Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Western stories
"I'll go you!" cried Baker enthusiastically, "and the drinks, too. You
better turn Mr. Dalhart over to me for a while and watch me make a man
out of him. All I ask is that you give him the morning _Blade_."
"All right," assented Bill Todhunter, from the corner; and the next
morning Pecos received it with his breakfast. Charley Hung Wo had
provided him with an unusually tempting apple roll that morning but it
was neglected for the moment while he ran over the Court House Briefs.
He searched the whole page carefully, but there was no mention of Pecos
Dalhart, either with or without the "Q." He pondered upon the fact
during the day—having nothing else to do—and when the Friday paper
came out with nothing about the Hotel de Morgan in it he considered
the matter seriously. Then it came over him gradually—there was
nothing mysterious about it—the reporter was waiting for something
to happen—a kangaroo trial, or something like that. Well, anything for
a little excitement—why not? There were lots of things to be remedied.
The yeggs had a dirty way of tapping on the boiler-iron doors and
singing lewd songs after they were locked into their cells for the
night, a combination which broke in on his sleep; and knowing that they
were safe from his strap they persisted in this amusement until they
could sing no more, stoutly denying all knowledge of the disturbance in
the morning. It was the only revenge they could take on him and they
worked it to the limit. Not to be outdone in the matter of revenge he
drove them like a pack of peons in the morning, forcing them to do all
the cleaning while his Mexican friends rolled _cigarritos_—but that
was getting wearisome. Yet how easy it would be to change! The verdict
of a kangaroo jury is always "Guilty"—why not accuse half the yeggs of
disturbing the peace, appoint the jury from the other half, and let
yegg nature do the rest? Then sentence the prisoners at the bar to
clean up for a week. Why not, indeed!
At supper time Pecos spoke a few invitational words through the bars to
Bill Todhunter and about the time the boy reporter from the _Blade_ was
due he placed his chair against the doors and called his court to order.
"_Oyez! Oyez!_ The Kangaroo Court of Geronimo is now in session!" he
announced, in stentorian tones, and instantly the prisoners began to
assemble. "_Oyez_" was good Spanish for "Hear!" and brought out all the
Mexicans; and the Americans came on the run, eager for any excitement
to pass the time away.
"Blacky," said Pecos, addressing the one-time king of the yeggs, "bring
the Chi Kid before the bar of justice. He is accused of disturbing the
peace by singin' songs all night."
Without a moment's hesitation Philly Black laid violent hands upon his
friend and cellmate and dragged him before the court. The mandates of
the law are inexorable; and besides, Philly wanted the job of sheriff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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