“Cattle thieves caught red-handed. Sheriff refuses to act. Crisis. Suggest you appoint me temporarily.
Ben Allen.”
The agent took the message, read it, and then monotonously began to drum on the keys of his instrument.
Hollis found it impossible to sit still and so he nervously paced up and down the room during the sending of the message. The agent finished and, leaned his head sleepily on the table.
“Ought to answer in half an hour–if he’s home,” he informed Hollis. Upon which Hollis slipped out of the door and returned down the street to the sheriff’s office, peering within Watkins still sat at the table and in a chair near him lounged Allen, talking volubly. Hollis watched for a time and then returned to the station to find the agent asleep beside his instrument. Hollis had scarcely awakened him when the sounder began its monotonous ticking. He leaned over the agent’s shoulder and read the governor’s answer as the agent sleepily wrote it down.
“Ben Allen: You are hereby appointed sheriff of Union County in place of W. Watkins, dismissed. Have Judge certify,”
“I reckon there must be somethin’ goin’ on,” remarked the agent. “What’s the matter with Bill—”
But Hollis had snatched the message from his hand and was out into the street in an instant and running down toward the sheriff’s office. When he arrived there Allen was still talking. He passed the telegram to him and the latter rose to his feet and smiled at Watkins, shoving the message under his nose.
“You can read her,” he said. “Then you can go home an’ quit sheriffin’–after I’ve got through with you. You’ve been called down to the court house. I’m takin’ you, chargin’ you with bein’ an accessory before the fact, or somethin’ like that. It don’t make no difference what it is, you’re goin’ with me.” His voice came sharp and chill: “Jump!”
Judge Graney had dressed himself by the time the three arrived at the court house and Watkins was roughly tumbled into the room which had been set aside as the jail. Then the judge led Hollis and Allen into the court room where he issued Allen’s certificate of appointment.