Y'oughta have a jail in Sunset, like I've been telling yuh right
along. Can't expect a man to stop his work just to take a man to
jail--not for anything less than murder, anyhow."
Some member of the deputation hinted a doubt of his courage, and Tom
flushed.
"I ain't scared of him," he snorted indignantly. "I should say not! I'll
go over and make him behave--as a man and a citizen. But I ain't going
to arrest him as an officer, when there ain't no place to put him." Tom
reluctantly threw down his hammer, grumbling because they would not wait
till it was too dark to drive nails, but must cut short his working day,
and went over to the hotel to quell Ford.
Ingress by way of the front door was obviously impracticable; the
marshal ducked around the corner just in time to avoid a painful
meeting with a billiard ball. Mother McGrew had piled two tables against
the dining-room door and braced them with the mop, and stubbornly
refused to let Tom touch the barricade either as man or officer of the
law.
"Well, if I can't get in, I can't do nothing," stated Tom, with
philosophic calm.
"He's tearing up the whole place, and he musta found all them extra
billiard balls Mike had under the bar, and is throwin' 'em away," wailed
Mrs.
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