Blanco.  I don’t know of my own knowledge.  I only argue that if the horse had been worth its keep, you wouldn’t have lent it to Strapper, and Strapper wouldn’t have lent it to this eloquent and venerable ram. [Suppressed laughter].  And now I ask him this. [To the Elder] Did we or did we not have a quarrel last evening about a certain article that was left by my mother, and that I considered I had a right to more than you?  And did you say one word to me about the horse not belonging to you?

Elder Daniels.  Why should I?  We never said a word about the horse at all.  How was I to know what it was in your mind to do?

Blanco.  Bear witness all that I had a right to take a horse from him without stealing to make up for what he denied me.  I am no thief.  But you havnt proved yet that I took the horse.  Strapper Kemp:  had I the horse when you took me, or had I not?

Strapper.  No, nor you hadnt a railway train neither.  But Feemy Evans saw you pass on the horse at four o’clock twenty-five miles from the spot where I took you at seven on the road to Pony Harbor.  Did you walk twenty-five miles in three hours?  That so, Feemy, eh?

Feemy.  Thats so.  At four I saw him. [To Blanco] Thats done for you.

The Sheriff.  You say you saw him on my horse?

Feemy.  I did.

Blanco.  And I ate it, I suppose, before Strapper fetched up with me. [Suddenly and dramatically] Sheriff:  I accuse Feemy of immoral relations with Strapper.

Feemy.  Oh you liar!

Blanco.  I accuse the fair Euphemia of immoral relations with every man in this town, including yourself, Sheriff.  I say this is a conspiracy to kill me between Feemy and Strapper because I wouldn’t touch Feemy with a pair of tongs.  I say you darent hang any white man on the word of a woman of bad character.  I stand on the honor and virtue of my American manhood.  I say that she’s not had the oath, and that you darent for the honor of the town give her the oath because her lips would blaspheme the holy Bible if they touched it.  I say thats the law; and if you are a proper United States Sheriff and not a low-down lyncher, youll hold up the law and not let it be dragged in the mud by your brother’s kept woman.

[Great excitement among the women.  The men much puzzled.]

Jessie.  Thats right.  She didn’t ought to be let kiss the Book.

Emma.  How could the like of her tell the truth?

Babsy.  It would be an insult to every respectable woman here to believe her.

Feemy.  It’s easy to be respectable with nobody ever offering you a chance to be anything else.

The women [clamoring all together] Shut up, you hussy.  Youre a disgrace.  How dare you open your lips to answer your betters?  Hold your tongue and learn your place, miss.  You painted slut!  Whip her out of the town!