"'Which I'll show you-all what happens when folks loads a gun for me!'
says Silver Phil.

"Nacherally, this artillery practice turns out the entire plaza. The
folks is standin' about the 'doby which confines Silver Phil, wonderin'
whatever that enthoosiast's goin' to do next. No, they don't come
after him, an' I'll tell you why. Shore, thar's twenty gents lookin'
on, any one of whom, so far as personal apprehensions is involved,
would trail Silver Phil single-handed into a wolf's den. Which he'd
feel plumb confident he gets away with Silver Phil an' the wolves
thrown in to even up the odds. Still, no one stretches forth to
capture Silver Phil on this yere voylent o'casion. An' these is the
reasons. Thar's no reg'lar offishul present whose dooty it is to rope
up this Silver Phil. If sech had chanced to be thar, you can put down
a stack he'd come a-runnin', an' him or Silver Phil would have caught
up with the two gyards on their journey into the beyond. But when it
gets down to private people volunteerin' for dooty as marshals, folks
in the Southwest goes some slothful to work. Thar's the friends of the
accoosed--an' as a roole he ain't none friendless--who would mighty
likely resent sech zeal. Also, in the case of Silver Phil, his
captivity grows out of a cattle war. One third the public so far as it
stands about the 'doby where Silver Phil is hived that time is
'Three-D' adherents, mebby another third is 'K-in-a-box' folks, while
the last third is mighty likely nootral. Whichever way it breaks,
however, thar's a tacit stand-off, an' never a sport of 'em lifts a
finger or voice to head off Silver Phil.

"'Which she's the inalien'ble right of Americans onder the
constitootion to escape with every chance they gets,' says one.