Ballad From A Pine-Forest Mountain

I'm running I'm running
Them Lynch Boys are coming for me
Wind blows, I know,
I lick my finger know they're gunning for me

Head down head down
Don't want to get it blown
They're packing pistols, hunting rifles
One guy's got a sawn-off

There's a tracker in among them
They hired just to find me
See I got a reputation for
Moving quick and moving lightly

One-hundred-thousand, hundred-thousand
That's the price upon my head
And that's still okay when it's split five ways
Even with the tracker's share

So they're coming, they're coming
With white spit and cursing me
Blistered by the sun and
Calloused by the wind blustering

Hunkering, hunkering
Down in their saddles
Wearied with fear and
Tired from travel

It's a hard road, a hard road
Up this pine-forest mountain
They're wondering if it's worth it
All this hurting for some bounty

But they're still chasing me, chasing
And dawn's barely breaking
I'm moving fast through this mountain pass
Where their horses won't make it

So they're heading out on foot now
And that tracker
Is getting the feeling
Something bad's gonna happen

I'm a pine needle
In a forest stacked with pines
I ain't afraid of no man
And I ain't afraid of dying

It's a good man, a good man
That fears his own death
Living in a bad man's sin
Through his obedience

And that's a debt to pay come judgement day
And that's why they're scared
I know heaven is a mountain pass
And I'm already there

So I'm skulking and stalking them
I hear them talking
'round their campfire each man's a liar
But they're all falling for it

Their stories are enormous
Each bigger than the one before
Unsavoury false-bravery
And they make my skin crawl

You'd think God, himself, was scared of them
By the way that they talked
The roughest and the toughest
But they don't know what they're in for

So one by one by one
They say good night and lay their heads down
The last one throws the kettle
On the fire to put the flames out

And then I sneak among them
Close enough to smell their breath
And I slit every one of their throats
Right there where they slept