All-Story Weekly, July 12, 1919

I T was hot. My pony jogged listlessly

along, without interest or animation,
while I was only concerned with the
problem of getting to shade and water, but
especially shade. The sun was hot enough to
an’ folks are sayin’ Harry Temple done it.
They got ’im locked up, anyways.”
I dismounted stiffly and tied my pony to
the rear of the machine, allowing him plenty
of lead-rope. Jimmy finished wiping the last
fry any one’s brains in his skull, and my of the spark-plugs, apostrophizing the car in
saddle burned my hand if I touched it where the mean time.
the sun struck it. There was a trickling “You creakin’, growlin’, spark-plug-
stream of perspiration down either cheek, foul-in’, blasted hunka tin,” he finished
and a third stream down my nose. From time lyrically, and put down the hood.
to time I smudged the dust across my face in He went to the crank and turned it half a
an attempt to stop the streams, but the action dozen times. The engine caught, sputtered,
merely interrupted their course. and began to run with a pretentious roar.
It was in this peculiarly Texan Jimmy hastily reached for the wheel and
atmosphere that I came upon Jimmy Calton. adjusted the spark and throttle, then climbed
He was standing by the open hood of one of in leisurely. With a grinding and a lurch we
those mechanical miracles known as a “tin started off, my pony following docilely
lizzy,” holding a sooted spark-plug in a cloth behind.
in one hand and attempting to clean it with “Yes, tin, tin, tin,” said Jimmy, doing
the other. He was swearing the while, mysterious things with his feet:
dispassionately, in a curious mingling of
good Anglo-Saxon and ’dobe Spanish. I have scorned yuh and I’ve flayed yuh,
“Hello, Jimmy,” I said listlessly. But by the guy who made yuh,
He looked up and nodded. You are bettuh than a big car,
“Say, you look hot,” he observed. “Come Hunka tin!
on an’ ride a ways with me. Lizzy heah’ll be
runnin’ in a minute, an’ you can tie yo’ pony We slipped into the car’s second and
on behind.” highest speed, and began to run more
“Going anywhere in particular?” I asked. smoothly. Jimmy looked behind to see that
“Over t’ see th’ coroner,” he told me. my pony was all right and began to roll a
“Ol' Abe Martin got shot th’ other day cigarette with his left hand, while expertly
 All-Story Weekly 2

guiding the car around the numerous ruts and th’ lie that’s near th’ truth. Ain’t that
rocks in the roadway. I watched the process ridiculous? That’s jus’ justifyin’ laziness. Ef
of cigarette-rolling without interest. folks’ve got th’ goods on yuh, an’ yuh can’t
“I can’t seem to get the knack of that,” I get away from th’ truth, then it’s all right t’
remarked, when he had finished and was dilute th’ truth until it’s harmless, but
licking the edge of the paper to hold it in otherwise a good lie beats th’ almost-truth
place. nine ways from Sunday.
“Imitatin’,” said Jimmy casually. “There “Only it’s a lot o’ trouble thinkin’ up a
ain’t any way that everybody can do. good lie, an’ fortifyin’ it with accumulative
Nobody else I know rolls ’em like this. It’s evidence”—Jimmy rolled those two words
jus’ easiest fo’ me. You’ll have to mess off his tongue with some satisfaction—
around till you find a way that fits yo’ “accumulative evidence like a good lie ought
fingers.” t’ have.”
“I’ll smoke tailor-made,” I said, “rather He fell silent for a while, doing marvels
than bother with learning.” of steering in the avoidance of obstacles and
“Jus’ like th’ new generation,” said depressions in the really horrible road.
Jimmy severely. Jimmy, it may be said, is “An’ thinkin’,” he said suddenly,
thirty, but affects the authority of a man of presently. “Folks don’t like thinkin’.
eighty. “Wantin’ everything done by Anybody with any sense ud know Harry
somebody else, or else by machin’ry. They Temple wouldn’t’ve shot ol’ Abe Martin.
even want theh thinkin’ done fo’ them.” Harry Temple has got a bank-account in th’
“It’s too hot to think down here.” I took Farmers and Ranchers Bank, an’ it ain’t in
off my hat and wiped the moisture off the reason that he’d go an’ shoot anybody t’
sweat-band. steal their roll.
“Judgin’ by the little bit of it people do,” “Ol’ Abe sold off six hundred steers, an’
Jimmy remarked acridly, “most folks agree got th’ money fo’ them. He was ol’-
with you. Most people look at thinkin’ as fashioned an’ didn’t believe in banks, so he
somethin’ they was taught to do in schools, took th’ money home with ’im. An’
an’, as such, somethin’ t’ forget as soon as somebody went an’ shot him an’ took th’
possible. From th’ folks that don’t think roll. But Harry Temple, with a bank-account
about th’ spigoty revoltosos jus’ across th’ in th’ Farmers and Ranchers Bank—it ain’t
border an’ are pained an’ surprised when th’ reasonable that he’d go an’ shoot anybody
spigoties run off some o’ their cattle, down fo’ to steal their money. Ef he’s any like I
to th’ folks that ud rather buy cigarettes than am, he’s too busy wonderin’ ef somebody is
bother thinkin’ up a way to roll ’em one- goin’ t’ steal his money to go stealin’
handed fo’ themselves, everybody’s jus’ th’ somebody else’s.”
same. Why, ’twouldn’t surprise me none at Jimmy said this last with an air of virtue
all if most folks tol’ th’ truth jus’ because it’s that made me smile. Jimmy is much too
too much trouble t’ think up a lie.” good a poker-player to be worried about his
I accepted his rebuke in the matter of money. I know he owns one small ranch he
cigarettes meekly and said nothing. never goes near, bought out of the proceeds
“It’s a fac’,” said Jimmy, with an air of of a colossal game still remembered along
mournful pity for a race fallen so low. “I saw the border.
in a book th’ other day that th’ best lyin’ is “But they think he did it?” I asked.
 Evidence 3

