Night descended on Four Corners. There was a coolness about the air. The usual amount of jovial noise echoed out of the saloon. Not far out of town, less than ten minutes walk, was a clearing. Surrounding the clearing were several not so quiet bushes.

“He’s not coming,” the thickest bush muttered.

“He’ll be here,” drawled the small plant on the right.

“We made it very clear that it had to be midnight and I’d say that it’d only be eleven,” a deep-throated shrub several feet from the other two declared.

The minutes dragged by.

“He’s not coming,” the first bush announced again.

“If Buck thinks that his... you know... is going to disappear, he’ll come,” chuckled the second bush. “You tell Nathan to meet us here, Josiah”?

“Yep.”

“You tell him why?”

“Nope. You tell Chris to meet us here?”

“Oh, yeah. Chris’ll be here.”

“J.D., did you tell Ezra to meet us here?”

“Didn’t know I was supposed to.”

“I told him he had to meet you out here, Josiah.”

“And?”

“And after I threatened that we’d all withdraw our investment, he agreed to be here before midnight.”

“Buck won’t come,” J.D. insisted.

“Kid, I guarantee Buck will be here,” Vin stated with a confidence only Vin could.

“He looked almighty...”

“Shhh!” Vin snapped. “Someone’s comin’.”

The three men fell silent, each peering into the darkness to see just who it was approaching them.

“Josiah?” a voice called tentatively into the darkness.

“Over here, Nathan,” Vin stated, raising his head and coaxing his friend to join him behind the line of shrubs.

“Now what in blazes are you boys doin’ out here in the dark?”

“You’ll see,” J.D. giggled. “If Buck comes.”

“Buck? Oh, this got somethin’ to do with the fact you wanted me to sit down and say I was starving and that the hunger was just all in my head?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t...”

“Shhh. Someone else’s comin’.”

There was silence. No sound. No sign of whomever Vin had heard. Tanner rose to his feet and turned to face the emptiness behind the group. “Come on over, Chris.”

Larabee stepped out of the shadows. Vin grinned. The gunfighter shook his head. “I almost feel sorry for Buck,” Chris muttered. He didn’t know what was going on, but somehow he guessed it was going to be bad... for Buck. Entertaining for everyone else, but then it would be good to see Buck on the receiving end for once.

Before anyone could comment further, the muffled sounds of curses reached their ears. The men ducked.

“... damn, stupid pot! Why the hell would she send it to me? I never did her no harm. Don’t know who the hell ‘she’ is!”

The five hidden men peered into the moonlit clearing. Buck strode... crept up to the large tree in the centre. The glade was about forty feet across and well lit by the full moon.

“He’s gonna do it,” J.D. whispered, the excitement he felt leaking into his arms and legs and causing him to jump around like a jack-rabbit.

“Shh,” Vin ordered.

Buck glanced wildly around the clearing, opened the book he held tightly to his chest and squinted at it. “Gotta do this right on midnight,” the big man puffed nervously, reaching for the pocket watch he carried. “Five minutes.” Buck peered back at the book and began to read aloud. “To break the curse you must find a tree that has been struck by lightning.” The scoundrel glanced at the tree and swallowed.

“Don’t worry ole buddy,“ Buck whispered earnestly, glancing down at his trousers, “Buck ain’t gonna let anything happen to you. I know exactly what I gotta do to save us both.“

Chris Larabee started shaking his head again. They’d got Buck all right. They’d got him good and proper. The gunfighter glanced at Vin. The tracker’s face had a happy grin spread across it. Why did Chris get the feeling that Vin had been far more than simply a willing participant in this as the tracker had implied?

When Larabee glanced back at his oldest friend, his jaw literally fell open. Buck was frozen in the middle of the clearing... butt naked! He had shed ALL of his clothes. The scoundrel was unmoving and staring down at his pocket watch that was sparkling in the moonlight. Larabee stared at Vin who glanced sideways and winked at his older friend.

“Why the hell did he take his clothes off?” Chris demanded.

“Only way to break the curse,” Vin chuckled.

Abruptly, Buck threw the watch down. What followed was something that Buck’s friends would remember for the rest of their lives.

Buck Wilmington, without a stitch of clothing on his body, began to dance around the tree, his huge arms flailing around him in some sort of chaotic dance that incorporated skipping, hopping and spinning.

Nathan’s eyes were so large that they looked like they were going to pop out of his head. Both Josiah and Chris were smiling like Cheshire cats. Vin watched with quiet but unrestrained satisfaction. J.D. tried desperately to hold his laughter in. Just as he was about to completely lose control, Vin clamped his hand over the boy’s mouth.

