Tennessees Partner | Page 5

of
apology, "and I thought I'd just step in and see how things was gittin' on
with Tennessee thar, - my pardner. It's a hot night. I disremember any
sich weather before on the Bar."
He paused a moment, but nobody volunteering any other
meteorological recollection, he again had recourse to his
pocket-handkerchief, and for some moments mopped his face

diligently.
"Have you anything to say on behalf of the prisoner?"' said the Judge,
finally.
"Thet's it," said Tennessee's Partner, in a tone of relief. "I come yar as
Tennessee's pardner, knowing him nigh on four year, off and on, wet
and dry, in luck and out o' luck. His ways ain't allers my ways, but thar
ain't any p'ints in that young man, thar ain't any liveliness as he's been
up to, as I don't know. And you sez to me, sez you, - confidential-like,
and between man and man, - sez you, 'Do you know anything in his
behalf?' and I sez to you, sez I, - confidential-like, as between man and
man, - 'What should a man know of his pardner?'"
"Is this all you have to say? asked the Judge impatiently, feeling,
perhaps, that a dangerous sympathy of humor was beginning to
humanize the court.
"Thet's so," continued Tennessee's Partner. "It ain't for me to say
anything agin' him. And now, what's the case? Here's Tennessee wants
money, wants it bad, and doesn't like to ask it of his old pardner. Well,
what does Tennessee do? He lays for a stranger, and he fetches that
stranger; and you lays for him, and you fetches him; and the honors is
easy. And I put it to you, bein' a far-minded man, and to you,
gentlemen all, as far-minded men, ef this is isn't so."
"Prisoner," said the Judge, interrupting, "have you any questions to ask
this man?"
"No! no!" continued Tennessee's Partner hastily. "I play this yer hand
alone. To come down to the bedrock, it's just this: Tennessee, thar, has
played it pretty rough and expensive-like on a stranger, and on this yer
camp. And now, what's the fair thing? Some would say more; some
would say less. Here's seventeen hundred dollars in coarse gold and a
watch, - it's about all my pile, - and call it square!" And before a hand
could be raised to prevent him, he had emptied the contents of the
carpet-bag upon the table.
For a moment his life was in jeopardy. One or two men sprang to their
feet, several hands groped for hidden weapons, and a suggestion to
"throw him from the window," was only overridden by a gesture from
the Judge. Tennessee laughed. And apparently oblivious of the
excitement, Tennessee's Partner improved the opportunity to mop his
face again with his handkerchief.

When order was restored, and the man was made to understand, by the
use of forcible figures and rhetoric, that Tennessee's offense could not
be condoned by money, his face took a more serious and sanguinary
hue, and those who were nearest to him noticed that his rough hand
trembled slightly on the table. He hesitated a moment as he slowly
returned the gold to the carpetbag, as if he had not yet entirely caught
the elevated sense of justice which swayed the tribunal, and was
perplexed with the belief that he had not offered enough. Then he
turned to the Judge, and saying, "This yer is a lone hand, played alone,
and without my pardner," he bowed to the jury and was about to
withdraw, when the Judge called him back. "If you have anything to
say to Tennessee, you had better say it now." For the first time that
evening the eyes of the prisoner and his strange advocate met.
Tennessee smiled, showed his white teeth, and saying, "Euchred, old
man!" held out his hand. Tennessee's Partner took it in his own, and
saying, "I just dropped in as I was passin' to see how things was gettin'
on," let the hand passively fall, and adding that "it was a warm night," I
again mopped his face with his handkerchief, and without another word
withdrew.
The two men never again met each other alive. For the unparalleled
insult of a bribe offered to Judge Lynch - who, whether bigoted, weak,
or narrow, was at least incorruptible - firmly fixed in the mind of that
mythical personage any wavering determination of Tennessee's fate;
and at the break of day he was marched, closely guarded, to meet it at
the top of Marley's Hill.
How he met it, how cool he was, how he refused to say anything, how
perfect were the arrangements of the committee, were all duly reported,
with the addition of a warning moral and example to all future
evil-doers, in the Red Dog