In Skagway town, eighteen ninety-eight
lived a young man, Elliot McKay.
He worked with his father selling dry goods,
to the miners heading Klondike-way,
they made some good coin in a day.
Elliot, see, like most younger men,
had an eye for womanly curves.
His favorite worked in a house downtown,
with dark hair done up in curls,
a woman who’d ‘broadened’ his world.
At first it was cold, but that all changed quick,
and they soon were a regular thing.
She taught him skills a man needs to know,
really took the boy under her wing,
and knew how to make his heart sing.
But his father said “Boy, don’t fool yourself,
that damned girl wants nothing but cash.
And many a man has found himself broke,
chasing after a professional lass,
you better get over her fast!”
But Elliot continued, and went when he could
for weeks this went on, as before.
Until one day she asked to meet his kin,
not the act of some common whore.
She must have loved him like never before!
They went to his house outside of town,
his lady fidgeting and tense,
Elliot knew she must be nervous,
to be meet disapproving parents,
he prayed that his dad would relent.
She entered the home and father went cold,
his face truly taken aback.
His jaw dropped and he said aloud,”Clarice!”
Then she shouted outside,”It’s Mack!”
A new figure stormed in from out back.
A man appeared, a gun in his hand,
pushing before him Elliot’s mother.
Elliot had seen his likeness before,
it was the felon Bloody Jack Carruthers,
he knew it could be no other.
Jack said,”Now, now, we meet again,
McKay, the man who survived,
when our gang fell down in Monterey,
shot up back in seventy-five!
Our loot you had on your ride!”
“And now I see how you spent it all,
and made it pay out in droves,
while I rotted away in sweltering cells
far down south in old Mexico,
imagining how this would all go!”
“You see this girl here, she is in my pay,
since I heard that your son took a shine.
she played the damn fool, acted in love,
until he’d bought into her lies.
And she led me here where I did find…”
“That a dirty skunk, yellow as can be
built his home on the blood of my friends!
And all because this pretty young girl,
your stupid, young son could bend.
Now then, prepare for your end…”
Carruthers he shot, and mother she fell,
and stunned Elliot went for his gun,
the father went down, hit in the heart,
and the bad man searched for the son.
But his luck no longer would run.
For Elliot’s gun barked with a flash,
and Carruther’s jerked back with his head,
he pitched to the ground, didn’t even moan,
the blackguard was already dead.
The floor of the cabin stained red.
Elliot turned and shifted his gun,
onto that damnable, young whore
she shrieked and cried,”Wait, please stop!
You need to now something more.
If you kill me, you’ll add to this horror!”
“I need you to know, you seed has took root
and quickened deep within my womb!
If you shoot me now, your own child will
be condemned to darkness and doom.
Please, think about what your doing!”
Elliot, he held back, eyes blazing rage,
and jerked the damned girl to her feet,
he marched her down to Marshall Dale,
and there he made her repeat,
the tale of Carruthers’ dark deed.
The people, incensed, cried for her to hang,
a fate she so richly deserved.
But her stomach did swell, and everyone saw
the truth of her desperate words.
The child would not be left to burn.
For months she sat in Skagway’s small jail,
she was alone, hated, and despised.
Elliot stayed clear, too consumed with hate,
to ever venture on inside,
he couldn’t risk facing her eye-to-eye.
She faded away after her son was born,
and though it made sound perverse,
many have said it was better for her,
to pass away from childbirth,
for the rope awaited the damned girl.
Elliot took his son, and moved far away
and dedicated his life to farming.
But he could not shake the stubborn thought,
that the damned girl had taken on last thing:
He never got to watch her swing.