“I didn’t have anything to shoot him with,” sez the Friar. “I was careful to leave my weapons behind.”
“Well, you didn’t show much judgment in doin’ it,” sez Tank. “He might have sent a couple o’ fellers after ya, and finished you out in the dark somewhere so ’at we never could ’a’ proved it on him.”
“I did think for a minute that some one was follerin’ me,” sez the Friar. “I heard a rattle of stones and a cry a few hundred feet behind me in the ravine; but I think it was some animal slippin’ down the side.”
“Like as not,” sez Tank. “If it had been any o’ Ty’s gang, they wouldn’t have give it up so easy; but another time we’ll some of us go along with you; so as to get your last words anyhow, if so be ’at you’re bent on suicide. What do you intend to do now?”
“That’s the worst of it,” sez the Friar. “I don’t know what to do. She said she did not think she was married; but she was not sure; and Ty refused to give me any satisfaction about it.”
“Isn’t the’ any law out here, at all?” sez Horace. “Seems to me as though there ought to be some way to get at Ty Jones.”
“What would you charge him with?” asked the Friar. “She is not being abused or kept a prisoner, she says she is comfortable and gettin’ stronger—I can’t think of any way to bring him under the law. If you had not taken the law into your own hands in regard to his two men, we might have made the claim that he was behind them in this; but really, I do not see where we have any just grounds to go to law.”
“That little matter o’ the Greasers don’t hobble us none,” sez ol’ Tank. “Don’t you get the idee that you’re bound in any way by this. The whole country would uphold us; so if you want to use it as a lever, just make your claims again’ Ty to the law officers, and we’ll tell ’em ’at the Greasers confessed ’at Ty put ’em up to it.”
This seemed to us like sage advice; and we all chipped in and urged the Friar to act on it. Laws are all right, I haven’t a word to say again’ laws. Fact is, I believe ’at we’re better off for havin’ a few than not; but after all, laws come under the head of luxuries like diamonds and elevators and steam heat. We all know there is such things, and we haven’t any objections to those usin’ ’em who can afford it; but most of us have to wear cut-glass, pack in our own wood, do our climbin’ on foot or hossback, and settle our troubles in our own way with as little bother as possible. When you figure it down to the foundation, laws depend on public opinion, not public opinion on laws; and all the public opinion worth takin’ into account would have said ’at we had done the right thing with those Greasers. If they’d ’a’ tried to law us for a little thing like this, it would have started an upraisin’ which would have let the law see how small a shadow it really does throw when it comes to a show-down.
The Friar didn’t answer us right away, and when he did, it was in the most discouraged voice I’d ever heard him use. “I’m in the dark, boys,” sez he, “I don’t know what to do. Even if I could find some way to take her away from Ty Jones, I do not know what to do with her. She is not herself, she needs care and protection—and I am not in a position to supply them. I have an income of three hundred and fifty dollars a year, which is much more than enough for my own needs, for I live mostly upon the hospitality of my friends as you well know”—we also knew ’at he spent most of his money in helpin’ those who never saw enough money to get on intimate terms with it; while all they gave him in return was a little meal and bacon for savin’ their souls and doctor-bills. “I don’t know what I could do for her, even if I had the right to take her away from him,” continued the Friar. “My life has been a good deal of a failure; and I—”