The Coolidge examiner., 1931-10-23
murmur swelled. "order in tn,

! relentless force of nature, came the
great buffalo head, the romantic
! Rough Rider hat with its turned-up
brim caught by the crossed sabers;
the massive khaki-clad figure. 1t
was dramatic, it was melodramatic,
| II was ridiculous. 1t was superb.
Here was the kind of situation that
the Southwest loved and craved;
here was action, here was blood
and-thunder, here was adventure.
Here, in a word, was Cimarron.
He stood before the shOddy
judge. He swept off his hat with
a gesture that invested it with
plumes. IF it please your honor,
represent the defendant. Dixie
Lee"
No territorial judge, denying
Yancey Cravat, would have dared
to face that crowd. He cast an
other glance round-a helpless.
baffied one, this time-waved the
approaching Gwin Larkin back
with feeble gesture, and prepared
to proceed with the case according
! to the laws of the territory. Ger
tainly' the look that he turned on
Sabra Cravat as she entered
scant ten minutes later, white
faced, resOlute, and took her place
as representative Of the press, was
one of such mingled bewilderment
and reprOach as would have embar-
rassed anyone less utterly preoccu-
pied than the editor and publisher
] of fbo nlyIo lNiuxUot
Objection on the part of the slick
Pat Leary. Overruled, perfOrce,
| by the judge. A shout from the
crowd. Order! Bang! Another
shout. Law in a lawless cOmmu-
nifty not yet ten years old; COM
munity made up, for the most part,
of people whose very presence
meant impatience of the old order,
defiance of the conventions. Ten
minutes earlier they had been all
for the cocky little Leary; eager
| to cast the first stone at the wOm-
an in the temple. Now, with the
| inexplicable fickleness of the mob,
| the electric current of sympathy
| flowed out from them to the wOm-
an to be tried. to the man who
would defend her. Hot and swift
and plenty of actiOn-that was the
way the Southwest liked it's justice.
Pat Leary, Irish. ambitious. fiery.
His temper, none too even at best,
! had been lost before he even rose.
The thought of Yancey ahead of
him. the purity brigade behind him,
spurred him to his frantic. his dis
orderly charge
His years as section hand OH the
, railroad had equipped him with a
vocabulary well suited to scourge
this woman in black who sat so
| quietly, so white faced. before him.
for all the crowd to see. Adjec-
tive on adjective; vituperatiOn
words which are considered Oh
scenity outside the Bible and the
| courtroom.
A curious embarrassment seized
the crowd. There were many in
the packed room who had known
the easy hospitality Of Dixie's
menage; who had eaten at her
board, who had been broken in
Grat Gotch's gambling place and
| had borrowed money from Dixie TO
save themselves from rough from.
tier revenge. She had piled her
trade and taken the towns money
and given ii out again with the
other merchants of the town. The
banker could testify to that; the
mayor; this committee; that com
mittee. Put Dixie Lees name down
for a thousand. Part of the or
der of that disorderly. haphazard
| town.
Names, Names. Names. The
dull red of resentment deepened
the natural red of their sunburned
faces. The jurors shifted in their
| places. A low mutter, ominous
like a growl. sounded its distant
thunder Blunt. Sharp. Ruthless.
Younger than Yancey, less expert
enced, he still should have known
better These men of the made.
quate jury, these men in the court
room crowd, had come of a from
! tier background. had lived in the
| frontier atmosphere. In their rough
Z yOulHY anu hOWS hOliSu were
scarce, with the scarcity that the
hard life predicated. And because
! they were scarce they were pre-
cious. No woman so plain, so hard,
so undesirable that she did not
! take on, by the very fact of ner
sex, a value far beyond her des-
serts. The attitude of a whole ma.
tion had been touched by this sen,
timental fact which was, after all.
! largely geographic. For a full CEN
tury the countries of Europe, be-
wildered by it. unable to account
| for it, had laughed at this adde's
cent reverence of the American
man for the American woman.
Leary finished in a burst of ora
tory so ruthless, so brutal that he
had the satisfaction of seeing thA
painful, unaccustOmed red surge
thickly over Dixie Lees pale face
from her brow down to where the
ladylike white turnover of her high
collar met the line of her throat.
The pompOus little Irishman
seated himself, chest out, head
high, eye rowing the crowd and the
! bench. lips open with se!f-satiSfac-
ton. A few more cases like this
and maybe they'd see there was
material for a territory governor
right here in Usage.
| Tho oro,-5 cbiftod D1urropro6