He sassed Rawhide again,
and told him to mind his own business and give advice when it was
asked for, and struck at him. Rawhide hit back, and then I heard a
shot, and Rawhide fell over. I looked around quick, and started
to pull my gun, but a bullet hit me here--" Mr. Swift laid gentle
finger-tips upon his arm near the shoulder--"so I couldn't. I saw it
was Jack Allen shooting and coming towards us from a clump of bushes
off to the right of us. He shot again, and Texas Bill fell. I ducked
behind a bush and started for help, when I met the Captain and a few
others coming out to see what was the matter. That," finished Mr.
Swift, "is the facts of the case, just as they happened."
The Captain waited a minute or two, that the "facts" might sink deep
into the minds of the listeners.
"Were any shots fired by any one except Allen?" he asked coldly, when
the silence was sufficiently emphasized.
"There were not. Nobody," Swift flashed with a very human resentment,
"had a chance after he commenced!" He flushed at the involuntary
tribute to the prowess of his enemy, when he saw that maddening
grin appear again on Jack's lips; a grin which called him liar and
scoundrel and in the same flicker defied him.
The investigation took on the color of a sensation at that point,
when the stranger sprang suddenly to his feet and stood glaring at the
witness. There were no signs now of tears or weakness; he was a man
fighting for what he believed to be right and just.
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