ut a toe, this party's chagrined
to death.

"This yere confidin' sport's arrested an' taken some'ers--Prescott
mebby--to be tried in a shore-enough co't for the robberies; the Red
Dog Stranglers not bein' game to butt in an' hang him a lot themse'fs.
They surrenders him to the marshal who rides over for him; an' they
would have turned out Silver Phil, too, only that small black outcast
don't wait, but goes squanderin' off to onknown climes the moment he
hears the news. He's vamoosed Red Dog before this penitent bookkeep
ceases yelpin' an' sobbin' over his absent toe.

"It ain't no time, however, before we hears further of Silver Phil;
that is, by way of roomer. It looks like a couple of big cow outfits
some'ers in the San Simon country--they're the 'Three-D' an' the
'K-in-a-box' brands--takes first to stealin' each, other's cattle, an',
final, goes to war. Each side retains bands of murderers an' proceeds
buoyantly to lay for one another. Which Silver Phil enlists with the
'Three-D' an' sneaks an' prowls an' bushwhacks an' shoots himse'f into
more or less bloody an' ignoble prom'nence. At last the main
war-chiefs of the Territory declar's themse'fs in on the riot an'
chases both sides into the hills; an' among other excellent deeds they
makes captive Silver Phil.

"It's a great error they don't string this Silver Phil instanter. But
no; after the procrastinatin' fashion of real law, they permits the
villain--who's no more use on the surface of Arizona that a-way than
one of them hydrophoby polecats whose bite is death--to get a law sharp
to plead an' call for a show-down before a jedge an' jury. It takes
days to try Silver Phil, an' marshals an' sheriff gents is two weeks
squanderin' about gettin' witnesses; an' all to as much trouble an'
loss of time an' dinero as would suffice to round-up the cattle of
Cochise county. Enright an' the Stranglers would have turned the
trick in twenty minutes an' never left the New York Store ontil with
Silver Phil an' a lariat they reepairs to the windmill to put the
finishin' touches on their lucoobrations.

"Still, dooms slow an' shiftless as they shore be, at the wind-up
Silver Phil's found guilty, an' is put in nom'nation by the presidin'
alcade to be hanged; the time bein' set in a crazy-hoss fashion for a
month away. As Silver Phil--which he's that bad an' hard he comes
mighty clost to bein; game--is leavin' the co't-room with the marshal
who's ridin' herd on him, h