“Sonny” Smith, charged with the murder of Frank Miller, sat in
the sheriff’s office at Tulsa, Okla. His two sons were fugitives
from justice on the same charge.
“Let me go,” pleaded the half-breed Creek Indian to the sheriff
of the county, “and I will go and bring in the two boys you are
looking for. If you do not let me go you will never catch those
boys.”
Sheriff Newblock smiled grimly.
“What guarantee have I if I let you go after the boys that you
will come back? You know you are charged with a capital offense.”
“You have the word of an Indian that he will come back,” replied
the half-breed. And the sheriff, with a knowledge of Indian
character, let “Sonny” go as a special commissioner to hunt his
own boys in the swamps and hills and bring them in.
As time passed there was much grumbling in the community that
the sheriff had let a cold-blooded murderer loose among the
people. The victim was a young man, popular in the town and
connected with the best families in the country. But on the
fifth day “Sonny” appeared with his two sons and their wives and
all the rest of the kin of the tribe of Smith.
“Here I am,” he announced proudly, “and here are my two boys,
whom I arrested in the swamps of the Arkansas, close to
Muskogee. I would have written to let you know I was on the
trail, but the most of the time I was away from the railroad
lines and could not quit the trail long enough to mail you a
postal. And if there is anything against me I am going to stay
here and fight it out.”
(2544)
=Promise, Failing=--See EARLY PROMISE.