t full length on the ground,
snoring in concert. This situation made the opportunity for a friend
at court. Shang Rhett was the friend awaiting this opportunity.
Stepping lightly out of the brush where he had been concealed, a few
paces brought him among the jurors.

"Howdy! boys?" Shang drawled. "Pow'ful hot evenin', ain't it!
Moseyin' roun' sort o' lonesome like, I thought mebbe so you fellers 'd
be tired o' talkin' law, an' I'd jes' step over an' pass the time o'
day an' give you a rest."

A rude diplomat, perhaps, Shang was nevertheless a cunning one.
Several jurors expressed their appreciation of his sympathy and one
answered: "Tired o' talkin'! Wall, I reckon so. I'm jes' tireder an'
dryer 'n if I'd been tailin' down beef steers all day. My ol' tongue's
been a-floppin' till thar ain't nary 'nother flop left in her 'nless I
could git to ile her up with a swaller o' red-eye, an--"
regretfully--"I reckon thar ain't no sort o' chanst o' that."

"Thar ain't, hey?" replied Shang, producing a big jug from the brush
near by. "'Pears like, 'nless I disremember, thar's some red-eye in
this yere jug."

Upon examination the jug was found to be nearly full; but, passed and
repassed around the "jury room," it was not long before the jug was
empty, and the jury full.

Shrewdly seizing the proper moment before the jurors got drunk enough
to be obstinate and combative, Shang made his appeal. "Fellers," he
said, "I allows you all knows that Jim's my friend, an' I reckon you
cain't say but what he 's been a mighty good friend to more'n one o'
you. Course, I know he got terrible out o' luck when he had t' kill
this yer Arkinsaw feller. But then, boys, Arkinsawyers don't count fer
much nohow, do they? Pow'ful onery, no account lot, sca'cely fit to
practise shootin' at. We fellers ain't a-goin' to lay that up agin
Jim, air we? We ain't a-goin' to help this yer jack-leg prosecutin'
attorney send ol' Jim up. Why, fellers, we knows well enough that airy
one o' us might 'a done the same thing ef we'd been out o' luck, like
Jim was, in meetin' up with this yer Arkinsawyer afore we'd had our
mornin' coffee. What say, boys? Bein' as how any o' us might be in
Jim's boots mos' any day, reckon we'll have to turn him loose?"

Shang's pathetic appeal for Jim's life clearly won outright more than
half the jury, but there were several who, while their sympathies were
with Jim, "'lowed they'd have to bring a verdic' accordin' t