“Gentlemen,” he said, assuming a manner, “did your honorable peace officer here tell you what he said about the wife of the man who is layin’ wounded and helpless in his own house?  And did your honorable peace officer tell you-all that it is her money that is payin’ for the board and doctorin’ of Tony Brewster, likewise layin’ wounded and helpless in your midst?  And did your honorable peace officer tell you that Jim Waring is goin’ to leave comfortable and peaceful just as soon as the A’mighty and the doc’ll turn him loose?  Well, I seen he was talkin’ to you, and I figured he might ‘a’ been tellin’ you these things, but I wa’n’t sure.  Was you-all thinkin’ of stoppin’ me?  Such doin’s!  Why, when I was a kid I used to ride into towns like this frequent, turn ’em bottom side up, spank ’em, and send ’em bawlin’ to their—­to their city marshal, and I ain’t dead yet.  Now, I come peaceful and payin’ my way, but if they’s any one here got any objections to how I wear my vest or eat my pie, why, he can just oil up his objection, load her, and see that she pulls easy and shoots straight.  I ain’t no charity organization, but I’m handin’ you some first-class life insurance free.”

That afternoon Buck Hardy arrived, accompanied by a deputy.  Andy Brewster again made deposition that without cause Waring had attacked and killed his brothers.  Hardy had a long consultation with Shoop, and later notified Brewster that he was under arrest as an accomplice in the murder of Pat and for aiding the murderer to escape.  While circumstantial evidence pointed directly toward the Brewsters, who had threatened openly from time to time to “get” Pat, there was valuable evidence missing in Waco, who, it was almost certain, had been an eye-witness of the tragedy.  Waco had been traced to the town of Grant, at which place Hardy and his men had lost the trail.  The demolished buckboard had been found by the roadside.  Hardy had tracked the automobile to Grant.

Shoop suggested that Waco might have taken a freight out of town.  Despite Hardy’s argument that Waco had nothing to fear so far as the murder was concerned, Shoop realized that the tramp had been afraid to face the law and had left that part of the country.

Such men were born cowards, irresolute, weak, and treacherous even to their own infrequent moments of indecision.  There was no question but that Waring had acted within the law in killing the Brewsters.  Bob Brewster had fired at him at sight.  But the fact that one of the brothers survived to testify against Waring opened up a question that would have to be answered in court.  Shoop offered the opinion that possibly Andy Brewster, the youngest of the brothers, was not directly implicated in the murder, only taking sides with his brother Bob when he learned that he was a fugitive.  In such a premise it was not unnatural that his bitterness toward Waring should take the angle that it did.  And it would be difficult to prove that Andy Brewster was guilty of more than aiding his brother to escape.