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Scallen looked at Kidd, seeing the smile that softened his face and was even in his eyes. Confidence. It was all over him. And even with the manacles on, you would believe that it was Jim Kidd who was holding the shotgun.

Scallen has just noticed that Charlie Prince and the other riders are outside, ready to make a move if they think Kidd is in imminent danger. Kidd knows this as well, and he thinks that he is about to get released from a pending jail sentence. This is the moment in the story where the tables turn, where Kidd seems to be taking some power away from Scallen. More than his confidence, Scallen’s observation reveals Kidd’s cockiness. The smile on his face reveals a man who knows he is going to get away with his crimes because he has always done so. Kidd believes he and his posse are above the law and that this will never change.

Kidd’s body was stiff, his shoulders drawn up tightly. ‘Wait a minute…’ he said. He held his palms out to Charlie Prince, though he could have been speaking to Scallen.

This is the moment where Charlie Prince and the rest of Kidd’s posse have confronted Scallen and Kidd on the train station platform. It is an armed confrontation that could go either way, with Scallen holding his gun against Kidd’s back. In this moment, all of the story’s action is focused on Kidd, and everything that happens from this point depends on what he does or does not do. This moment presents him as a weaker man caught between stronger men, and a fulcrum between two opposing forces. Also in this moment, Kidd is genuinely terrified, possibly for the first time. The confidence that he displayed in Room 207 at the Republic Hotel is gone. He no longer sees Scallen as a foolish rival who is doomed to fail, nor is he sure that his posse will be his salvation. Something fundamental shifts within Kidd in this moment and he gets an inkling that the lawless days of the Wild West may be at an end.

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