The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-05-18

ahead they don't the pro-
gram from the housetops. When
they've fixed a date for a funeral they
tread as a cat until after the obse.
quies.~ The shank of that afternoon
in Los Cerrillos was as quiet as in a
well-ordered cemetery. Men lounged
about in the shade of frame and
adobe shacks, too lazy to talk. When
the bad man stalked down the streets
whoever was in the way stood aside
to let him pass. Without protest he
was permitted to empty his revolver
into the belfry of the town hall and
to jump up and crack his heels to-
gether whenever he felt a-mind.
1t was nearly midnight when Sandy
Mcpherson, the tavern keeper, ham
mered on the door of Parson Wheel
er's two-room cabin down the gulch.
Billy got up to see what the matter
was.
"They got that mar from Bitter
Creek down in Shorty Macs place,
parson," said Sandy, "and they'll sure
hang him if you don't go over and
talk to 'em. Stormy Jones is. out now
hunting a rope"
The fellow had the look of a lion,
but his head had got turned on train
robber talk.
Billy fastened down to Shorty
Macs place, which was the principal
saloon and card room of the town.
The boys were sitting around on kegs
and DO Ses, smoking quietly, while the
| committee searched for a rope. The
bad man, white and in a state of utter
collapse, was under guard on a bench
in the rear.
Boys" said Billy, what are you
going to do?" 49,.
Gust hang that coyote over there"
replied Big Enough Jim Hines, the
stage driver.
"Hang him? What's he done?"
KILLED thirteen men up at Bitter
Crack; he said so h~isself."'
"But that was only in fun" replied
Billy. "That fellow never killed a
man in his life"
"Then We'll hang him for lynn
bout it," said Hines decidedly. "This
mans rode twenty miles, parson, to
come down here and show us how to.
run this town. He lowed he'd killed
thirteen men up at his diggin's and
was comm down here with loads in
his guns for thirteen more. We've
give him a fair, square trial and every
man has found him guilty. Now we're
lust waitin' on the rope. If that amt
the law I don't know what law is."
There was an approving chorus
from all the assembled humanity save
the condemned. Billy realized that
he was up against the proposition of
his frontier career. These wild; un-,
tamable spirits, yet endowed with a
high sense Of justice, were on the
borders Of civilization and chaos. A
failure here would set his work back
for many years. The task to save
this cringing braggart would be a tre-
mendous one. because his execution
ers were ~actuated, ELS they looked at
1t. by motives as fair as the laws of
Solomon.
AS the committee appeared with
the rope Billy desperately determined
to a v the man If he could, invented
a wife and children for the con-
demned and talked pathetically of
their lonely condition with the father
and bread winner taken from them.
Guided by the idea that the end JUS
tilted the means, he went ahead and
described the little cabin home in the
mountains, the mother at"her work
making and mending the clothes, the
little ones running about barefooted
and tattered, crying for the father
who would never come, and then
drew a final picture, the tragedy OF
starvation and death amid the noun
tains' solitude and the wolves feast
ing upon the forms OF mother and
| children. Cd.
Stormy Jones threw the rope under
the bar. Big Enough Jim uneaslly
| shifted his position once or twice and
held a whispered consultation with
the others. 1t was clear that .Billy's
speech had made an impression; ne
was the. one mai in the camp VINO
could make a talk and the boys would
have shot any one who doubted the
accuracy of any statement their par
| son" made.
At last Big Enough Jim, leader OF
the occasion, spoke up huskily.
"Parson, we're mighty glad you
come" he said. "You told us some
things we didn't know, an ii re
hadn't; knowed 'em we might a been
sorry for a long time. The court
hereby reverses itself an lets this
man 20 free. We're much obliged to
you"
Billy, tremendously elated, shook
hands all round and then went back
home. In the morning while the
"~parson" was waiting for his mail at