e was a pause of some duration. The Judge resumed.

"So be it, then," said he with a sort of suppressed sigh. "We'll see the
body to-day, Bob, and you may come to-morrow at ten o'clock."

"Couldn't it be sooner?" asked Bob impatiently.

"Why sooner? Are you in such a hurry?" asked Mr Heart.

"What's the use of palaverin'?" said Bob sulkily. "I told you already
I'm sick of my life. If you don't come till ten o'clock, by the time
you've had your talk out and ridden to the Patriarch, the fever'll be
upon me."

"But we can't be flying about like a parcel of wild geese, because of
your fever," said the procurador.

"Certainly not," said Bob humbly.

"It's an ugly customer the fever, though, Mr Whyte," observed Mr Trace;
"and I calculate we ought to do him that pleasure. What do you think,
squire?"

"I reckon he's rather indiscreet in his askin's," said the judge, in a
tone of vexation. "However, as he wishes it, and if it is agreeable to
you," added he, turning to the Ayuntamiento; "and as it's you, Bob, I
calculate we must do what you ask."

"Thankee," said Bob.

"Nothing to thank for," growled the judge. "And now go into the kitchen
and get a good meal of roast beef, d'ye hear?" He knocked upon the
table. "Some good roast beef for Bob," said he to a negress who entered;
"and see that he eats it. And get your self dressed more decently,
Bob--like a white man and a Christian, not like a wild redskin."

The negress and Bob left the room. The conversation now turned upon
Johnny, who appeared, from all accounts, to be a very bad and dangerous
fellow; and after a short discussion, they agreed to lynch him, in
backwoodsman's phrase, just as cooly as if they had been talking of
catching a mustang. When the men had come to this satisfactory
conclusion, they got up, drank the judge's health and mine, shook us by
the hand, and left the house.

The day passed more heavily than the preceding one. I was too much
engrossed with the strange scene I had witnessed to talk much. The
judge, too, was in a very bad humour. He was vexed that a man should be
hung who might render the country much and good service if he remained
alive. That Johnny, the miserable, cowardly, treacherous Johnny, should
be sent out of the world as quickly as possible, was perfectly correct,
but with Bob it was very different. In vain did I remind him of the
crime of which Bob had been guilty--of the outraged laws of God and
man--and of the atonement due