Summary
In the desiccated, dust-choked vista of Dead Dog, Nan McGrew reigns as the undisputed sovereign of the local soda fountain, a position that grants her a peculiar social leverage in an otherwise barren landscape. Her heart belongs to Billy, yet her romantic autonomy is suddenly threatened by a bureaucratic ghost from the past: a New York legal firm informs her that a substantial inheritance is contingent upon her union with her cousin, Hezekiah. This New England pedagogue, a man of rigid sensibilities and frail constitution, represents the antithesis of the frontier spirit. To preserve both her fortune and her freedom, Nan orchestrates an elaborate, meta-theatrical deception. She attempts to 're-wild' Dead Dog, resurrecting the lawless ghosts of the Old West to terrorize her fastidious relative into a hasty retreat. The farce reaches its zenith when Nan, embodying the very chaos she simulated, gallops into a saloon, only for the performance to be shattered by Billy’s genuine, bullet-riddled intervention. The resulting pandemonium proves too much for the scholarly Hezekiah, who flees toward the sanctuary of the East, leaving Nan to navigate the wreckage of her own stratagem.
Synopsis
Nan is the soda fountain queen in Dead Dog. She is in love with Billy, but she got a letter from a New York lawyer saying that she and her cousin, Hezekiah, a New England school teacher, would have to marry in order to share a bequest of some thousands of dollars. Hezekiah was on his way west and because Nan would lose the money if she turned him down, she conceived the idea of rejuvenating the wildness of Dead Dog to frighten poor Hezey out of marrying her. With the scene all set and Hezekiah duly shocked, Nan made her entry, riding her horse up the steps and into the bar. In spite of his terror, Hezekiah was willing to go on with the ceremony, and just as Nan and he were about to say "I do," Billy made his entry and began to shoot up the place. This was too much for Hezekiah, and he started running, caught the observation platform of a train starting for the east.
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