Mr. Greenlee’s steam wagon

Just exactly who invented the first automobile is widely argued with various claimants disputing the event. What history has not recorded is that in a western town, in 1878, this drama unfolded.

It looked like a big wagon with high iron wheels and something that looked like a huge iron wash boiler and was issuing forth great clouds of smoke. Around one side, puffs of steam were jetting forth and a red lantern was bouncing on the rear. Jodie’s young ears were assaulted by a cacophony of noises emanating from this strange beast, clanking, grinding, squealing, and clunking down the alley away from him. It was then he recalled the rumors of strange doings in Mr. Greenlee’s barn on the south side of town.

Mr. Greenlee was a recluse and very odd. He had a great old barn that he always kept locked and he spent a lot of time in there at night, strange hammerings and whirrings could be heard there almost any night and he often emerged in the mornings with his white hair wildly awry. Some brave souls had asked what he was building in there and his standard reply was; “You’ll see, you’ll all see when I have it ready!” This then, must be the explanation for the monster Jodie had seen! But why were there two bright lights on the front in the middle of the day? Why indeed, and why the red lantern on the rear?

Jodie recalled hearing a large object skid across the dirt and come to rest behind him and he turned around to see what it was. What it was, was Nevada Bob, the notorious gunman that had bedeviled the silver mining camps of the Comstock. Nevada Bob wasn’t moving and appeared to be much the worse for wear. He was dressed in black and still had two guns slung low and tied down, but right now he looked pretty harmless. Apparently that confounded contraption had mowed him down like a scythe through wheat and now he lay unmoving and crumpled in the dust with blood leaking out here and there.

Jodie cautiously approached but before he touched Bob, a cold voice said………

“Leave him be Jodie, I’ll look after Nevada Bob” said Marshall Ben Moore. “Bob came to town looking for trouble and it looks to me like he found it. Jodie, I want you to remember this well, Fate is the Great Leveler. Those who live by the sword die by the sword, or in this case, Mr. Greenlee’s steam wagon. I shall have to speak to Mr. Greenlee about his new steam wagon. He mustn’t bring it into town again. It wouldn’t be right to frighten horses and women with that contraption. Well now Jodie, You run along home. I’m sure your ma will be needing you to do chores.”

Do you write these stories? Very good.

Tony Marino wrote:Do you write these stories? Very good.

Yes, it's a hobby, nothing more. I write for my own enjoyment and I hope others find my stories entertaining.

I have so far.