I was passin by, he began, by way of apology, and I thought Id just step in and see how things was gittin on with Tennessee tharmy pardner. Its a hot night. I disremember any sich weather before on the Bar.
He paused a moment, but nobody volunteering any other meteorological recollection, he again had recourse to his pocket handkerchief, and for some moments mopped his face diligently.
Have you anything to say in behalf of the prisoner? said the Judge, finally.
Thets it, said Tennessees Partner, in a tone of relief. I come yar as Tennessees pardnerknowing him nigh on four year, off and on, wet and dry, in luck and out o luck. His ways aint allers my ways, but thar aint any pints in that young man, thar aint any liveliness as hes been up to, as I dont know. And you sez to me, sez youconfidential-like, and between man and mansez you, Do you know anything in his behalf? and I sez to you, sez Iconfidential-like, as between man and manWhat should a man know of his pardner?
Is this all you have to say? asked the Judge impatiently, feeling, perhaps, that a dangerous sympathy of humor was beginning to humanize the Court.
Thets so, continued Tennessees Partner. It aint for me to say anything agin him. And now, whats the case? Heres Tennessee wants money, wants it bad, and doesnt like to ask it of his old pardner. Well, what does Tennessee do? He lays for a stranger, and he fetches that stranger. And you lays for HIM, and you fetches HIM; and the honors is easy. And I put it to you, bein a far-minded man, and to you, gentlemen, all, as far-minded men, ef this isnt so.
Prisoner, said the Judge, interrupting, have you any questions to ask this man?
No! no! continued Tennessees Partner, hastily. I play this yer hand alone. To come down to the bedrock, its just this: Tennessee, thar, has played it pretty rough and expensive-like on a stranger, and on this yer camp. And now, whats the fair thing? Some would say more; some would say less. Heres seventeen hundred dollars in coarse gold and a watchits about all my pileand call it square! And before a hand could be raised to prevent him, he had emptied the contents of the carpetbag upon the table.
For a moment his life was in jeopardy. One or two men sprang to their feet, several hands groped for hidden weapons, and a suggestion to throw him from the window was only overridden by a gesture from the Judge. Tennessee laughed. And apparently oblivious of the excitement, Tennessees Partner improved the opportunity to mop his face again with his handkerchief.
When order was restored, and the man was made to understand, by the use of forcible figures and rhetoric, that Tennessees offense could not be condoned by money, his face took a more serious and sanguinary hue, and those who were nearest to him noticed that his rough hand trembled slightly on the table. He hesitated a moment as he slowly returned the gold to the carpetbag, as if he had not yet entirely caught the elevated sense of justice which swayed the tribunal, and was perplexed with the belief that he had not offered enough. Then he turned to the Judge, and saying, This yer is a lone hand, played alone, and without my pardner, he bowed to the jury and was about to withdraw when the Judge called him back. If you have anything to say to Tennessee, you had better say it now. For the first time that evening the eyes of the prisoner and his strange advocate met. Tennessee smiled, showed his white teeth, and, saying, Euchred, old man! held out his hand. Tennessees Partner took it in his own, and saying, I just dropped in as I was passin to see how things was gettin on, let the hand passively fall, and adding that it was a warm night, again mopped his face with his handkerchief, and without another word withdrew.
The two men never again met each other alive. For the unparalleled insult of a bribe offered to Judge Lynchwho, whether bigoted, weak, or narrow, was at least incorruptiblefirmly fixed in the mind of that mythical personage any wavering determination of Tennessees fate; and at the break of day he was marched, closely guarded, to meet it at the top of Marleys Hill.
How he met it, how cool he was, how he refused to say anything, how perfect were the arrangements of the committee, were all duly reported, with the addition of a warning moral and example to all future evildoers, in the RED DOG CLARION, by its editor, who was present, and to whose vigorous English I cheerfully refer the reader. But the beauty of that midsummer morning, the blessed amity of earth and air and sky, the awakened life of the free woods and hills, the joyous renewal and promise of Nature, and above all, the infinite Serenity that thrilled through each, was not reported, as not being a part of the social lesson. And yet, when the weak and foolish deed was done, and a life, with its possibilities and responsibilities, had passed out of the misshapen thing that dangled between earth and sky, the birds sang, the flowers bloomed, the sun shone, as cheerily as before; and possibly the RED DOG CLARION was right.
Tennessees Partner was not in the group that surrounded the ominous tree. But as they turned to disperse attention was drawn to the singular appearance of a motionless donkey cart halted at the side of the road. As they approached, they at once recognized the venerable Jenny and the two-wheeled cart as the property of Tennessees Partnerused by him in carrying dirt from his claim; and a few paces distant the owner of the equipage himself, sitting under a buckeye tree, wiping the perspiration from his glowing face. In answer to an inquiry, he said he had come for the body of the diseased, if it was all the same to the committee. He didnt wish to hurry anything; he could wait. He was not working that day; and when the gentlemen were done with the diseased, he would take him. Ef thar is any present, he added, in his simple, serious way, as would care to jine in the funl, they kin come. Perhaps it was from a sense of humor, which I have already intimated was a feature of Sandy Barperhaps it was from something even better than that; but two-thirds of the loungers accepted the invitation at once.
It was noon when the body of Tennessee was delivered into the hands of his Partner. As the cart drew up to the fatal tree, we noticed that it contained a rough, oblong boxapparently made from a section of sluicing and half-filled with bark and the tassels of pine. The cart was further decorated with slips of willow, and made fragrant with buckeye blossoms. When the body was deposited in the box, Tennessees Partner drew over it a piece of tarred canvas, and gravely mounting the narrow seat in front, with his feet upon the shafts, urged the little donkey forward. The equipage moved slowly on, at that decorous pace which was habitual with Jenny even under less solemn circumstances. The menhalf curiously, half jestingly, but all good-humoredlystrolled along beside the cart; some in advance, some a little in the rear of the homely catafalque. But, whether from the narrowing of the road or some present sense of decorum, as the cart passed on, the company fell to the rear in couples, keeping step, and otherwise assuming the external show of a formal procession. Jack Folinsbee, who had at the outset played a funeral march in dumb show upon an imaginary trombone, desisted, from a lack of sympathy and appreciationnot having, perhaps, your true humorists capacity to be content with the enjoyment of his own fun.
The way led through Grizzly Canyonby this time clothed in funereal drapery and shadows. The redwoods, burying their moccasined feet in the red soil, stood in Indian file along the track, trailing an uncouth benediction from their bending boughs upon the passing bier. A hare, surprised into helpless inactivity, sat upright and pulsating in the ferns by the roadside as the cortege went by. Squirrels hastened to gain a secure outlook from higher boughs; and the bluejays, spreading their wings, fluttered before them like outriders, until the outskirts of Sandy Bar were reached, and the solitary cabin of Tennessees Partner.