Fear returned with a vengeance...

He turned his throbbing head but the pickup was out of his range of vision. Only more rock and grass, and the trunk of a large cottonwood tree only feet away.

Frantically he struggled to untie his wrists. He heard the pickup shift into gear. Moments later the rope tightened unforgivingly around his neck.

Fear flashed to panic as the rope squeezed his windpipe shut as he was hoisted to his feet. He could hear the creak of rope drawing across wood.

Then he left the earth, his boots no longer able to touch his beloved soil, his lungs unable to breathe the clean air. His hat was gone and as he rose into the air, he could once again see the big Wyoming sky, deepening blue toward sunset. His body twisted in the wind.

He realized, in a final act of defiance and with not a sliver of remorse, that he finally was paying for his sins.