Warlock

“Leave him in her custody, Deputy,” Blaisedell said, in his deep voice. “He’ll not be leaving here.”

Ga

Someone called his name. The judge came hurrying through the miners on the boardwalk, his crutch flying out and his body lurching so that he looked as though he would fall at every step. The judge waved a hand at him, and, panting, made his way up onto the porch. His hat had slipped forward over one eye. “Miss Jessie Marlow!” he panted. “The prisoner is released on your recognizance. Is that all right with you, ma’am? Fine!” he said, without waiting for an answer. He turned his sweating red face to Ga

The judge swung around and tottered; Ga

They turned up Main Street under the arcade. “Come on, you damned fool!” the judge said. When they were alone and out of earshot of the men in the street he slowed his pace a little, panting again. “You will leave well enough alone!” he said savagely. “Or I will take this crutch and club you senseless — which you already are. Son, any kind of a damned fool ought to know not to snatch at gnats when there’s camels to be swallowed still!”

“I know what I have to snatch at. What am I supposed to do, let any wild mucker that wants to shoot at MacDonald just because nobody likes MacDonald?”

“Right now you are going to.”

“You damned old fraud!”

“I am,” the judge said. “I have admitted it a hundred times. It is a time for fraud and not for bullheadedness. Son, I didn’t ever think it of you. Did MacDonald make a complaint against him?”

“Not yet.”

“You will anyhow wait till he does. And what will you do then? Tittle has got a load of buckshot in him; will you haul him to jail regardless?”

“She wouldn’t let me see him even,” Ga

“Son,” the judge said, almost gently. “Have you been watching Blaisedell these days? I thought you saw things. He will step back so you can come forward, and God bless him for it. But he is not going to step back because you have come forward. Don’t you even think of trying to push on him.”

“I was trying to arrest a man that assaulted another with a deadly weapon in this town I am deputy in.”

“Son, son,” the judge said, in a tired voice. “It is like hearing myself talk when I was young and thought there was nothing but two ways about a thing. Do you know what I learned in the war besides that a minie ball can take a leg off? I learned it is better to swing around a flank than charge straight up a hill.”

“Judge,” he said. “I am going to stand up or I’m not. If I did not go there after Tittle I backed down in every man’s eyes. And it was not just me that backed down.”

“There is a time when a man does best to back down,” the judge said, and evaded his eyes.

Ga

“I want to see MacDonald.” Past Dawson he could see the doctor washing his hands in a crockery bowl. The doctor shook his head.

“Not now, Deputy. He’s resting now. He has lost some blood.”

“I want to see him as soon as he is able,” he said, and Dawson nodded and closed the door. As he started on back to the jail Pike Ski

“Joh

“He has caught pride like a dose,” the judge said.

Ga

“Listen!” Pike whispered. “Do you know what MacDonald did, Joh

Ga

Pike Ski

He didn’t answer, and Pike’s face stiffened. “What are you going to do, Joh

He shook his head; relief made him feel giddy. “Why, nothing I guess. I guess there is nothing to do.”

53. AT THE GENERAL PEACH

I

UPSTAIRS in the General Peach a group of miners had collected in old man Heck’s room. Heck was standing; his ski

“That deputy’s gone and got too big for his britches,” Bull Johnson said.

“Jimmy said MacDonald called Miss Jessie a whore,” Frenchy Martin said.

They all looked at Fitzsimmons, who stood before the door. He placed one disfigured hand in the other and nodded.

“Why, God damn him!” Bull Johnson said, with awe in his voice. “He did? Did you hear him, Jimmy?”

Fitszsimmons told them what he and Ben Tittle had heard MacDonald say to Miss Jessie and the doctor.

“Dirty God-damned buggering rotten son of a bitch!” Bardaman cried. Patch added his curses, and each man cursed MacDonald in turn, formally, as though it were a kind of ritual.

“We should’ve burnt the Medusa long since!” old man Heck said. “And run MacDonald right out of the territory.”

“It’s not too late,” Bull Johnson said. “There’s matches still.”

“Is Ben hurt bad, Jimmy?” Patch asked.

They all looked to Fitzsimmons again. “He has got some shot in him. In his legs mostly.” Fitzsimmons looked as though he could hardly restrain a smile.

“I’ll break Lafe Dawson in half!” Bull Johnson said.