SUITING THE PUNISHMENT TO THE CRIME
Wade Ruggles was speechless. He sat with his mouth wide open and his
eyes staring at the little figure, as if it were a veritable
apparition. All the others looked in the same direction. Nellie Dawson
stood for a moment with her finger pointed reprovingly at the
chairman, and then turning about ran back into the rear room and
plunged into her bed.
"Max, quick!" said Ruggles faintly, pointing to the black bottle at
the rear of the bar. The landlord hastily poured out some of the fiery
stuff, and the miserable fellow swallowed it at a gulp. It served
partly to revive him, but he was really on the verge of collapse.
The only one of the company not impressed was Maurice Dawson, father
of the little girl. He was sitting well back of the rest, where no one
paid attention to him. Comprehending the meaning of this incident, he
drew his hand across his mouth to conceal the smile that could not be
wholly restrained. Then he hurried back into the room to see that his
child was "tucked up" and properly covered for the night. Finding
himself in the dark, where he could not be observed, he laughed
deeply and silently, his mirth all the greater because of the
oppressive gravity of every one else. Then bending over, he said, as
he kissed the little one:
"I thought you were asleep, Nellie?"
"So I was, but Mr. Ruggles spoke those bad words so loud he woked
me."
"You mustn't get up again, will you?"
"Not if you don't want me to."
"I have just told you I don't wish you to."
"Then I wont get up."
The father lingered in the room, until he mastered his disposition to
laugh, and then, when he walked out among his friends no countenance
was graver than his.
"I say, Dawson," said Ruggles, swallowing a lump in his throat, "will
you oblige me by acting as chairman?--I don't feel--very--well."
The gentleman walked forward to where Ruggles had been standing with
his back against the bar, looking down in the faces of his friends.
The poor fellow seemed to have aged ten years, as he slouched off to
an upturned box near the door, where he dejectedly seated himself.
"What is your pleasure, gentlemen?" asked Dawson, as if presiding over
the deliberations of one of the most august assemblages in the land;
"I am ready to hear any suggestion or motion."
Al Bidwell rose to his feet.
"Mr. Chairman, I wish to endorse with all my heart, the soul-stirring,
eloquent address to which we have just listened from the late Mr.
Ruggles,--I mean the late Chairman. Them sentiments of his is as sound
as a gold dollar. He maintains that any gent that uses an unproper
word, such as he used and which I scorn to repeat, in the presence of
the young lady, who has just listened to his remarks, oughter to be
sent to the individooal whose name is too shocking fur me to
pronounce, since the aforesaid young lady is in the adjoining
apartment, from whence she was awoke by the awful profanity of the
gent who lately served as our chairman."
And having gotten back on Ruggles in this masterly manner, Bidwell sat
down, slung one leg over the other, and relit his pipe. The oppressive
silence was broken by a prodigious sigh from Ruggles.
Parson Brush, after the stillness had continued some minutes, rose to
his feet.
"Mr. Chairman, an extraordinary state of affairs has arisen. You have
not forgotten that I plead for charity for Mr. Bidwell, because it was
his first offence. My plea was not well received, but my sentiments
are unchanged, and I now make the same plea for Mr. Ruggles and on the
same grounds. When he was denouncing in fitting terms the sin of
Bidwell, he had no thought of committing the crime himself, but in
his earnestness he did. This being plain to all of us, I renew----"
Wade Ruggles bounded to his feet.
"I don't want any one to plead for me! I ain't pleading fur myself! I
can take my medicine like a man; if there's any galoot here----"
He suddenly checked himself with an apprehensive glance at the door of
the rear room, and then resumed in a more subdued voice:
"I insist that Al Bidwell shall suffer for his onspeakable crime and
me too, 'cause mine was onspeakabler. Jedgin' from the evidence that
showed itself, I must have awoke the little gal from peaceful slumber,
by them awful words of mine."
He paused and looked inquiringly at the chairman, who calmly returned
his gaze, without speaking. It was Parson Brush who interposed:
"I should like to ask, Mr. Dawson, whether the supposition of Mr.
Ruggles has any foundation in fact."
"It has; when I asked Nellie what caused her to awake, she said it was
Mr. Ruggles when he used those bad words."