“Wwwa... air... orlll... hee... ah... wot... ching... ewe,” Buck chanted aloud, the pace of his wild dance increasing.

Out of nowhere, Ezra appeared and strode into the clearing. Buck froze, one leg off the ground, one arm above his head, the moonlight reflecting off his naked skin.

“Good evening, Mr. Wilmington. Have you seen Mr. Sanchez?”

Buck shook his head.

For a split second Ezra looked Buck up and down and shook his head perplexed. The best poker face known to man remained calm and relatively blank. “Well, have a good evening, my friend.” With that, Ezra turned and melted back into the darkness.

Buck watched the gambler go, shrugged and then continued with his manhood saving tango.

Ezra Standish circled around and crept up behind his very amused companions, an amazed smile on his face. “How on Earth did you manage this?” he demanded in a hushed voice. “I do thank you sincerely for sharing this with me.”

Vin raised his finger for silence.

“Wwwa... air... orlll... hee... ah... wot... ching... ewe. “Wwwaair orlll hee ah wot ching ewe,” Buck continued to chant as he danced round the tree, the glow of the moon illuminating him in all his glory. “Wwwaair orlll heeah wotching ewe.” Buck’s dance came to an abrupt end as his brain processed the words. “Wwwaair orlll heeah wotching ewe.” We’re all here watching you! For several seconds the huge exposed man just stood there, his mind doing its level best to comprehend the words themselves. A roar of unadulterated surprise echoed out of the scoundrel. “WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BASTARDS?! I’m gonna kill you!”

The laughter of six men met his ears as his ‘friends’ rose to their feet in a small group. Buck’s mouth began to open and close, but he had no words to express his complete and total astonishment.

“Feelin’ a bit hot tonight, Buck?” Vin chuckled.

“YOU!!! YOU BASTARDS!” Buck strode toward his friends shaking an accusing finger at them all.

“Whatcha doin’ there, Buck?” J.D. giggled.

“Mr. Wilmington, it is my considered opinion that dancing naked around a tree in the middle of the night is the action of...”

“YOU BASTARDS!” Buck roared, though there was no anger in his voice, only stunned surprise and if the truth was known, relief. “You set me up! You all set me up!”

“Sekoj no uoy. A curse of the God of reflection. Think about it, brother.”

J.D. began mimicking Buck’s dance and chanting in a deep voice, ““Wwwa... air... orlll... hee... ah... wot... ching... ewe.” The scoundrel launched himself at the youth, but J.D. danced out of the way, his body raked with laughter.

“Reckon you should be covering yourself, Buck,” Chris suggested, his serious face plastered with an amused smirk. “Last thing we need are rumours of a naked man terrorizing Four Corners.”

Buck’s face lit up with a flabbergasted and relieved smile. “You bastards!”

**********

When Ezra approached his five friends, there was a cocky spring about his step. The seated men looked up from their game. It was a new day, but none had forgotten the events of the night before, hence, the grins that appeared on their faces at regular intervals.

“Well, you look like the cat that swallowed the pigeon,” Nathan commented.

Ezra flashed his friends a satisfied smile. “And our pigeon has solved all of our problems.”

“Our problems? Didn’t know ‘we’ had any,” Tanner drawled.

“This got something to do with our investment?” Josiah asked.

“Gentlemen. I told you to leave all of the details to me and such good advice has produced outstanding rewards.” Standish reached into his pocket and withdrew a wad of bills.

“Wow!” J.D. exclaimed. “I ain’t never seen so much money!”

“As you know, in the world of investment, a person must act quickly when an opportunity presents itself. In order to maximize our returns on our recent venture involving the Standish mine, I felt it was prudent to examine all aspects, from pros to cons in relation to our joint ownership of a colliery that has a poor record of remaining clear of excess refuge from the ceiling.”

Josiah leant across to Chris. “Do you have any idea of what he’s talking about?”

Larabee continued to stare at Ezra. “You want to get to the point?”

“The point is, being a discreet judge of matters involving money...”

“Particularly yer own,” Vin muttered.

“Quite so.”

“All of which tells us nothing!” Nathan grumbled.

“Just tell us where all of that money came from,” J.D. prompted, his eyes riveted to the bundle of beautiful money in Ezra’s manicured fist.

“This is the profit from the sale of the Standish mine.”

“Sale?!” the other men exclaimed.

“Yes. Mr. Redford and I had a fruitful business meeting during which he made an offer. Based on information I gleaned from a number of sources, I decided that it would be an unacceptable amount of time before the mine produced any gold.”

“How long?” Larabee asked.

“Somewhere in the vicinity of eternity and never.”

