But he did not fire. Blake stood perfectly still, awaiting the shot, and feebly laughing.
So the two remained for some moments, until Blake suddenly sank to the floor, quite exhausted. He died within a half-hour on the saloon floor, his head resting in the palm of P. Gibbs, who knelt by his side and tried to revive him.
At the next dawn, a man whom they called Big Andy started East, and the piece of paper that Blake handed to P. Gibbs was not all that he took with him. The United States marshal arrived and duly closed Gibbs's saloon, which reopened very shortly afterward, minus the $5,000 offer.
And Big Andy found the widow of Busted Blake, to whom he told a bit of fiction in accounting for the legacy conveyed by him to her that would have imposed upon the most incredulous legatee. When she had recovered from the surprise of finding herself and her child provided with the means of surviving the possible loss of her situation, she forgave the late Busted, and there was a flow of tears unusual to a boarding-house parlour and unnerving to Big Andy.
Presently she asked Andy whether he knew what her husband's last words had been.
“Yep,” said Andy. “I heard'm plain and clear. Pete Gibbs,—the other executor of the will, you know,—Pete says, 'It's all right, pardner, me and Andy'll see to it,' and then your husband says, 'Thank Gawd I've been some good to her and the child at last.'”
Which account was entirely correct. When Big Andy had returned to Get-there City, and related how he had performed his mission, he added:
“I'd been such a lovely liar all through, it's a shame I had to go an' spoil the story by puttin' in some truth at the finish.”
They put up a wooden grave-mark where Blake was buried, and after his name they cut in the wood this testimonial:
“A tenderfoot that was some good to his folks at last.”