Shorty's Sharps

Shorty's Sharps is both a practical weapon and a defining extension of Shorty's judgment, patience, and marksmanship. A heavy rifle associated with the Sharps name, it repeatedly changes the balance between captivity and rescue, pursuit and escape, and apparent helplessness and sudden power. Its significance culminates when Shorty uses it to kill Cut Throat Bill from a great distance, ending the outlaw's immediate threat while inadvertently killing his horse as well.

Appearance and Ownership

Shorty's Sharps first appears as a rifle carried on the horse Shorty intends to ride. Its butt projects from a sheath beside the saddle, alongside a rope ladder hanging from the saddle horn, an arrangement that places the weapon within a larger portrait of Shorty's unusual physical circumstances and carefully adapted mobility. Shorty also carries a pistol and a derringer in his boot, but the Sharps is the weapon that gives him reach, authority, and tactical importance beyond close combat.

Shorty describes the rifle as a Sharps and intends to carry it with his pistol. When Jack says that he will need a gun, Shorty offers the derringer if no other firearm can be found, explaining that the small weapon is meant for extremely close work and demands careful target selection. The contrast establishes the Sharps as something more than a backup: the derringer is a last-resort instrument, whereas the rifle is Shorty's principal means of controlling distance.

Tactical Use in Raids and Rescues

During the assault on the trading post, Shorty uses the Sharps against an attempted escape through the rear of the building. After a rifle barrel appears through the back curtain, Shorty fires, sending the weapon spinning away. Running follows inside, then the back door opens, and the roar of the large Sharps .50 is followed by pistol shots. The rifle therefore operates first as a suppressing and disabling force: it interrupts an unseen opponent before the fugitives can reach open ground, while Shorty's companions manage the close-range danger.

The rifle becomes even more consequential during the rescue of Sheriff Winton. Jack discovers Winton tied to an isolated scrub tree amid a mass of buffalo bones, with six Comanche tormenting him beside a small fire. Burning sticks are being applied to Winton's face, and one attacker is sawing at his ear. From behind a buffalo skull, Jack places the Sharps on the bone and takes aim. He initially considers killing Winton to spare him further torture, but decides that Winton can still be rescued and instead shoots the Comanche who is bringing a burning stick toward Winton's eye.

The first shot strikes the attacker in the head. Jack's account acknowledges the violence through the unstable precision of memory, noting that the head seemed to come completely off before the body collapsed. Without pausing to reflect, he reloads and kills a second attacker with a shot to the back. The remaining four flee for their horses, attempting to lead away stolen animals as well as those belonging to their dead companions. A further shot causes one rider to abandon the guide rope, but the survivors escape before Jack can reload. The rifle thus converts Winton's torture from an approaching execution into a partial rescue, even though its intervention cannot recover every consequence of the attack.

Distribution and the Meaning of Skill

After the trading-post fight, Shorty redistributes the available firearms outside town. He takes back his Sharps, along with a large Colt pistol and a small pistol placed in his boot. Eustace receives a little revolver in addition to his four-gauge shotgun, Sheriff Winton receives an automatic, Jack receives an old navy .36, Jimmie Sue receives a Winchester, and Spot receives an unreliable five-shot pistol. The arrangement makes clear that the Sharps is not interchangeable equipment. It returns to the person whose skill gives it value and whose habits are suited to its demands.

Jack openly doubts his own ability with firearms and regards a gun as a tool rather than an object of affection. Shorty's position is different. The rifle requires wind judgment, breath control, sight alignment, timing, and confidence in a shot whose result may take a long moment to arrive. Its effectiveness depends on the relationship between weapon and user; the Sharps is powerful, but Shorty's discipline is what turns its power into action.

The Final Shot at Cut Throat Bill

The rifle's defining scene occurs when Cut Throat Bill flees with Lula. The fugitives have become two distant specks, with a green line of woods beyond them. If they reach the trees, concealment will make another shot impossible. Shorty tests the wind by wetting a finger and holding it up, then orders silence. He presses the Sharps's stock against his shoulder, controls his breathing, adjusts the rifle, and raises it so high that the weapon appears to be aimed at the sky rather than directly at the riders.

The shot takes time to reach its target, but it finds Cut Throat. His horse's feet collapse, and Cut Throat falls without moving; Lula, freed from his grip on her horse's reins, rides on without stopping. The narrator's astonished response places Shorty's achievement against the legendary long-distance shot associated with Billy Dixon, but the scene also complicates triumph with imperfection. Shorty had aimed at Cut Throat's head, yet the bullet dropped more than expected and struck him through the back, severing his spine roughly six inches above the buttocks.

The bullet continued into the horse's neck and reached the base of its brain, killing the animal as well as Cut Throat. Shorty regrets the horse's death and admits that another six to eight feet of distance would have caused him to miss entirely. The rifle's victory therefore carries the mark of contingency: an extraordinary shot succeeds because of skill, but its exact outcome is shaped by gravity, distance, and the physical path of the projectile. Cut Throat Bill dies, Lula escapes, and the weapon's final act is at once rescuing, lethal, and narrowly accidental.