“Huh?” J.D. asked.

“No doubt you have noticed that in the past few days I have been receiving a number of telegrams.” The group nodded. “Well, the information had nothing to do with our mine, but with the two claims on either side of it.”

“Why?”

“He was gettin’ a report on the gold that’s bein’ pulled from them.”

“Very good, Mr. Tanner.”

“What about it?”

“It would appear that our neighbours are in for some very debilitating and devastating news. What they have been extracting from the earth is not actually gold. Tests have proven that it is, in fact, a mineral commonly known as fool’s gold and unfortunately it is worthless.”

“So you conned Redford into buying the mine,” Larabee guessed.

Ezra beamed at his friends. “Not before allowing him to beat me down to three hundred and fifty dollars. And so, gentlemen, here are your dividends.” Standish began to dish out the cash. “Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson, you and Mr. Wilmington did not see fit to invest and thus, I’m afraid you have missed out on the rewards. However, I am in a position to offer you an investment in a new, and if I don‘t say so myself, a quite brilliant...” His fellow regulators climbed to their feet. “Gentlemen, is there something amiss?”

“Goodbye, Ezra,” J.D. stated.

“I don’t understand,” the gambler exclaimed, honestly bewildered by his friend’s reaction. “Surely my past record speaks for itself.”

All five men paused to stare at Ezra. “Exactly,” they cried as one before continuing on their way.

“Ungrateful curs,” Ezra muttered. Out of the corner of his eye the gambler spotted the barkeep. “Phillip, my dear friend. I have a proposition for you that could indeed see you reap rewards beyond your wildest dreams.

**********

Vin’s eyes were drawn to the figure sitting hunched outside the saloon. Tanner’s eyebrows drew down. Buck’s shoulders were stooped, his face downcast. That was out of character. In all the time Vin had known Buck, the scoundrel had exuded the most annoying but welcome positive outlook on life. Vin stepped down off the porch and made his way along the street.

He stopped directly in front of his melancholy friend.

“What’s up, Buck?”

Buck glanced up startled, dropping the piece of paper he held. He had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t seen or heard his friend approach, which was far from unusual. He never heard Vin approach. “Oh, hi, Vin. Nothing’s wrong,” the scoundrel announced softly, reaching for the piece of paper that lay in the dust.

“Don’t look like nothin’.”

Buck shrugged.

Vin frowned. The dusty tracker settled himself on the step beside the downcast scoundrel and allowed his eyes to rove the town routinely. “You and me ain’t known each other all that long, Buck, but we’re pards. If there’s something upsettin’ ya...”

Buck shook his head, his eyes staring down at the piece of paper. “Sekoj no uoy. A curse of the God of Reflection”. It had taken Buck a while it work it out but now he couldn’t believe that he had missed it. The God of Reflection... meaning the words were backwards. Sekoj no uoy. Joke’s on you. “You fellas really got me,” Buck stated. He was smiling in spite of himself.

Vin grinned. He would go to his grave denying it, but he had been the mastermind behind J.D.‘s revenge on Buck. He had planned everything with pinpoint detail. Plotted it so carefully that he had been able to ensure that no one outside of J.D. realized that it was he who was the architect of the plot. He had, of course, enlisted the help of his friends to make everything believable. He had known from the beginning that catching Buck out would be difficult and that finding a situation that was embarrassing enough to see Buck blush would be almost impossible. But he had done it and Vin Tanner was quietly pleased with his achievement. Best of all, no one had realized that he was the force behind the plan. Josiah thought it was all J.D.’s idea, Nathan and Ezra thought it was all Josiah’s idea and Chris... well, Vin wasn’t sure what Larabee thought.

Vin preferred to remain anonymous and just sit back quietly and watch the mayhem unfold around him. By ensuring the others believed someone else was responsible, he guaranteed that no one suspected him and so did not seek to return the favour.

“Can’t believe ya didn’t warn me, Vin. Thought I could count on you, at least.”

“Sorry, Buck,” Vin stated earnestly. “I just went along with it all. I should probably tell ya

that it was all Josiah, Nathan and Ezra’s idea.” Tanner’s face was blank.

“Hell, I’m gonna get them.”

“I’d be happy to help,” Vin offered sincerely.

“You?!” Buck laughed. “Sorry, Vin. Didn’t mean to laugh at your expense.” Buck felt the idea of the reserved tracker helping to design a practical joke was absurd.

Vin Tanner suppressed his amusement. “I got an idea.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a dance competition coming up next week.”

“So?” Buck asked, watching as Vin rose to his feet.

Tanner grinned mischievously and then winked at his friend. “Leave it to me.”