Plot Summary
Formerly great gunslinger Al Denton has let himself go after shooting and killing an unarmed teenage boy. Now an alcoholic and object of ridicule, he is given another chance by a mysterious salesman named Henry J. Fate, who offers him two potions guaranteed to make him the fastest gun in the West for exactly ten seconds. When Denton drinks the first potion, he sobers up, recovers his gun-fighting abilities, and earns the respect of the town.
Later, Denton faces Pete Grant, a young gunfighter who has ridden into town looking for a duel. Denton downs his second potion only to find his opponent holding an identical empty bottle. Each man shoots the other in the hand, causing injuries which are minor but ruin both men's ability to fire.
Denton tells his young opponent that they have both been blessed because they will never again be able to fire a gun in anger. Henry J. Fate tips his hat to Denton and rides quietly out of town.
Read more about this topic: Mr. Denton On Doomsday
Famous quotes containing the words plot and/or summary:
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)