“Why, that was the pony that got stole.  I had been workin’ him on rough ground when I was out with the Three Bar outfit and he went tender forward, so I turned him loose by the Lazy B ranch, and when I came back to git him there wasn’t anybody at the ranch and I couldn’t find him.  The sheep-man who lives about two miles west, under Red Clay butte, told me he seen a fellow in a wolfskin coat, ridin’ a pinto bronco, with white eyes, leadin’ that pony of mine just two days before; and I hunted round till I hit his trail and then I followed to where I’d reckoned he was headin’ for—­the Short Pine Hills.  When I got there a rancher told me he had seen the man pass on towards Cedartown, and sure enough when I struck Cedartown I found he lived there in a ’dobe house, just outside the town.  There was a boom on the town and it looked pretty slick.  There was two hotels and I went into the first, and I says, ’Where’s the justice of the peace?’ says I to the bartender.

“‘There ain’t no justice of the peace,’ says he, ’the justice of the peace got shot.’

“‘Well, where’s the constable?’ says I.

“‘Why, it was him that shot the justice of the peace!’ says he; ’he’s skipped the country with a bunch of horses.’

“‘Well, ain’t there no officer of the law left in this town?’ says I.

“‘Why, of course,’ says he, ’there’s a probate judge; he is over tendin’ bar at the Last Chance Hotel.’

“So I went over to the Last Chance Hotel and I walked in there.  ‘Mornin’,’ says I.

“‘Morning’,’ says he.

“‘You be the probate judge?’ says I.

“‘That’s what I am,’ says he.  ‘What do you want?’ says he.

“‘I want justice,’ says I.

“‘What kind of justice do you want?’ says he.  ‘What’s it for?’

“‘It’s for stealin’ a horse,’ says I.

“‘Then by God you’ll git it,’ says he.  ‘Who stole the horse?’ says he.

“’It is a man that lives in a ’dobe house, just outside the town there,’ says I.

“‘Well, where do you come from yourself?’ said he.

“‘From Medory,’ said I.

“With that he lost interest and settled kind o’ back, and says he,
‘There won’t no Cedartown jury hang a Cedartown man for stealin’ a
Medory man’s horse,’ said he.

“‘Well, what am I to do about my horse?’ says I.

“‘Do?’ says he; ‘well, you know where the man lives, don’t you?’ says he; ’then sit up outside his house, to-night and shoot him when he comes in,’ says he, ‘and skip out with the horse.’

“‘All right,’ says I, ‘that is what I’ll do,’ and I walked off.

“So I went off to his house and I laid down behind some sage-brushes to wait for him.  He was not at home, but I could see his wife movin’ about inside now and then, and I waited and waited, and it growed darker, and I begun to say to myself, ‘Now here you are lyin’ out to shoot this man when he comes home; and it’s getting’ dark, and you don’t know him, and if you do shoot the next man that comes into that house, like as not it won’t be the fellow you’re after at all, but some perfectly innocent man a-comin’ there after the other man’s wife!’