death? A small caliber pistol had been pressed against the base of the skull pointing upward. This allowed the slug to enter the brain cavity and ricochet around inside the skull scrambling the brain.

       An interesting detail.
       The sheriff had taken a vacation to unwind after the riot and the Deaton affair. He returned from vacation rejuvenated, refreshed and happy.
       Where did he go for vacation you ask?

        Arizona.