said no, that she felt more like a widder than a maid, an' she
didn't take much stock in turnin' a second weddin' into a circus. I
didn't say nothin'. The ol' man didn't contrary her much them days, so
he dropped the subject; but he sent all the way to Frisco for a store
full o' fixin's an' a couple o' women to engineer the construction of
'em.

A full week passed without me hearin' from Dick, an' then I telegraphed
to the Governor. I waited at Webb Station till I got the answer. He
said 'at he had give Dick my letter an' that he had left two days
before. That kept me on edge 'cause I wanted to see him when he first
arrived; so I kept a couple o' the boys watchin' each road; but day
after day dragged around until I got desperate. For all I knew Silver
Dick had enough black blood in him to take advantage of me an' just fly
his kite. He might have got news from England too, an' all in all I was
agitated.

Two days before the ceremony was scheduled I gave him up an' made a run
to Laramie. I wasn't sure just what I would do, but I was minded to get
all the evidence I could. I tried to get speech with Dick's wife, but
she wouldn't pay any heed to my knocks, an' finally the lights in the
house went out. I scented trouble; so when a couple o' men pounced onto
the place where I'd just stood they found me immejetly behind 'em, an'
I rapped 'em on the heads before they could express a sound. I heard a
noise at the keyhole an' I whispered in, "If you want to save the life
o' Silver Dick, open the door."

I waited a minute an' then the door opened an inch, but a chain kept it
from goin' any wider. A woman's coarse voice sez, "What do ya want?" I
couldn't believe that this was the woman, so I sez, "I want to speak to
the other woman, an' it's got to be done quick."

Presently a soft, gentle voice sez, "What is it?"

"Silver Dick is in the Texas penitentiary, sentenced to be hanged for a
murder committed there in April four years ago. He'll be hanged a week
from to-morrow night if some one don't make a plea for him. It takes a
woman to do such a job as this--are you game?"

"Why, he couldn't have done it," sez she. "He was here all that spring."

"Are you willin' to swear to it?" sez I.

"Oh, I don't want to appear in public--but of course I will, if the'
ain't no other way."

"You won't have to if you'll come with me to-night. The Governor of
Texas is up here on a huntin' trip; he'll be at a party to-morrow
night; all you