another curious thing

Imagine you are a cowboy in the wild west.
You are in a three way shoot out with two of your compatriots over the hand of a fair lady.
You're not a very good shot. You only hit what you're aiming at 10% of the time.
Your buddy Jake is better, he'll make the shot 60% of the time.
Elwood is the best, he'll hit his target 90% of the time.
You've all only got one bullet each.
You're only advantage is that you're a faster draw than the other two, who are about even.
What's your best course of action?:)

To realize that no woman that would apparently just jump on any of the three of you at the drop of a hat is worth dying or killing your friend over and walk away.

I agree, but that's a contemporary answer based on a contemporary moral viewpoint. You have to imagine you're an ignorant cowboy 200 years ago. Your moral code would encompass such notions as "to the winner the spoils".
Similarly the young ladies outlook in those frontier days would have been less progressive than today and would necessarily been pragmatic. She might have seen herself as a chattel to be fought over. It might have seemed a better prospect than working in the bar/brothel and so on.

I'd go hide and let Jake and Elwood shot each other.

Britton is on the right track. Elwood should get Jake, then you shoot Elwood. Unless of course they aren't smart enough to realize who the strongest original threat is :)

A Guy

johnwillyums said:

I agree, but that's a contemporary answer based on a contemporary moral viewpoint...

In that vein, shoot the lady and make friends with Jake & Elwood.

You get John Wayne as your stand-in double, cause He's the man that shot Liberty Valence

shoot yourself in the foot and whilst you are jumping around in agony this will make you a difficult target ,giving the others no choice but to shoot each other.
and you hop off in the sunset with the lady

boohbah said:

shoot yourself in the foot and whilst you are jumping around in agony this will make you a difficult target ,giving the others no choice but to shoot each other.
and you hop off in the sunset with the lady

That's perfect...John is always shooting himself in the foot!

A Guy

Actually, Britton30, Bill and Julian are on the right track.
Your best bet would be to draw your gun and discharge your only bullet into the ground. This would make you no threat to the others.
Hopefully they will both shoot each other but it might be that Elwood kills Jake.
If that happens, be prepared to rush forward and club Elwood mercilessly to the ground with your heavy revolver. You should be able to do this before the smoke has cleared.
Then grab the girl and run off to a life of happiness, build your own shack, grow cows etc.

Profdlp's idea has merit- "make friends with Jake & Elwood. "- but I think he's thinking about a much more contemporary and progressive kind of western than I am