Nerves of iron by W. C. Tuttle
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Nerves of iron by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. It follows two drifting prospectors who stumble into a crooked frontier town and help its timid, newly elected marshal face down the local bullies through bluff, comic misdirection, and unlikely “iron” protection. Magpie Simpkins and Ike Harper wander into Spotted Dog, where pint-sized Stonewall Jackson has been made marshal by the town’s shady
powers, High-Card Hammond and Whisperin’ Wilson. Stonewall is scared, can’t shoot, and is desperate to impress his fiancée, Eveline. After Ike bluffs the saloon crowd as a gunman and retrieves their stolen burros, Magpie rigs a plan: he straps cast-iron stove lids under Stonewall’s shirt, loads his cartridges with dough, and fuels his courage with talk and liquor. Stonewall staggers into the saloon, the crooks fire at his “heart,” and the iron stops the shots, spooking them and throwing the place into slapstick chaos. Later, Stonewall’s antique revolver blows back in his face, and the drifters slip out of town with their burros. Magpie reveals the gag—Stonewall’s “nerves of iron” were literal—leaving a comic send-up of gunfighter legend and frontier bravado. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Tuttle, W. C. (Wilbur C.), 1883-1969 |
|---|---|
| Title | Nerves of iron |
| Original Publication | New York, NY: The Ridgway Company, 1917. |
| Series Title | Produced from the December 18, 1917 issue of Adventure magazine. |
| Credits | Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Western stories |
| Subject | Simpkins, Magpie (Fictitious character) -- Fiction |
| Subject | Harper, Ike (Fictitious character) -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78653 |
| Release Date | May 11, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1566 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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