“Sho they do,” said Jimmy scornfully. cloth on it—the room was empty now except
“They’s goin’ aroun’ sayin’ they know he for buzzing flies—where they had their
did. That’s toro, o’ course.” meals. On the day of the shooting, I learned,
One of Jimmy’s individualities is his the men had all been away on their duties,
habit of translating American slang into and the cook had gone into town for
’dobe Spanish and using it in his supplies, so Abe Martin had been alone.
conversation. Presently I went out to look at the
“What are you going to see the coroner stables. They were huge, but not much used.
for?” Three or four ponies were in their stalls, and
“They’s holdin’ a inquest,” said Jimmy. several more stalls seemed to be used from
“I’m sort o’ goin’ t’ horn in a little, I reck’n. time to time, but most of them were without
These folks are too lazy t’ do any thinkin’. signs of recent use.
Ef I see a chance, I’m goin’ to do some There had been a time when the place
head-work fo’ them. Theah’s Abe Martin’s was the headquarters of a busy ranch, but
place right ahead.” since the time of fences the activity had
We turned in the gate and swung up to lessened until only Abe Martin, his half-
the house. Half a dozen cars, most of them of dozen riders, and the cook lived there. It was
the same make as Jimmy’s, clustered about curious to see the dwelling-place, large in
the front, and there were a dozen or more itself, dwarfed by its outbuildings.
ponies tethered close by the porch, dozing in A stir in the house called me inside. The
the baking heat. It was quite a pretentious inquest was evidently to be more or less of
place, built in the old-fashioned style of the an informal affair, but there was none the
days when a rancher was almost a baron in less a determined and businesslike air behind
his own right. Two big barns and a huge it all. Those men meant to get at the bottom
stable behind the house almost dwarfed the of the matter. The coroner seemed to be a
dwelling proper, and quite hid it from the conscientious individual, who took the
rear. evidence of the first witness with great
Jimmy eased his car in among the others, exactitude, though he knew perfectly well
snapped the switch, and alighted. Three or beforehand just what the testimony would
four of the men about the door nodded to be. The whole inquiry, as a matter of fact,
him and told him the inquest had not started, promised to be cut and dried in spite of
but that it would begin shortly. Once he Jimmy’s announced intention of “horning
found that out, Jimmy plunged into an in.”
intricate and technical discussion of patented The first witness was the cook, who had
attachments for his machine, and I drifted off discovered the body. He had come back
into the house. from town, entered the house and discovered
It was a very old house, and built with his employer dead on the floor of the hall.
old-fashioned disregard for space. I gathered, He had been shot through the heart. A rider,
however, that the housekeeping done in it whom the cook had hastily summoned,
was but sketchy. Half a dozen of his riders corroborated his testimony and added that
made it their headquarters, with old Abe the body was cold when he was called,
Martin. They bunked there, and a cook proving that death had occurred some time
prepared the meals for all of them. There before.
was a long table with a checked, red table- “Th’ evidence shows,” said the coroner
 All-Story Weekly 4

