ry.
There's only one way out, an' there's about fifteen or twenty of the
boys that's willin' to give him a chance. We're a-goin' to bust him
out of jail an' put him on a horse an' run him up some cottonwood
coulee with a rope around his neck."

Alice Marcum, who had followed every word, turned chalk-white in the
lamplight as she stared wide-eyed at the Texan, with fingers pressed
tight against her lips, while Jennie placed herself protectingly
between them and launched into a perfect tirade.

"Hold on, now." Both girls saw that the man was smiling and Jennie
relapsed into a warlike silence. "A rope necktie ain't a-goin' to hurt
no one as long as he keeps his heft off'n it. As I was goin' on to
say, we'll run him up this coulee an' a while later the boys'll ride
back to town in the same semmey-serious mood that accompanies such
similar enterprises. They won't do no talkin' an' they won't need to.
Folks will naturally know that justice has be'n properly dispensed
with, an' that their taxes won't raise none owin' to county funds bein'
misdirected in prosecutin' a public benefactor--an' they'll be
satisfied. The preacher'll preach a long sermon condemnin' the takin'
of human life without due process of law, an' the next Sunday he'll
preach another one about the onchristian shootin' of folks without
givin' 'em a chanct to repent--after they'd drawed--an' he'll use the
lynchin' as a specimen of the workin's of the hand of the Lord in
bringin' speedy justice onto the murderer.

"But they ain't be'n no lynchin' done. 'Cause the boys will turn the
prisoner over to me an' I'll hustle him acrost to the N. P. an' let him
get out of the country."

Alice Marcum leaped to her feet: "Oh, are you telling me the truth?
How do I know you're not going to lynch him? I told him I'd stay with
him and see him through!"

The Texan regarded her gravely: "You can," he said after a moment of
silence. "I'll have Bat take you to Snake Creek crossing an' you can
wait there 'til I come along with the pilgrim. Then we'll cut through
the mountains an' hit down through the bad lands an'----"

"No you don't, Tex Benton!" Jennie was facing him again. "You're a
smooth one all right. How long would it take you to lose the pilgrim
there in the bad lands, even if you don't lynch him, which it ain't no
cinch you ain't a-goin' to--then where would _she_ be? No, sir, you
don't pull nothin' like that off on me!"

"But I want to go!" cried Al