The Welcome to another episode from 1001 classic short stories and tales, the place where people come for great entertainment written by the masters.

And this story by author Brett Hart is no exception.

The outcasts of poker flat has been made into five movies, the best being the 1952 version starring Dale Robertson and Ann Baxter, which you can find at YouTube.

It's a classic Western vigilante story that reminds us how far law and order have come in America in the past 160 years. It's a tense thriller with lots of twists and turns.

As the story goes, a gambler named John Oakhurst notices on November 23rd, 1850, that there's a change

in the moral atmosphere of Poker Flat, a California gold mining settlement.

His premonition is correct, as a secret committee has determined, in its local prejudice,

to rid the community of certain undesirable people. Two men are executed, and four alleged

reprobates are banished, including O'Kurst.

The other exiles are two prostitutes, known as the Duchess and Mother Shiptin,

and a thief called Uncle Billy.

Brett Hart was an American short-story writer best remembered for his stories featuring minors,

gamblers, and other figures connected with the California gold rush.

His career spanned more than four decades, and his works are considered among some of the best

in American literature.

When he was young, he took on a number of jobs in California, including stagecoach driver for

Wells Fargo, schoolteacher, and journalist, and was first noticed when, serving as assistant

editor-editorialized about the brutal slaines of 200 Wyatt-Iott Indians at the village of Tulawat

in 1860, writing a detailed account condemning the event, describing wrinkled old women lying in

pools of blood, babies slaughtered.

You get the picture. Instead of drawing praise, he started to receive death threats and had to flee

the area quitting his job. No one was ever prosecuted for the massacre, even though there were

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