'
"'That's right,' says Cherokee, 'I remembers now than is two. The
kyards is comin' some Tast, an' I overlooks a bet.'
"We-alls gets Cherokee in all right, an' next day 'round comes the
female tenderfoot to see him.
"'I wants to thank my defender,' she says.
"'You ain't onder no obligations, whatever, ma'am', says Cherokee,
risin' up a little, while Faro Nell puts another goose-h'ar piller
onder him. 'I simply prefers to do my fightin' in the canyon to
doin' it at the ford; that's all. It's only a matter of straight
business; nothin' more'n a preference I has. Another thing, ma'am;
you-all forgives it, seein' I'm a gent onused to childish ways: but
when I makes the play you names, I simply seizes on them savages
that a-way as an excuse to get loose from them blessed children of
your'n a whole lot.'"
CHAPTER X.
TEXAS THOMPSON'S "ELECTION."
"An' between us," remarked the Old Cattle man, the observation being
relevant to the subject of our conversation on the occasion of one
of our many confabs, "between you an' me, I ain't none shore about
the merits of what you-all calls law an' order. Now a pains-takin'
an' discreet vig'lance committee is my notion of a bulwark.
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