American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
“Skipping over the most of what followed—when Luke came back I turned
the kid over to him. He had seen Scudder and told him what he wanted;
and it seems that Scudder got active with one of these telephones as
soon as he left. For in about an hour afterward there comes to our
hotel some of these city rangers in everyday clothes that they call
detectives, and marches the whole outfit of us to what they call a
magistrate’s court. They accuse Luke of attempted kidnapping, and ask
him what he has to say.
“‘This snipe,’ says Luke to the judge, ‘shot and wilfully punctured
with malice and forethought one of the most respected and prominent
citizens of the town of Bildad, Texas, Your Honor. And in so doing laid
himself liable to the penitence of law and order. And I hereby make
claim and demand restitution of the State of New York City for the said
alleged criminal; and I know he done it.’
“‘Have you the usual and necessary requisition papers from the governor
of your state?’ asks the judge.
“‘My usual papers,’ says Luke, ‘was taken away from me at the hotel by
these gentlemen who represent law and order in your city. They was two
Colt’s .45’s that I’ve packed for nine years; and if I don’t get ’em
back, there’ll be more trouble. You can ask anybody in Mojada County
about Luke Summers. I don’t usually need any other kind of papers for
what I do.’
“I see the judge looks mad, so I steps up and says:
“‘Your Honor, the aforesaid defendant, Mr. Luke Summers, sheriff of
Mojada County, Texas, is as fine a man as ever threw a rope or upheld
the statutes and codicils of the greatest state in the Union. But he—’
“The judge hits his table with a wooden hammer and asks who I am.
“Bud Oakley,’ says I. ‘Office deputy of the sheriff’s office of Mojada
County, Texas. Representing,’ says I, ‘the Law. Luke Summers,’ I goes
on, ‘represents Order. And if Your Honor will give me about ten minutes
in private talk, I’ll explain the whole thing to you, and show you the
equitable and legal requisition papers which I carry in my pocket.’
“The judge kind of half smiles and says he will talk with me in his
private room. In there I put the whole thing up to him in such language
as I had, and when we goes outside, he announces the verdict that the
young man is delivered into the hands of the Texas authorities; and
calls the next case.
“Skipping over much of what happened on the way back, I’ll tell you how
the thing wound up in Bildad.
“When we got the prisoner in the sheriff’s office, I says to Luke:
“‘You, remember that kid of yours—that two-year old that they stole
away from you when the bust-up come?’
“Luke looks black and angry. He’d never let anybody talk to him about
that business, and he never mentioned it himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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