thar ain't none of us can institoote them gestures; an' when the
dumb man, on his side, puts up a few bluffs with his fingers, it's a
heap too complicated for us as a means of makin' statements. "'I
shore couldn't tell,' says Dave Tutt, as he sets watchin' the dumb
man's play, 'whether he's callin' us names or askin' for whiskey.'
"'Which if we'd thought to bring some stationery,' says Texas, after
we-all goes through our war-bags in vain, 'we might open some
successful negotiations with this person. As it is, however, we're
plumb up ag'inst it, an' I reckon, Boggs, he'll have to hang without
you an' him bein' formally introdooced.' "'Jest the same, I wishes,'
says Dave Tutt, 'that Doc Peets or Enright was along. They'd shore
dig somethin' outen this citizen.' "'Mebby he's got papers in his
wamus,' says Boggs, 'which onfolds concernin' him. Go through him,
Texas, anyhow: "All Texas can find on the dumb man is one letter;
the postmark: when we comes to decipher the same, shows he only gets
it that mornin'. Besides this yere single missif that a-way, thar
ain't a scrap of nothin' else to him; nor yet no wealth.

"'Tell us what's in the letter,' says Texas, turnin' the document
over to Boggs. 'Read her out, Dan; I'd play the hand, but I has to
ride herd on the culprit.'

"'I can't read it,' says Boggs, handin' the note to Tutt; 'I can't
read readin', let alone writin'. But I'm free to say, even without
hearin' that document none, that I shorely hesitates to string this
party up. Bein' tongueless, an' not hearin' a lick more'n adders,
somehow he keeps appealin' to me like he's locoed.'

"'Which if you ever has the pleasure to play some poker with him,'
says Tutt, as he onfolds the paper, 'like I do three nights ago, you