ion was quite all he had hoped for.
Out of the tail of his eye he saw that Mrs. Shrimplin was, as she
afterward freely confessed, taken aback. As for Custer, he had forgotten
his disappointment that a death by violence had occurred for which his
father was not directly responsible.

"Did you see the man that killed old Mr. McBride?" asked Custer,
breaking the breathless spell that was upon him.

"No; if I'd been just about fifteen minutes sooner I'd have seen him;
but I was just about that much too late, sonny. I guess he's a whole lot
better off, though."

"What would you have done if you'd seen him?" Custer's voice sank to a
whisper.

"Well, I don't pack a gun for nothing. If I'd seen him there, he'd had
to go 'round to the jail with me. I guess I could have coaxed him there;
I was ready for to offer extra inducements!"

"And does everybody know you seen old Mr. McBride the first of any?"
asked Custer.

"I guess they do; I ain't afraid about that. Colonel Harbison's too much
of a gentleman to claim any credit that ain't his; he'd be the first
one to own up that he don't deserve no credit."

"What took you into McBride's store? You hadn't no errand there." Mrs.
Shrimplin was a careful and acquisitive wife.

"I allow I made an errand there," said Mr. Shrimplin bridling. "I reckon
many another man might have thought he hadn't no errand there either,
but I feel different about them things. I was just turned into the
Square when along comes young John North--"

"What was he doing there?" suddenly asked Mrs. Shrimplin.

"I expect he was attending strictly to his own business," retorted Mr.
Shrimplin, offended by the utter irrelevancy of the question.

"Go on, pal" begged Custer.

He felt that his mother's interruptions were positively cruel, and--so
like a woman!

"Me and young John North passed the time of day," continued Mr.
Shrimplin, thus abjured, "and I started around the north side of the
Square to light the lamp on old man McBride's own corner. If I'd knowed
then--" he paused impressively, "if I'd just knowed then, that was my
time! I could have laid hands on the murderer. He was there somewheres,
most likely he was watching me; well, maybe it was all for the best, I
don't know as a married man's got any right to take chances. Anyway, I
got to within, well--I should say, thirty feet of that lamp-post when
all of a sudden Bill began to act up. You never saw a horse act up like
he done! He rose in his