He pulled back from the winder and I heard him say to somebody: 'It ain't no use. Them Bear Creek devils are the most uncivilized white men I ever seen in my life. You cain't do nothin' with one of 'em. I'm goin' to send some men back to look for the gold around that creek we found him climbin' out of. I got a idee he hid it in a holler tree somewheres. He's that much like a b'ar. Likely he hid it and then run and got in the creek jest to throw us off the scent. Thought he'd make us think he hid it on t'other side of the creek. I bet he hid it in a tree this side somewheres.
'I'm goin' to git some food and some sleep. I didn't git to bed at all last night. You fellers watch him clost, and if folks git too rambunctious around the jail, call me quick.'
'Ain't nobody around the jail now,' said a familiar voice.
'I know,' says the sheriff. 'They're back in town lickerin' up at all the bars. But Elkins is got plenty of enemies here, and they ain't no tellin' what might bust loose before mornin'.'
I heard him leave, and then they was silence, except for some men whispering off somewheres nearby but talking too low for me to make out what they was saying. I could hear noises coming from the town, snatches of singing, and a occasional yell, but no pistol-shooting like they usually is. The jail was on the aidge of town, and the winder looked in the other direction, acrost a narrer clearing with thick woods bordering it.
Purty soon a man come and stuck his head up to the winder and I seen by the starlight that it was Wild Bill Donovan.
'Well, Elkins,' says he, 'you think you've finally found a jail which can hold you?'
'What you doin' hangin' around here?' I muttered.
He patted his shotgun and said: 'Me and four of my friends has been app'inted special guards. But I tell you what I'll do. I hate to see a man down and out like you be, and booted out by his own family and shore to do at least fifteen years in the pen. You tell me where you hid that there gold, and give me Cap'n Kidd, and I'll contrive to let you escape before mornin'. I got a fast hoss hid out there in the thickets, right over yonder, see? You can fork that hoss and be gone outa the country before the sheriff could catch you. All you got to do is give me Cap'n Kidd, and that gold. What you say?'
'I wouldn't give you Cap'n Kidd,' I said, 'not if they was goin' to hang me.'
'Well,' he sneered, ''tain't none too shore they ain't. They's plenty of rope-law talk in town tonight. Folks are purty well wrought up over you shootin' old Jim Harrigan.'
'I didn't shoot him, damn yore soul!' I said.
'You'll have a hell of a time provin' it,' says he, and turnt around and walked around towards the other end of the jail with his shotgun under his arm.
Well, I dunno how long I sot there with my head in my hands and jest suffered. Noises from the town seemed dim and far off. I didn't care if they come and lynched me before morning, I was that low-spirited. I would of bawled if I could of worked up enough energy, but I was too low for that even.
Then somebody says: 'Breckinridge!' and I looked up and seen Glory McGraw looking in at the winder with the rising moon behind her.
'Go ahead and t'ant me,' I said numbly. 'Everything else has happened to me. You might as well, too.'
'I ain't goin' to t'ant you!' she said fiercely. 'I come here to help you, and I aim to, no matter what you says!'
'You better not let Donovan see you talkin' to me,' I says.
'I done seen him,' she said. 'He didn't want to let me come to the winder, but I told him I'd go to the sheriff for permission if he didn't, so he said he'd let me talk ten minutes. Listen: did he offer to help you escape if you'd do somethin' for him?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'Why?'
She ground her teeth slightly.
'I thought so!' says she. 'The dirty rat! I come through the woods, and snuck on foot the last few hundred feet to git a look at the jail before I come out in the open. They's a hoss tied out there in the thickets and a man hidin' behind a log right nigh it with a sawed-off shotgun. Donovan's always hated you, ever since you taken Cap'n Kidd away from him. He aimed to git you shot whilst tryin' to escape. When I seen that ambush I jest figgered on somethin' like that.'
'How'd you git here?' I ast, seeing she seemed to really mean what she said about helping me.
'I follered the posse and yore kinfolks when they came down from Bear Creek,' she said. 'I kept to the bresh on my pony, and was within hearin' when they stopped you on the trail. After everybody had left I went and caught Cap'n Kidd, and--'
'You caught Cap'n Kidd!' I said in dumbfoundment.
'Certainly,' says she. 'Hosses has frequently got more sense than men. He'd come back to the creek where he'd saw you last and looked like he was plumb broken-hearted because he couldn't find you. I turnt the pony loose and started him home, and I come on to Chawed Ear on Cap'n Kidd.'
'Well, I'm a saw-eared jackrabbit!' I said helplessly.
'Hosses knows who their friends is,' says she. 'Which is more'n I can say for some men. Breckinridge, pull out of this! Tear this blame jail apart and le's take to the hills! Cap'n Kidd's waitin' out there behind that big clump of oaks. They'll never catch you!'
'I ain't got the strength, Glory,' I said helplessly. 'My strength has oozed out of me like licker out of a busted jug. What's the use to bust jail, even if I could? I'm a marked man, and a broken man. My own kin has throwed me down. I got no friends.'
'You have, too!' she said fiercely. 'I ain't throwed you down. I'm standin' by you till hell freezes!'
'But folks thinks I'm a thief and a liar!' I says, about ready to weep.
'What I care what they thinks?' says she. 'If you was all them things, I'd still stand by you! But you ain't, and I know it!'
For a second I couldn't see her because my sight got blurry, but I groped and found her hand tense on the winder bar, and I said: 'Glory, I dunno what to say. I been a fool, and thought hard things about you, and--'
'Forgit it,' says she. 'Listen: if you won't bust out of here, we got to prove to them fools that you didn't rob that stage. And we got to do it quick, because them strangers Hurley and Jackson and Slade air in town circulatin' around through the bars and stirrin' them fool Chawed Ear folks up to lynchin' you. A mob's liable to come bustin' out of town any minute. Won't you tell me where you got that there gold they found in yore saddle-bags? I know you never stole it, but if you was to tell me, it might help us.'
I shaken my head helplessly.
'I cain't tell you,' I said. 'Not even you. I promised not to. A Elkins cain't break his word.'
'Ha!' says she. 'Listen: did some stranger meet you and give you that poke of gold to give to his starvin' wife and chillern, and make you promise not to tell nobody where you got it, because his life was in danger?'
'Why, how'd you know?' I exclaimed in amazement.
'So that was it!' she exclaimed, jumping up and down in her excitement. 'How'd I know? Because I know you, you big bone-headed mush-hearted chump! Lissen: don't you see how they worked you? This was a put-up job.
'Jugbelly got you off and made you drink so's you'd be outa the way and couldn't prove no alibi. Then somebody that looked like you robbed the stage and shot old man Harrigan in the laig jest to make the crime wuss. Then this feller what's-his-name give you the money so they'd find it onto you!'
'It looks sensible!' I said dizzily.
'It's bound to be!' says she. 'Now all we got to do is find Jugbelly and the feller which give you the gold, and the bay mare the robber rode. But first we got to find a man which has got it in for you enough to frame you like that.'
'That's a big order,' I says. 'Nevada's full of gents which would give their eye-teeth to do me a injury.'
'A big man,' she mused. 'Big enough to be mistook for you, with his head shaved, and ridin' a big bay mare. Hmmmmm! A man which hates you enough to do anything to you, and is got sense enough to frame somethin' like this!'
And jest then Wild Bill Donovan come around the corner of the jail with his shotgun under his arm.
'You've talked to that jail-bird long enough, gal,' he says. 'You better pull out. The noise is gettin' louder all the time in town, and it wouldn't surprise me to see quite a bunch of folks comin' to the jail before long--with a necktie for yore friend there.'
