As became
his dignity, Bud led the way.
The old woman, unable to endure the pain any longer, and knowing full
well that her days were bound to end in prison, had managed, in some
way, to hang herself from a window bar beside her bed, using a twisted
bed sheet. She was quite dead when "Doc" made the examination. A
committee of the whole started at once to notify Anderson Crow. For a
minute it looked as though the jail would be left entirely unguarded,
but Bud loyally returned to his post, reinforced by Roscoe and the
doctor.
Upon Mr. Crow's arrival at the jail, affairs assumed some aspect of
order. He first locked the grate doors, thereby keeping the fiery David
from coming out to see his mother before they cut her down. A messenger
was sent for the coroner at Boggs City, and then the big body was
released from its last hanging place.
"Doggone, but this is a busy day fer me!" said Anderson. "I won't have
time to pump them fellers till this evenin'. But I guess they'll keep.
'What's that, Blootch?"
"I was just goin' to ask Bud if they're still in there," said Blootch.
"Are they, Bud?" asked Anderson in quick alarm.
"Sure," replied Bud with a mighty swelling of the chest. Even Blootch
envied him.
"She's been dead jest an hour an' seven minutes," observed Anderson,
gingerly touching the dead woman's wrist. "Doggone, I'm glad o' one
thing!"
"What's that, Anderson?"
"We won't have to set her hip.
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