alcade to be hanged; the time bein' set in a crazy-hoss fashion for a
month away. As Silver Phil--which he's that bad an' hard he comes
mighty clost to bein; game--is leavin' the co't-room with the marshal
who's ridin' herd on him, he says:

"'I ain't payin' much attention at the time,'--Silver Phil's talkin' to
that marshal gent,--'bein' I'm thinkin' of something else, but do I
onderstand that old grey sport on the bench to say you-all is to hang
me next month?'

"'That's whatever!' assents this marshal gent, 'an' you can gamble a
bloo stack that hangin' you is a bet we ain't none likely to overlook.
Which we're out to put our whole grateful souls into the dooty.'

"'Now I thinks of it,' observes Silver Phil, 'I'm some averse to bein'
hanged. I reckons, speakin' free an' free as between fellow sports,
that in order for that execootion to be a blindin' success I'll have to
be thar personal?'

"'It's one of the mighty few o'casions,' responds the marshal, 'when
your absence would shorely dash an' damp the gen'ral joy. As you says,
you'll have to be thar a heap personal when said hangin' occurs.'

"'I'm mighty sorry,' says Silver Phil, 'that you-all lays out your game
in a fashion that so much depends on me. The more so, since the longer
I considers this racket, the less likely it is I'll be thar. It's
almost a cinch, with the plans I has, that I'll shore be some'ers else.'

"They corrals Silver Phil in the one big upper room of a two-story
'doby, an' counts off a couple of dep'ty marshals to gyard him. These