Part 23 (1/2)

”'What you tells this sport,' says Texas Thompson, who's listenin' to Enright, 'echoes my sentiments exact. Anything to keep out law! It ain't alone the jedgments for divorce which my wife grabs off over in Laredo, but it comes to me as the frootes of a experience which has been as wide as it has been plenty soon, that law is only another word for trouble in egreegious forms.'

”'So I decides,' retorts Enright. 'Still, I'm proud to be endorsed by as good a jedge of public disorder an' its preventives as Texas Thompson. Sech approvals ever tends to stiffen a gent's play. As I states, I reeverses this pract.i.tioner an' heads him t'other way.

Wolfville is the home of friendly confidence; the throne of yoonity an'

fraternal peace. It must not be jeopardised. We-all don't want to incur no resks by abandonin' ourse'fs to real sh.o.r.e-enough law. It would debauch us: we'd get plumb locoed an' take to racin' wild an'

cimarron up an' down the range, an' no gent could foresee results.

It's better than even money, that with the advent of a law sharp into our midst, historians of this hamlet would begin their last chapter.

They would head her: ”Wolfville's Last Days.”

”'It's twenty years ago,' goes on Enright, 'while I'm that season in Texas, that a sharp packs his blankets into Yellow City an' puts it up he'll practice some law. No; he ain't wanted, but he never does give no gent a chance to say so. He comes trackin' in onannounced, an' the first we-all saveys, thar's his sign a-swingin', an' ashoorin' the sports of Yellow City of the presence of

AARON GREEN, ESQ. ATTORNEY-AT-LAW.

”'n.o.body gets excited; for while we agrees to prevail on him ultimately to s.h.i.+ft his camp a heap, the sityooation don't call for nothin'

preecipitate. In fact, the idee of him or any other besotted person turnin' loose that a-way in Yellow City, strikes us as loodicrous.

Thar's nothing for a law-gent to do. I've met up with a heap of camps in my day; an' I've witnessed the work of many a vig'lance committee; but I'm yere to state that for painstakin' ardour an' a energy that never sleeps, the Stranglers of Yellow City is a even break with the best. They uses up a bale of half-inch rope a year; an' as for law an'

order an' a scene of fragrant peace, that outfit is comparable only with flower gyardens on a quiet hazy August afternoon.

”'This Aaron Green who prounces thus on Yellow City, intendin' to foment litigations an' go ropin' 'round for fees, is plenty young; but he's that grave an' dignified that owls is hilarious to him. One after the other, he tackles us in a severe onmitigated way, an' shoves his professional kyard onto each an' tells him that whenever he feels ill-used to come a-runnin' an' have his rights preserved. Sh.o.r.e! the boys meets this law person half way. They drinks with him an' fills him up with licker an' fictions alternate, an' altogether regyards him as a mighty yoomerous prop'sition.

”'Also, observin' how tender he is, an' him takin' in their various lies like texts of holy writ, they names him ”Easy Aaron.” Which he don't look on ”Easy Aaron” none too well as a t.i.tle, an' insists on bein' called ”Jedge Green” or even ”Squar' Green.” But Yellow City won't have it; she sticks to ”Easy Aaron”; an' as callin' down the entire camp offers prospects full of fever an' oncertainty, he at last pa.s.ses up the insult an' while he stays among us, pays no further heed.

”'Doorin' the weeks he harbours with us, a gen'ral taste deevelops to hear this Easy Aaron's eloquence. Thar's a delegation waits on him an'

requests Easy Aaron to come forth an' make a speech. We su'gests that he can yootilise the Burnt Boot Saloon as a auditorium, an' offers as a subject ”Texas: her Glorious Past, her Glitterin' Present, an' her Transcendent Footure!”

”'”Thar's a topic!” says Shoestring Griffith to Easy Aaron--Shoestring is the cha'rman of the committee,--”thar's a burnin' topic for you!

An' if you-all will only come surgin' over to the Burnt Boot right now while you're warm for the event, I offers two to one you makes Cicero look like seven cents.”

”'But Easy Aaron waves 'em arrogantly away. He declines to go barkin'

at a knot. He says it'll be soon enough to onbuckle an' swamp Yellow City with a flood of eloquence when proper legal o'casion enfolds.

”'In the room to the r'ar of the apartments where this Easy Aaron holds forth as a pract.i.tioner, thar's a farobank as is nacheral enough. It's about second drink time in the afternoon, bein' a time of day when the faro game is dead. A pa.s.sel of conspirators, with Shoestring Griffith in the lead, goes to this room an' reelaxes into a game of draw. Easy Aaron can hear the flutter of the chips through the part.i.tion--the same bein' plenty thin--where he's camped like a spider in its web an'

waitin' for some sport who needs law to show up. Easy Aaron listens careless an' indifferent to Shoestring an' his fellow blacklaigs as they deals an' antes an' raises an' rakes in pots, an' everybody mighty joobilant as is frequent over poker.

”'Of a suddent, roars an' yells an' reecriminations yoosurps the place of merriment. Then the guns! An' half the lead comes spittin' an'

splittin' through that intervenin' part.i.tion like she's kyardboard.

The bullets flies high enough to miss Easy Aaron, but low enough to invoke a gloomy frame of mind.

”'This yere artillery practice don't continyoo long before Yellow City descends on Shoestring an' his band of homicides; an' when they've got 'em sorted out, thar's Billy Goodnight too defunct to skin, an'

Shoestring Griffith does it.

”'Thar's no time lost; the Stranglers convenes in the Burnt Boot, an'

exact jestice stands on expectant tiptoe for its prey. But Shoestring raises objections.

”'”Which before ever you-all reptiles takes my innocent life,” says Shoestring, ”I wants a lawyer. I swings off in style or I don't swing.

You hear me! send across for Easy Aaron. You can gamble, I'm going to interpose a defense.”

”'”That's but right,” says Waco Anderson who's the chief of the Stranglers. ”a.s.sembled as we be to revenge the ontimely pluggin' of the late Billy Goodnight, still this Shoestring may demand a even deal.