"Just what I thought!" exclaimed Ruggles, as if he enjoyed heaping
fire upon his own head; "there ain't any depth of infamy which I
hain't reached. For me to try to sneak out now, when I made such
a----(Here he again threw a startled glance at the rear of the room)
would be to do something which Wade Ruggles never done in his
variegated career of nigh onto forty years. All I ask is that you'll
git through it as soon as you kin and fix our terms of imprisonment or
our deaths and hev done with it."
Al Bidwell took an unworthy delight in prodding the man who had been
so severe upon him.
"I beg humbly to suggest to the gent that there are plenty of places
in the mountains where he can make a jump of a thousand feet or two
into the kenyons. Wouldn't it be a good idee fur the gent to try it?"
"I will if you'll join me," retorted Wade, turning upon him like a
flash.
"I'll let you try it first and see how it works," replied Bidwell, so
crushed that he remained silent henceforward.
"Since I am chairman," said Dawson, with becoming dignity, "it is my
duty to listen to suggestions and to hear motions. What is your
pleasure, gentlemen?"
No one in looking at the countenance of Maurice Dawson would have
suspected he was extracting the keenest enjoyment from these
proceedings, yet such was the fact. There was something so intensely
ludicrous in the whole business, that only by assuming preternatural
gravity could he refrain from breaking into merriment. His policy was
to egg on the discussion until the company were ready for a decision,
when he would interpose with the proposal to wipe out the whole matter
and begin over again. The earnestness of Wade Ruggles, however,
threatened to check anything of that nature. He was on his feet
several times until Budge Isham, who shrewdly suspected the sentiments
of the chairman, protested.
"With all due respect to the parson, to Ruggles and to Bidwell, it
strikes me, Mr. Chairman, that they should give the rest of us a show.
We have listened to their yawping until it has grown monotonous.
Having told us a dozen times, more or less, that he wants us to punish
him all he deserves, Mr. Ruggles ought to let it rest with that; but
he shouldn't forget," added Budge, with the solemn manner which always
marked his waggery, "that, if we took him at his word, he would be
kicking vacancy this minute. However, this hasn't anything to do with
his general cussedness, but concerns his offence against the young
lady. That is all there is before the house, and I insist that we
confine ourselves to that----"
"Isn't that what I've been insistin' on?" demanded Wade Ruggles.
"There you go again! I have the floor, and you have no parliamentary
right to interrupt me with your frivolous remarks. Am I correct, Mr.
Chairman?"
"You are most unquestionably; proceed."
"Well, to bring this tiresome matter to a close, I move that Mr.
Bidwell be deprived of the bar privileges of the Heavenly Bower for a
period of four days, and that the same be denied to Mr. Ruggles for a
period of one week. Did I hear a groan?" asked Budge, looking round at
the two men, who were trying bravely to bear up under the threatened
punishment.
Both shook their heads, afraid to trust their voices by way of reply.
"If the gentlemen will permit me," said the chairman, "I should like
to say a few words."
"I am sure we shall be glad to hear from Mr. Dawson," remarked the
parson.
"Thank you. What I had in mind is this:--It is creditable to your
honor that you should pledge yourselves to refrain from unbecoming
language in the hearing of my little girl, for you cannot help being
her instructors, no matter how much you may wish it were otherwise.
But you are magnifying the matter. I am sure every man of you will
strive just as hard, without being incited thereto by the fear of
punishment. I would beg to suggest----"
He paused, for, looking at Wade Ruggles, he saw it was useless to go
further. Bidwell would have been glad to receive leniency, but his
partner in crime was immovable, and it would not do to punish one and
allow the other to go free. Dawson was wise enough to accept the
situation promptly.
"You have heard the penalties suggested for the offences of the two
gentlemen accused. All who favor such punishment will show it by
raising their right hands."
Every man in the room, except the chairman, voted in the affirmative.
"It isn't worth while to put the negative. The accused have heard the
verdict, which is that Mr. Bidwell shall not drink a drop of anything
except water or coffee for a period of four days, dating from this
moment, while Mr. Ruggles is to undergo the same penalty for a period
of one week."
"That's right," growled Bidwell; "for he drank about half of what was
in the bottle only a few minutes ago."
"And you would have drunk it all," retorted Ruggles, "if you'd knowed
what was coming."