The Washington herald., 1920-06-13

he. for this to be. It's contrary
to law and order. It's wrote as
plain as day here-"Cus-to-dy of
the child
There is what you might call
human leaning says /. toward
smashing 'em both-not to men
tion the child
Judge Simmons goes on Luke.
lis Incorporated officer OF the
law. She can't take the boy away.
He belongs to me by statutes
passed and approved by the State
of Texas
And he's removed from the
jurisdiction of mundane manda-
muses.. says I. by the unearthly
statutes of female partiality.
Let us praise the Lord and be
thankful for whatever small mer-
cies-' l begins; but I see Luke
don't listen to me. Tired as ne
was. he calls for a fresh horse
and starts back again for the sta
tion.
He come back two weeks af-
terward, not saying much.
I'VE can't get the trail says
he; but we've done all the tele-
graphing that the wires'H stand.
and we've got these city rangers
they call detectives on the look
out. In the meantime. Bud says
he. well round up them cows on
Brush Creek. and wait for the law
to take its course"
And after that We never alluded
to illusions. as you might say.
skipping over much what hap
pened in the next twelve years.
Luke was made sheriff of Mojada
County. He made me his office
deputy. Now. don't get in your
mind no wrong apparitions of an
office deputy doing sums in a book
or MASKING letters in cider
press. In them days his job was
10 watch the back windows so
nobody didn't plug the sheriff in
the rear while he was adding up
mileage at his desk in front. And
in them days l had qualifications
for the job. And there was law
and order in Mojada County, and
schoolbooks and all the whisky
you wanted. and the government
built its own battleships instead
of collecting nickels from the
school children to do il with. And
as / say, there was law and order
instead of enactments and restric-
tions such as disfigure our UNI
pire State today. We had our Of
fee at Bildad, the county. seat.
from which we emerged forth on
necessary occasions to soOthe
whatever fracases and unrest that
might occur in our jurisdiction.
skipping over much what hap
pened while me and Luke was
sheriff. / want to give you an
idea of how the law was respected
in them days. Lake was what
you would call one of the most
conscious men in the world. He
never knew much book law. but
he had the inner emoluments of
justice and mercy inculcated into
his system. If a respectable citizen
shot a Mexican or held up a train
and cleaned out the safe in the
express car and Luke ever got
hold of him, he'd give the guilty
party such a reprimand and a
cussin' out that he'd probably
never do il again. But once let
somebody steal a horse (unless IL
was a Spanish pony), or cut a
wire fence. or otherwise impair
the peace and indignity of Mojads
County. Luke and me would be on
EN- with habeas corpuses and
smokeless powder and all the
modern inventions of equity and
etiquette.
I'VE certainly had our county
on basis of lawfulness. I've
known persons of Eastern classi-
fication with little spotted caps
. and buttoned-up shoes to get off
the train at Bildad and eat sand
wiches at the railroad station
without being shot at or even
roped and drug about by the citi-
zens of the town.
Luke had his own ideas of le-
gality and justice. He was kind
of training me to succeed him
when he went out of Office. He
was always looking ahead to the
time when he'd quit sheriffing.
What he wanted to do was to
build yellow house with lattice
work under the porch and have
hens scratching in the yard. The
one main thing in his mind
seemed to be the yard.
Bud he says to me, by in
stlnct ana sentiment m COM
tractor. I want to be a contractor.
That's what I'll be when l get out
OF office
"'What kind OF a contractor?
says !. 1T sounds like a kind of
a business to me. You amt going
to haul cement or establish
branches or work on a railroad,
are your
"'You don't understand says
Luke. I'm tired of space and
horizons and territory and dis
tances and things like that. What
/ want Is reasonable contraction.
/ want a yard with a fence around
1t that you can 60 out and set on
after supper and listen to whip
poor-wills,' says Luke.
That's the kind of a man he
was. He was home like. although
he'd had bad luck in such invest
ments. But he never talked about
them times on the ranch. IL
seemed like he'd forgotten about
II. l wondered how, with his ideas
of yards and chickens and notions
of lattice work, he'd seemed to
have got out of bis mind that kid