casually, “that Abe was shot when there Temple stood up, pale beneath his tan.
wasn’t nobody else in th’ house but him an’ “Eve’ything Harkness says is so,” said Harry
th’ murderer. Th’ cashier of th’ Farmers and Temple determinedly. “Eve’y single word,
Ranchers Bank ain’t heah, but he has give only I didn’t shoot ol’ Abe. I come out heah
me th’ information that Abe had over four t’ see him ‘bout sellin’ him some yearlin’s.
thousan’ dollars on him when he was killed. He wasn’t heah, so I went in th’ kitchen t’
“That’s gone. Evidently he was shot fo’ see ef I couldn’ leave word with th’ cook.
his money. It’s part of th’ duties of a “Th’ cook was missin’, too, but I thought
coroner’s jury t’ uncover any evidence that I heard somebody movin’ aroun’
will help in solvin’ th’ problem of who th’ somewhere, an’ I went jus’ where Harkness
murderer might be. Miste’ Joe Harkness will said, an’ jus’ in th’ order he said. He must’ve
take th’ stand.” seen me first when I come out o’ the kitchen.
There was a movement of interest in the When I couldn’t find nobody, I cranked up
small crowd packed into the one room. I had an’ lef.”
managed to get beside Jimmy Calton, and Harkness stood up.
his face became extraordinarily mild and “I hate t’ contradict Harry,” he said
gentle. It hinted at some expectation of sharply, “but he’s made a mistake. He didn’
excitement, if I knew Jimmy. Every one had crank up an’ leave. He was drivin’
heard Harkness’s story before, so it was somebody else’s car, an’ it had a self-starter
simply a recapitulation. on it.”
“I ain’t got a thing t’ say,” announced Harry Temple flushed slightly. “That’s a
Harkness bluntly, “’cept that I seen Harry fac’,” he acknowledged. “I’d forgotten that. I
Temple come out o’ this here house ’bout was drivin’ a’ car they lent me at th’ garage.
three o’clock, jus’ after Abe Martin was I’d lef my own theah t’ have some repairs
shot. made.”
“I was havin’ trouble with my sparkplugs “Of co’se,” said Harkness sarcastically,
down the road a ways, when I seen Harry. “nobody suspec’s that you was drivin’ a
He come out o’ th’ kitchen door, looked all strange car, with strange tires, so they
aroun’ as ef he was lookin’ t’ see ef anybody couldn’t prove nothin’ on you by th’ tracks.”
seen him, an’ then he went down to’d the Jimmy put a question in a gentle voice.
stables. He went inside theah, then he come “There’s another question,” he said
out o’ that an’ went over to th’ quarters an’ softly. “What was Harry puttin’ in his pocket
got a drink at th’ pump by th’ do’. I was when Harkness saw him comin’ out o’ th’
wonderin’ what he was doin’, but it looks t’ house?”
me like he was makin’ sho’ theh wasn’t “I don’t remember puttin’ anything in
nobody aroun’ that could ’a’ tol’ that he’d my pocket,” said Temple, beginning to be
been aroun’. worried. “It was prob’ly my handkerchief.”
“An’ theh’s one mo’ thing. When he There was a moment’s silence. One or
come out o’ th’ house—he come out th’ two of the men in the room stirred uneasily.
kitchen do’—he was puttin’ somethin’ in his Jimmy Calton smiled sweetly to himself.
breas’ pocket.” “Misteh Coroner,” he said slowly, “may
I glanced at Jimmy Calton. He was I make an obs’vation or so? It looks like
looking at Harkness with a gentle, placid somebody ought t’ point out two or three
smile. His face did not change when Harry fac’s.”
 Evidence 5

