The Sheriffs Bluff | Page 7

did n't know as you 'd know me!" She spoke quietly, her eyes still on him sidewise.
"Not know you! Why, of course, I know you. I don't forget the pretty girls--leastways, the prettiest girl in the county. Your father and I------"
"I heard you made a mistake about my husband and Jim Turkle. I thought maybe you might think I was Mrs. Turkle."
There was the least perceptible lifting of her shoulders and drawing down of her mouth, but quite enough to suggest Jenny Turkle 's high shoulders and grim face.
The Sheriff tried to lighten the conversation.
"Oh! Come now, Mary, you must n't get mad about that. It was all a joke. I was comin' right up after court adjourned to tell you about it--and--. It was the funniest thing! You 'd 'a' died laughing if you 'd been here and seen----"
"I heard they was all laughin' about it. I ain't so easy to amuse."
"Oh! Yes, you would, too," began Thompson, cajolingly. "If you 'd seen----"
"What time does Court adjourn!" she asked, quietly and irrelevantly,
"Oh, not for two or three--not for several days yet--Probably 't will hold over till well into next week. But if you 'd seen----"
"I mean what time does it let out to-day?"
Thompson's face fell again.
"Why--ah--about--ah--Why! What do you want to know for!"
"I want to see the Judge." Her voice was dead level.
"What about!"
"About business!"
"What business!"
"Co'te business," with cold irony.
"You don't mean that you 're goin' to----!"
He paused without framing the rest of the question.
She suddenly stood up and flamed out.
"Yes, I am--that 's just what I am goin' to do. That 's what I 've come here for. You may take a liberty with the Judge--he 's doty; but you can't take a liberty with me--I 'm Squire Jefford's daughter, and I 'm goin' to show you."
She was facing him now, and her black eyes were darting fire. Thompson was quite staggered.
"Why, Mary! I am surprised at you. Your father's old friend--who has had you on his knee many a time. I am shocked and surprised--and mortified and--astonished--and mortified----"
"You 've done said that one once," she said, icily.
"Why, Mary, I thought we were friends--" he began. But she cut in on him.
"Friends!" She spoke with contempt. "You 've had it in for Dick ever since he was a boy." Her voice suddenly broke and the tears sprang to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
"Why, Mary--no such thing--I assure you--Dick and I are the best of friends--dear friends."
Her sniff was more forcible than words. She wiped her eyes and looked at him with freezing contempt.
"I 'm a fool! And I don't want you to be Mary-in' me, either. If Dick chooses to let you get him drunk and make a beast and a fool of him and drag him up before the Court like a--a--like that drunkard, Jim Turkle, what don't know how to behave himself seemly in Court, and Circuit Court at that--he may; but I 'll let you know, I'm not goin' to do it. I don't mean the Judge to think my husband's a thing like that. I mean to set him right. And I 'll tell him you are nothing but an old gambler who spends your time ruinin' young men, and braggin' as how you can bluff anybody."
"Mary!--ur--Mrs. Creel!" gasped the Sheriff.
She stalked by him wiping her eyes, and marched straight to the door; but the Sheriff was too quick for her. His office, his reputation, everything hung on his pacifying her. He sprang to the door and, standing with his back against it, began to apologize in so humble a tone that even the angry wife could not but listen to him.
He said everything that any mortal could have said, and declared that he would do anything on earth that she might ask.
She reflected, and he began to hope again. When their eyes met, hers were still hard, but they were calmer.
"I know you think you are making a fool of me," she began, and then as he protested she shut him up with a sharp gesture.
"Yes, you do, you think so; but you are not. There is but one thing I will accept in apology."
"What is that!"
"You are to make Dick your deputy."
"But, M----"
"I knew you would n't. Stand aside." She gave a sweep of the arm.
"But, Mary!"
"Stand aside, I say--I 'd rather have you removed anyway."
"But, Mary, just listen----"
"Stand aside, or I will call." She straightened herself and looked past him, as if listening.
"But, Mary, do be reasonable!"
She opened her mouth as if to cry out. The Sheriff threw up both hands.
"Mary, please--For kingdom's sake, don't! What unreasonable creatures women are!"
"You 'd better let women alone. One is as much as you can manage now." She spoke witheringly. "I give you one more chance."
"More than I can manage. You know