d to it. I couldn't see
Barbie's face on account o' the veil she was wearin'; but she held her
head high, an' I knew she was ready to take all the jumps without
balkin'. The Friar had one o' these voices 'at never seem to say an
idle word, an' the room got as still as though it was a trial for life;
which ain't so mighty far off the mark, that bein' the usual sentence,
an' out our way we don't count it game to get pardoned out for a new
trial.

I was on pins an' needles durin' the openin', but Friar Tuck boomed
along until he arrived at the part where it sez "If any man knows just
cause why this here couple should not be joined together in holy
wedlock let him make his kick right now, or forever after hold his
peace." The room was as still as the grave, an' I had just taken a full
breath, so that I could make a clean throw, when a deep voice at the
back of the room sez: "I think that I know a cause. I don't believe the
girl is doin' this of her own free will."

We all whirled around, an' there stood Silver Dick. Dusty he was an'
travel-stained; but as he loomed up, straight an' tall, he certainly
did look like a man. His beard was gone, his face was pale with a sort
of unnatural whiteness, an' he was ganted down in weight a little; but
all the same he put up a great front as he stood with his hands on his
hips, his head thrown back, an' a grim smile on his face. Quick as a
flash the ol' man, who had half expected this, pulls a gun out of his
pocket an' drops it on Dick, while the crowd politely splits apart to
give 'em a fair show. Barbie had settled back, an' I caught her in my
arms an' held her a moment; but all the time my eyes were on Dick as
though I'd been charmed.

Never in my life have I seen such a figger of a man as him, as he stood
there alone an' unfriended. His hat was tilted back a bit, an' his
short wavey hair rippled across his forehead, his mustache had been
shaved off and his lips somehow reminded me of the muzzle of a gun,
they was that firm; while his eyes--man, he had the greatest eyes in
the world. Blue steel they was, but never for a moment free from some
hidden fire. When he smiled they danced; when he frowned they blazed;
but to-night the' was a new darin' in 'em,--a confidence, a purpose,
an' a strength that defied Death himself.

He had changed a heap since we'd seen him last. His face was as smooth
as a woman's, his hands were white, an' his clothes looked like picture
clothes out of a b