n't never put up thar yit," came his quick retort, with a
flash that showed I had touched his raw nerve of fear, but the smile
came back as he added, "as fer me, I venerates the traditions of my
family."

I had never succeeded in trapping this unique man-killer into any
admission which he did not care to make, and I had begun to understand
his ability to take the witness stand and run, unscathed, the gantlet of
cross-examination. Still, I could not refrain now from putting a leading
question.

"How did it occur to you to bring me here? Had the judge arranged in
advance that I should be kidnaped?"

"The who?" he inquired.

"Judge Garvin."

"Aw!" his laugh was hearty and prolonged. "So that's the idee that's
bitin' yer? The jedge thinks I'm in Virginny. In fact, stranger, I am in
Virginny. I just seems ter be here, but I hain't. I brought yer here
because yer'd done been firin' off yer face ter the effect that yer
thought yer saw me shoot at yer from the laurel. I didn't low ter have
yer testifyin' ter no sich false notion. Hit mout injer my rep'tation
fer peace and quiet."

Still he later made me a proposal which I promptly rejected. "I done
been studyin' right smart, an' we ain't doin' no good fer ourselves,
stayin' round here," he ventured. "I done sort figgered that mebby if
hits plum agreeable ter you, we mout take yer down ter the railroad
cars, an' let yer promise to leave the mountings and keep yer face
shet."

"What reason have you to suppose that I'd keep a promise made under
duress?"

"I got two reasons ter spose hit. In the fust place the minnit yer busts
yer contrack an' comes back inter this jurisdiction I gives yer my word
I'm goin' ter kill yer thar same's I would er houn' dawg. In the second
place, I'd have this here--" He fumbled awkwardly in his pocket and
brought out a paper which he handed me to read. It was an affidavit
legally drawn, with blank spaces for my signature, and that of
witnesses. It purported to have been written in an attorney's office in
Virginia and to be duly attested. The document represented me as stating
voluntarily that I had seen Curt Dawson (in Virginia) and had realized
that he was not the man whom I had recognized among our assailants. I
was leaving the mountain country, so I was asked to swear, because,
being an Easterner, I did not find the environment congenial. The
fantastic bit of perjury culminated in this highly colored peroration:

"I feel that, in intima