Part 48 (1/2)

”Thet paper don't 'mount ter beans, no how!” he said, quietly but explanatively as he returned to the bed.

It was Lawyer Maxwell's turn to become dumb. In his astonished abstraction he forgot to wipe his mouth, and gazed at Gabriel with his nervous smile as if his client had just perpetrated a practical joke of the first magnitude.

”Ef it's the same to you, I'll just gin ye me idee of a de-fence,” said Gabriel, apologetically, relighting his pipe, ”allowin' o' course that you knows best, and askin' no deduckshun from your charges for advice.

Well, you jess stands up afore the jedge, and you slings 'em a yarn suthin' like this: 'Yer's me, for instans,' you sez, sez you, 'ez gambols--gambols very deep--jess fights the tiger, wharever and whenever found, the same bein' onbeknownst ter folks gin'rally, and spechil te my wife, ez was July. Yer's me been gambolin' desprit with this yer man, Victyor Ramyirez, and gets lifted bad! and we hez, so to speak, a differculty about some pints in the game. I allows one thing, he allows another, and this yer man gives me the lie and I stabs him!' Stop--hole your hosses!” interjected Gabriel, suddenly, ”thet looks bad, don't it?

he bein' a small man, a little feller 'bout your size. No! Well, this yer's the way we puts it up: 'Seving men--_seving_--friends o' his, comes at me, permiskis like, one down, and nex' comes on, and we hez it mighty lively thar fur an hour, until me, bein' in a tight place, hez to use a knife and cuts this yer man bad!' Thar, that's 'bout the thing!

Now ez to my runnin' away, you sez, sez you, ez how I disremembers owin'

to the 'citement that I hez a 'pintent in Sacramento the very nex' day, and waltzes down yer to keep it, in a hurry. Ef they want to know whar July ez, you sez she gits wild on my not comin' home, and starts that very night arter me. Thar, thet's 'bout my idee--puttin' it o' course in your own shape, and slingin' in them bits o' po'try and garbage, and kinder sa.s.sin' the plaintiff's counsel, ez you know goes down afore a jedge and jury.”

Maxwell rose hopelessly,--”Then, if I understand you, you intend to admit”----

”Thet I done it? In course!” replied Gabriel; ”but,” he added, with a cunning twinkle in his eye, ”justifybly--justifyble homyside, ye mind!--bein' in fear o' my life from seving men. In course,” he added, hurriedly, ”I can't identify them seving strangers in the dark, so thar's no harm or suspicion goin' to be done enny o' the boys in the Gulch.”

Maxwell walked gravely to the window, and stood looking out without speaking. Suddenly he turned upon Gabriel with a brighter face and more earnest manner. ”Where's Olly?”

Gabriel's face fell. He hesitated a moment. ”I was on my way to the school in Sacramento whar she iz.”

”You must send for her--I must see her at once!”

Gabriel laid his powerful hand on the lawyer's shoulder. ”She izn't--that chile--to knows anythin' o' this. You hear?” he said, in a voice that began in tones of deprecation, and ended in a note of stern warning.

”How are you to keep it from her?” said Maxwell, as determinedly. ”In less than twenty-four hours every newspaper in the state will have it--with their own version and comments. No; you must see her. She must hear it first from your own lips.”

”But--I--can't--see--her just now,” said Gabriel, with a voice that for the first time during their interview faltered in its accents.

”Nor need you,” responded the lawyer, quickly. ”Trust that to me. _I_ will see her, and you shall afterwards. You need not fear I will prejudice your case. Give me the address! Quick!” he added, as the sound of footsteps and voices approaching the room, came from the hall.

Gabriel did as he requested. ”Now one word,” he continued hurriedly, as the footsteps halted at the door.

”Yes,” said Gabriel.

”As you value your life and Olly's happiness, hold your tongue.”

Gabriel nodded with cunning comprehension. The door opened to Mr. Jack Hamlin, diabolically mischievous, self-confident and audacious! With a familiar nod to Maxwell he stepped quickly before Gabriel and extended his hand. Simply, yet conscious of obeying some vague magnetic influence, Gabriel reached out his own hand and took Jack's white, nervous fingers in his own calm, ma.s.sive grasp.

”Glad to see you, pard!” said that gentleman, showing his white teeth and reaching up to clap his disengaged hand on Gabriel's shoulder. ”Glad to see you, old boy,--even if you have cut in and taken a job out of my hands that I was rather lyin' by to do myself. Sooner or later I'd have fetched that Mexican--if you hadn't dropped into my seat and taken up my hand. Oh, it's all right, Mack!” he said, intercepting the quick look of caution that Maxwell darted at his client, ”don't do that. We're all friends here. If you want me to testify, I'll take my oath that there hasn't been a day this six months that that infernal hound, Ramirez, wasn't jest pantin' to be planted in his tracks! I can hardly believe I ain't done it myself.” He stopped, partly to enjoy the palpable uneasiness of Maxwell, and perhaps in some admiration of Gabriel's physique.

Maxwell quickly seized this point of vantage. ”You can do your friend here a very great service,” he said to Jack, lowering his voice as he spoke.

Jack laughed. ”No, Mack, it won't do! They wouldn't believe me! There ain't judge or jury you could play that on!”

”You don't understand me,” said Maxwell, laughing a little awkwardly. ”I didn't mean that, Jack. This man was going to Sacramento to see his little sister”----

”Go on,” said Jack, with much gravity; ”of course he was. I know that.

'Dear brother, dear brother, come home with me now!' Certainly. So'm I.

Goin' to see an innocent little thing 'bout seventeen years old, blue eyes and curly hair! Always go there once a week. Says he must come!

Says she'll”----he stopped in the full tide of his irony, for, looking up, he caught a glimpse of Gabriel's simple, troubled face and sadly reproachful eyes. ”Look here,” said Jack, turning savagely on Maxwell, ”what are you talking about anyway?”

”I mean what I say,” returned Maxwell, quickly. ”He was going to see his sister--a mere child. Of course he can't go now. But he must see her--if she can be brought to him. Can you--_will_ you do it?”