MRS. VERNON.  Why, he’s shot fifty!

BOLLINGER.  Well, I meant never killin’ nobody, has naturally endeared him to the peaceable element in the community.  Jim has always said, and stuck to it, that a sheriff who couldn’t wing a prisoner without killin’ him, was a nuisance—­and you take his record, and go clean through it, you’ll find out this one thing.  If a man was runnin’, Jim fetched him in the leg.  If he pulled a gun on him, Jim smashed that hand.  And he says, “You ain’t got a right to kill another man, unless that man draws two guns at the same time.”

JOE.  Yes, I reckon Jim’s the gamest we ever had.

BOLLINGER.  He came up on the stage to-night from Louisiana.

JOE.  Was he “’lectioneering” down there?

BOLLINGER.  No, I ain’t heerd of him makin’ no canvass.  He was helpin’ me to collect testimony.

MRS. VERNON.  Testimony?  What fur?

BOLLINGER.  Sam Fowler.  You know that Express Co. is holdin’ him prisoner yet?

JOE.  Thought you was goin’ to get a habus corpus?

BOLLINGER.  Well, I was; only I went to St. Louis yesterday to see Sam.  He’s all right.  They’ve got ’im in a comfortable room at the Southern Hotel, an’ they are tryin’ to make him confess that he stood in with the express robber.  He’s livin’ on the fat of the land, so I told him to stick it out as long as the company did, ’cause the longer they hold him, the more damages we’ll get for false imprisonment.  So Jim Radburn an’ me been fillin’ in the time, gettin’ witnesses to his good character.

MRS. VERNON.  What’s Radburn got to do with it?

BOLLINGER.  Well, you know—­on account o’ Emily.

MRS. VERNON.  Oh, yes!  I reckon that’ll put off their weddin’, won’t it?

BOLLINGER.  I’m tryin’ to fix it that way, so’s to pile up the damages.

KATE. [Quickly.] Ma!

MRS. VERNON.  What is it, Kate?

KATE.  Why—­

MRS. VERNON.  Company?

KATE.  Yes.

MRS. VERNON.  Here, Lizbeth, take hold this basket They carry out basket.

KATE.  Good-evening, Mr. Travers.

TRAVERS appears at door.

TRAVERS.  Good-evening, Miss Vernon—­good-evening, Colonel.

BOLLINGER.  Evening.

TRAVERS.  The rain seems to be over at last. [He fans himself with his hat.

BOLLINGER.  I reckon we’ll have some more of it with that ring around the moon.

TRAVERS. [Coming into doorway.] Anything new about the express robber?—­Good-evening, Mr. Vernon.

JOE. [Up to stove; tries bottle.] How are you?

BOLLINGER.  I ain’t heard anything ’cept what’s in the morning papers.

TRAVERS.  What was that?  I didn’t see them.

BOLLINGER.  Why, the blamed cuss has mailed one of the empty money-wrappers to the Globe-Democrat to show he’s the real robber, and sent a letter sayin’ Sam Fowler was innocent.