ed. He got the widow O'Flynn.

With one heart-rending, devastating howl she went to grass, and she did
surely shriek as if there was no hereafter. Murthered in the limb she
was, and as I left to follow the sounds of them escaping robbers, I
didn't have time to send a carpenter.

CHAPTER IX

THE UNTRUTHFUL PRISONER

_Jesse's Narrative_

With creditors, women, robbers, and everything dangerous, you want to be
chuck full of deportment, smooth as old Honeypott, and a whole lot
tactful. Anything distractful or screeching disturbs one's peace of
mind, and sends one's aplomb to blazes, just when a bear trap may happen
at any moment. I traveled for all I was worth to put that widow behind
me, and compose my mind.

Which her wolf howls was plumb deplorable. It wasn't her limb. Indeed,
she wanted excuses for a new one ever since she seen that table limb in
my barn. It was her husband, Whiskers, departing, desperate to get away
from her. And I don't blame him. She was an irreverent detail anyhow,
diminishing gradual into the night, for if I let them robbers once get
out of hearing, they couldn't be tracked till morning. The worst of it
was I'd no smell dog; my Mick being sick with a cold and hot
fermentations, had his nose out of action. No, the only thing was to get
clear of the widow's concert, and keep in hearing while the outlaws
traveled. I was laying a trail of torn paper, mostly unpaid bills, so
that the boys could find which way I'd gone.

Maybe I'd gone a mile before remorse gnawed Whiskers because he'd
abandoned the widow. He paused, and as I came surging along, he lammed
me over the head with a gun.

Yes, I was captured. They got my gun, too, and marched me along between
them. Mr. Bull, he yapped like a coyote, full of glory's if he'd
captured me himself. What with being clubbed, and not feeling good just
then, I didn't seem to be much interested, although I put up a struggle
wherever the ground was muddy, leaving plenty tracks down to the ferry,
so that the boys would know which way I'd been dragged.

Old man Brown was away, but as I'd left the scow on the near bank, the
robbers were able to cross, and put the Fraser between me and rescue.
That ought to have cheered them up, since it gave them a start of
several hours toward safety, but instead of skinning out of British
Columbia, as I advised them with powerful strong talk, they'd got to
stop for breakfast on old Brown's beans and sow-belly, cussing