“Go ahead, Jimmy,” said the coroner. It some fac’s t’ give us.”
seemed to be bothering him that so much “I’ll give you one fac’,” Jimmy offered.
seemed to point to the guilt of Harry Temple. “Harry Temple didn’ shoot Abe Martin.
Temple did seem to be quite a decent sort, Looka heah, Harkness himself don’t believe
and the coroner evidently hated to bring out he did. Do you?” he demanded, turning to
so much to his discredit without anything to that person.
counteract the impression thus made. Harkness sat stolidly in his chair.
Knowing Jimmy, he knew Jimmy would not “You heard what I said,” he grunted.
interfere unless he thought things were going “You heard what I seen him do.”
the wrong way, and that meant in this case “Sho I did,” Jimmy admitted readily,
that he had something to say in Temple’s “but you know he didn’ shoot Abe.”
favor. Jimmy seemed to be making a fool of
“Misteh Coroner an’ gentlemen,” said himself. I tugged at his sleeve for him to sit
Jimmy formally, “it don’t seem hardly fair t’ down, but he paid no attention.
bring out all this heah evidence against a “What do you mean?” demanded
man without any evidence th’ other way. I Harkness suspiciously.
want t’ point out two things about this heah “Nothin’ whatever,” said Jimmy with a
case. Th’ first is that Harry Temple has got gentleness I suddenly recognized as
money in bank, an’ th’ second is that he dangerous. “Nothin’ whatever, excep’ what I
never disputed a single thing Harkness said said. You know Harry Temple didn’ shoot
about him. You know, an’ I know, that a Abe.”
man with money in bank ain’t goin’ aroun’ “You mean t’ tell me I’m lyin’,” snapped
doin’ highway robbery an’ murder. He cain’t Harkness angrily.
affo’d to. You jus’ think about that a while. “No,” said Jimmy in a cooing drawl.
“An’ heah’s somethin’ else t’ think “Nothin’ so harmless. I’m accusin’ you o’
about. Did you notice that Harry Temple somethin’ a damn sight mo’ dangerous than
said right off that he done jus’ what lyin’. I’m accusin’ you o’ tellin’ th’ truth—
Harkness said? Now ef he’d shot ol’ Abe th’ exact truth.”
Martin, you know he’d’ve tried t’ make There was a puzzled pause. I noticed,
some o’ that stuff soun’ jus’ a little less however, that Harkness was watching Jimmy
incriminatin’. He’d’ve said he didn’t go in with a curious alertness.
th’ house, jus’ to th’ door an’ knocked, and “It’s always mo’ dangerous t’ tell th’
he’d’ve tried t’ weaken eve’ything Harkness truth in a case like this, Harkness,” said
said, jus’ that way. Jimmy, still in that gentle drawl. “You tol’
“But he didn’t. He’s tellin’ th’ truth so th’ absolute truth about what you saw Harry
hard he cain’t seem t’ see it’s puttin’ a rope do, an’ that’s th’ mos’ dangerous thing you
aroun’ his neck, in spite of his bein’ jus’ as could’ve told, because there ain’t but one
innocent as he says. As for his puttin’ man could’ve tol’ that.
somethin’ in his breas’-pocket, nobody puts “Misteh Coroner, ef you’ll look out o’
money theah—an’ especially stolen money the window, you’ll see jus’ wheah Harry
— but mos’ everybody puts theah Temple walked down th’ kitchen steps, jus’
handkerchief theah.” wheah he went back to th’ stables, jus’
“But—that ain’t evidence,” said the wheah he went into th’ big barn, an’ jus’
coroner disappointedly. “I tho’t you had wheah he got a drink. An’ then, ef you look,
 All-Story Weekly 6

you’ll see wheah he stopped his car, so at once. An’ theh wasn’t but one man in th’
Harkness could see that it had a self-starter world who could’ve seen Harry Temple do
on it, instead of a crank.” all them things, because theh wasn’t but one
I saw a light break on the coroner’s face, man in that place.
as he looked from place to place in the yard “Th’ only place you c’n see all them
behind the house. He faced about, just as places from is this heah room, an’ th’ only
Jimmy deliberately pulled a revolver out of man in th’ house when Harry Temple did
his pocket. them things was th’ man who’d shot Abe
“Harkness tol’ th’ truth,” said Jimmy Martin an’ hadn’t had time t’ get away when
softly. “He tol’ th’ absolute truth, but— theh Harry Temple come drivin’ in!
ain’t but-one place you can see all them “Harkness”—Jimmy’s voice was
things from. With all them barns outside, suddenly like steel—“ef you pull that gun on
theh ain’t but one place that you c’n see th’ me I’ll blow a hole right th’ough th’ place
do’ of th’ stables, an’ th’ big barn an’ th’ yo’ brains ought t’ be!”
pump by th’ quarters an’ th’ kitchen do’ all