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Vicious Lucius
by
“He’s out there waitin’ fer me to take him to jail–that is, he said he’d wait. Course, if you won’t make any affidavit ag’inst him, I–I guess there’s no sense in me lockin’ him up. I was doin’ it as a–er–as a sort of favour to him, anyhow. He seemed to be afraid he’d kill some of them women that hang around him.”
“I just thought he’d act that way. I won’t make any charge against him. I want him to stay just the way he is–a fine, upstanding brutal sort of feller. You go out there an’ tell him to come in here. I want to go down on my knees again and forgive him.”
The Marshal hesitated. He was between two fires. He couldn’t very well oblige both of them. Lucius unquestionably was eager to go to jail for reasons of his own, and Mrs. Fry was just as eager that he should remain at large. The Marshal scratched his head.
“I feel kinder sorry fer him,” he mused. “Like as not, one of them women will git so foolish over him that her husband will take it into his head to get a divorce, an’–” He paused in confusion.
“Go on–go on!” pleaded Mrs. Fry, her eyes sparkling.
“Well, from all Lucius says, he despises the whole lot of ’em. Still, that ain’t goin’ to help him any if Jim Banks er one of them other idiots gits all het up an’ jealous an’ goes and sues fer a divorce, namin’ Lucius Fry as–“
Mrs. Fry slapped him violently on the back.
“That’s just what I want!” she cried eagerly. “I’d be the proudest woman in Tinkletown.”
The Marshal stared. Harry Squires covered his mouth with his hand.
“Well, of all the gosh–“
* * * * *
His ejaculation was cut short by the opening of the kitchen door. Lucius stood outlined in the aperture. He was clapping his arms about his body, and his teeth were chattering. The voluminous sleeves flapped like great limp wings.
“Say,” he whined, “I can’t wait out there all night in this kinder weather. If I got to go to jail, I want to do it right away. It’s cruelty to animals to leave me standin’ out there with nothing on my feet but carpet-slippers. Come on an’–“
“Come in to the fire an’ get warm, Lucius dear,” called out his wife, as shrinking and as timid as a whipped child. “I forgive you. Julie! Jul-ie! Come down here an’ help me get some hot coffee an’ something to eat fer your Pa.”
“I–I guess we’d better be goin’, Harry,” said Marshall Crow uncomfortably. “I got to disperse that crowd o’ women out there in the street. Good night, Lucius. Night, Mrs. Fry. If you ever need me, all yer got to do is just send word.”
Lucius followed him to the door, and would have gone out into the night with him if the Marshal had not deliberately pushed him back.
“You–you ain’t goin’ to desert me, are you?” whispered Lucius fiercely.
The Marshal leaned over and whispered to Lucius.
“If all the other men in this here town had as soft a snap as you’ve got, Lucius Fry, they’d hate to die worse’n ever, because they’d know they’d never git back into heaven ag’in.”