“Then we'll take him to the county jail.”
“No, they won't. You go out and get as many shotguns as you can find and load them with buckshot.”
Macfarlan nodded approvingly and disappeared. Hale plunged his face in a basin of cold water, soaked his hair and, as he was mopping his face with a towel, there was a ponderous tread on the porch, the door opened without the formality of a knock, and Devil Judd Tolliver, with his hat on and belted with two huge pistols, stepped stooping within. His eyes, red with anger and loss of sleep, were glaring, and his heavy moustache and beard showed the twitching of his mouth.
“Well, by God,” the old man said with repressed fury, “you can't git him out too soon if you want to save trouble.”
“Look here, Judd,” said Hale seriously. “You are one of the last men in the world I want to have trouble with for many reasons; but I'm an officer over here and I'm no more afraid of you”--Hale paused to let that fact sink in and it did--“than you are of me. Dave's been selling liquor.”
“He hain't,” interrupted the old mountaineer. “He didn't bring that liquor over hyeh. I know who done it.”
“All right,” said Hale; “I'll take your word for it and I'll let him out, if you say so, but---”
“Do you know that young Buck Falin and a dozen of his gang are over here after him?” The old man looked stunned.
“They're over there in the woods across the river NOW and they want me to give him up to them. They say they have the sheriff with them and they want him for shooting a man on Leatherwood Creek, day before yesterday.”
“It's all a lie,” burst out old Judd. “They want to kill him.”
“Of course--and I was going to take him up to the county jail right away for safe-keeping.”
“D'ye mean to say you'd throw that boy into jail and then fight them Falins to pertect him?” the old man asked slowly and incredulously. Hale pointed to a two-store building through his window.
“If you get in the back part of that store at a window, you can see whether I will or not. I can summon you to help, and if a fight comes up you can do your share from the window.”
The old man's eyes lighted up like a leaping flame.
“Will you let Dave out and give him a Winchester and help us fight 'em?” he said eagerly. “We three can whip 'em all.”