n't understand--"

What he did not understand was not heard, for Thompson seized the
prisoner before he could finish his sentence, and, with a grip of steel
on his arm, hustled him down the aisle and out of the court-room.

A good many persons poured out of the court-room after them and with
subdued laughter followed the Sheriff and his charge across the green.
Thompson, however, did not wait for them. The young man appeared
inclined to argue. But the Sheriff gave him no time. Hurrying him down
the walk, he unhitched his horse for him and ordered him to mount.

"But, Sheriff--Mr. Thompson, I 'm darned if I understand what it is all
about."

"You were drunk," said Thompson--"flagrantly inebriated. Go home. Did
n't you hear the Judge?"

"Yes, I heard him. He 's doty. I might have been drunk, but I 'm darned
if I slept in jail last night--I slept in----"

"I 'm darned if you did n't," said the Sheriff. "The Judge has ruled
it so, and so you did. Now go home and don't you come back here again
during this term, or you will sleep in jail again."

"That old Judge is doty," declared the young man with a tone of
conviction.

"So much the worse for you if you come back here. Go home now, just as
quick as you can."

Creel reflected for a moment.

"Well, it beats my time. I 'll tell you what I 'll do, Mr. Thompson," he
said, half pleadingly. "I 'll go home and stay there if you will promise
not to tell my wife I was in jail."

"I promise you," said Aleck, solemnly. "I give you my word I won't."

"And what 's more," continued Creel, "if you 'll keep anybody else from
doing it, I 'll vote for you next time for Sheriff."

"I promise you that, too," said Aleck, "and if anybody says you were
there, let me know, and I 'll come up there and--and tell her you were
n't. I can't do any more than that, can I?"

"No, you can't do any more than that," admitted Creel, sadly, and,
leaning over and shaking hands with the Sheriff cordially for the first
time in some years, he rode away in profound dejection.

"Well, I 've got to face Mary," he said, "and I reckon I might as well
do it. Whiskey is a queer thing. I must have been a lot drunker than I
thought I was, because if the Court had n't ruled it, I would have sworn
I slept in that there wing room last night."

"Well, that 's the best bluff I ever put up," said Thompson to the
throng about him as he turned back to the court-house.

The Sheriff's bluff became the topic of th