"

She opened her mouth as if to cry out. The Sheriff threw up both hands.

"Mary, please--For kingdom's sake, don't! What unreasonable creatures
women are!"

"You 'd better let women alone. One is as much as you can manage now."
She spoke witheringly. "I give you one more chance."

"More than I can manage. You know Dick will get drunk----"

"Not unless you make him. Who was drunk at that barbecue at Jones's
Cross Roads last summer!"

"Oh, Mary!"

"Who set up till after Sunday mornin' playin' kyards--. Yes, _gamblin'_
the last night of last County Cote!"

"Oh, Mary!--All right. I lay down my hand."

She drew paper and pencil from her little bag and held them out to him.

"Write it down."

"Ain't my word good enough!"

"If you mean to do it, why are you afraid to write it!"

"I 'm not afraid."

"Then write it." She held the paper to him with outstretched arm.

"What shall I write!"

"Write what I say: 'I Aleck Thompson, promise and bind myself if I
remain in office for another term to appoint my _dear_ friend, Dick
Creel'--underscore that--'my first deputy, and to keep him in as long as
he keeps sober and attends to his business.' Now sign it."

"What consideration do I get for this!" Thompson looked up from the
paper at her ca-jolingly. She met his gaze with a little flash.

"Oh! I forgot the consideration," she murmured, "and I Squire Jefford's
daughter, too!

"Write: 'The consideration for the above is the love I bear the
aforesaid Richard Creel, and the fear I have that his wife will tell the
Judge what a smart Aleck I am.'"

"Mary, you don't want me to write that!"

"Them very words. I little more forgot the consideration."

The paper was written.

She glanced out of the window.

"Now I want a witness. I see the court is broken up."

"Tain't necessary."

"I want a witness, and I 'm goin' to _have_ him."

"Who!"

"The Judge."

"Look here, Mary----"

"I 'm goin' to have him. You come and introduce me."

"Mary, are you after all goin' to----"

She met his gaze frankly.

"No--unless you go back on me. If you do, I 'll tell him and show him
the paper; and what 's more, I 'll show it all around this county."

A flash of genuine admiration sprang into the Sheriff's eyes.

"Mary, you ought to have been a man, or--Mrs. Aleck Thompson."

The paper was signed and witnessed.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Sheriffs Bluff, by Thomas Nelson Page

*** END OF THIS PROJECT