THE judge sat there with his hat and coat on; the looks of that room
did not invite anybody to take any comfort in it.
I leaned close to his ear and told him to stand up. Then I began to
peel off his wrappings--overcoat, undercoat, and waistcoat. But when I
unbuttoned his collar he pushed me away.
“I’ll explain it out to you just as soon as I get a chance, sir,” I
whispered. “But we mustn’t make any noise here.” I gathered my courage.
“I’m going to cut off your beard!” I had to clap my hand over his mouth
to keep him quiet. “I can’t argue now! If Pratt lays eyes on you he’ll
stampede. We mustn’t let any of that money get away.” I pushed him back
upon the chair. “Keep down your hands,” I urged. “It’s got to be done.
Your money is at stake--remember that! What’s a few whiskers compared
with ten thousand dollars!” I was talking just as if I expected to swap
hair for money.
I confess I did not have much of a plan worked out just at that
moment--but certain notions were coming to me in sections, as one might
say. And the principal notion just then was that I must not let a set
of whiskers, even if they grew on Judge Kingsley, flag the whole
proposition. That was the first thing to look after, now that we were
close to the game--change his looks!
He realized as well as I that we couldn’t start any riot there on our
side of that paper partition. I don’t believe any other consideration
would have made him give in to me. If I had been getting his neck ready
for the ax his looks would not have been more wild. I clipped his beard
as carefully as I could with the shears and laid the tufts, as I removed
them, in a little heap on the bed.
Mr. Pratt was thoroughly tired of hearing Mr. Dragg repeat himself; we
knew that because Mr. Pratt said so with a lot of vigor and stated that
he was going to bed in his own room.
Mr. Dragg advised him to be up early and see what happened to the
“plug-hatter,” providing said “plug-hatter” tried to get away for Breed
on the stage.
“I’ll do it,” promised Mr. Pratt. “I haven’t been having much fun down
in this hog-wallow, and I need to have my feelings cheered up.”
Then he marched away down the corridor, making the whole building creak
and shiver.
Mr. Dragg had considerable to say to himself, in the way of rehearsing
his threats, while he was kicking off his shoes and getting ready for
bed. Then his mutterings ended in a rasping snore--and he was off!
I was glad he was asleep because that gave me a chance to talk to the
judge, keeping my voice down cautiously.
“I have some other plans, sir! I have had to think pretty quick! But the
talk between those scamps has given me a rather good idea, I think.”
“You seem to be wasting your time on a lot of silly business,” muttered
the judge. “This is boy’s play out of a detective dime novel, sir. We
know where one of the robbers is. We can have him arrested. We can put
the screws to him and find out where the other renegade is.”
“But that means going to law, Judge!”
“We must let the law handle it from now on.”
“We can’t afford to do that, sir.”
“But the law will--”
“The law will grab the crooks, maybe. But your money will be tied up
along with ’em. We are strangers out here, Judge Kingsley. And you
don’t want the notoriety of the thing. Remember, you bought a gold
brick!” He winced, but it wasn’t on account of the shears! “Just getting
those crooks into jail won’t help your case,” I insisted. “We haven’t
much time to turn around in. The fifteenth of April isn’t very far away.
I reckon it’s going to mean getting ten thousand dollars in ten days!”
He cringed. “The law is too slow and careful for us just now! They
pulled that money off by a trick. We must get it back by---- Well, I
don’t know just yet how we’ll get it back--but it won’t be by any law
business.”
“Do you intend to rob them and mix me into more trouble?”
“I’d rob ’em in a minute if I could do it and get away,” I told him,
calmly. And then, because he was getting excited, I advised him to keep
his jaw still so that the shears might not slip and cut him.
When the clipping was done I got my little kit out of my bag and got
ready to shave him; there was a tin dish full of water in the corner of
the room. Of course he was glad to have the stubble I had left under his
chin scraped off, and submitted quietly. However, I knew my real tussle
with Judge Zebulon Kingsley was just ahead of me.
On the wall there was a little mirror with glass so wavy that it made a
human face seem like the physog of a baboon. I pulled it down and showed
the judge his countenance with his whiskers off.
“You see it doesn’t change your looks very much, after all, Judge. Your
beard was all under your chin instead of on your face.” I didn’t want to
jump him too suddenly.
“If you have changed my looks as much as that glass represents, you’ve
done a good job,” he said, dryly. It was the first time I had ever heard
anything like humor from him, and I was cheered and made bolder--so bold
that I came right out with it!
“I’ll have to change your appearance just a bit more, Judge. I know how
to do it, for I did it once in my own case.”
I uncorked the bottle of gum. But when I started toward him he did not
depend on his hands for defense--he put up his foot and pushed me away.
I protested.
“There’s no use going half-way in this thing, sir. It only means a
mustache for you out of your own beard.”
“I won’t be cockawhooped up in any such style!”
“Are you going to let those men recognize you as the town treasurer of
Levant?”
He glared at me and kept his foot up.
“We’re after the money--we’re after the money!” I urged. “Just think
what a little thing this is you’re balking on, sir!”
“But you give me no hint as to how you expect to get the money! I’m at
the end of my patience. I won’t submit to any more foolishness.”
“This isn’t foolishness, Judge Kingsley! It’s a precaution we must
take. I’ve got a plan to keep those men from jumping out on us in the
morning--and they’ll be sure to see you.” I pushed down his foot and I
picked up the hair on the bed and looked resolute. “It’s got to be done,
sir. I’m going to do it!”
He gave in to me as he had in other cases when I became savage, but I
realized that fury boiled in him.
I made a mighty good job of it, if I do say so, but he angrily refused
to look at himself in the glass. I used all the hair in his beard and
gave him a mustache that fairly cut in half that hatchet face of his;
his best friend would not have known Judge Kingsley.
I advised him to go to bed and to be sure to sleep on his back so that
the mustache would not be disturbed.
I sharpened the carpenter’s pencil and hid the ball of twine under my
coat, the judge looking at me as savage as a bear.
“Now what?” he growled.
“Do you know anything about the right way of relocating a claim?” I
asked. “Anything in law about it?”
“It’s more likely to be described in the thieves’ catechism,” he
snarled. “I have never owned a copy!”.