"An' you, Mr. Ransom?" said the 'Piker,' with odd politeness.
"I've a lot ter say," drawled the old man. "Seemingly murder has been
done, but Smoky here never done it; nor did I. I fired at a buck an'
missed it. There ain't overly much o' the fool in me, but there's
enough to make me hate ownin' up to a clean miss. When I got to the
corral this evening, Smoky had bin there an hour or so at least. He
arst me if I'd killed a buck and said he'd heard a shot. Wal, I lied,
but I saw that he suspicioned me. Afterwards, I reckon he'd a look at
the old gun, and found the shell in it. He must ha' got it into his
fool head that he was God's appointed instrument to save _me_.
He's as innercent as Mary's little lamb, and so am I."
The squatters gazed at each other in stupefaction. Not a man present
but could lie fearlessly on occasion, but not with such consummate art
as this.
"Anything more ter say?" inquired the 'Piker.'
"Wal, there's this: I tole Jake Farge that I'd shoot him on sight, and
I'm mighty glad that someone else has saved me the trouble. You mean
to do me up; I see that plain. I hated yer comin' into a country that
won't support a crowd, and I've made things hot for more'n one of ye.
But I wasn't thinkin' o' land when I warned Jake Farge not to set foot
on my ranch."
"What was you thinkin' of?"
"Of my Mintie. That feller--a married man--has bin after her--and some
of you know it. She kin take keer of herself can my Mints, but some
things is a man's business. I meant to shoot him, but I didn't. I'm
glad the low-down cuss is dead, but the bullet that stopped his
crawlin' to my gal never come outer my rifle. Now string me up, and be
derned to ye, but let this young feller go back to look after my
daughter. That's all."
He faced them with a derisive smile upon his weather-beaten face.
Obviously, the Court was impressed, but the fact remained that Jake
Farge was dead, and that someone must have killed him.
"What d'ye say, boys?"
"I say he's lyin'," observed a squatter, whom Thomas Ransom had
discovered ear-marking an unbranded calf.
"Smoky knows that Pap done it," remarked another.
This bolt went home. Smoky's face during the preceding five minutes
had been worth studying. He was quite sure that the old man was lying,
and upon his ingenuous countenance such knowledge, illuminated by
admiration and amazement, was duly inscribed.
"Pap's yarn is too thin," said a gaunt Missourian.
"It's thin as you air," said Ransom contemptuously. "Do you boys think
that I'd spring so thin a tale on ye, if it wasn't true?"
At this they wriggled uneasily. The 'Piker,' with some experience of
fickle crowds, said peremptorily--
"The old man done it, and the young 'un knows he done it. They're jest
two of a kind. Those in favour of hangin' 'em both hold up their
hands. One hand apiece will do."