"Some o' the boys think it a leetle tough to hang a feller fer a thing he kain't remember and that he didn't never think was no harm.

It don't look like the Greaser'd take any one right to where he would shore be convicted, ef he had of made this here killin'." "Well," said a conservative soothingly, "let's wait till to-morrer.
Let's let the Co'te set another day, anyhow." "Yes, I reckon that's right; yes, that's so," said others; "we'd better wait till to-morrer." A brief silence fell upon the gathering, a silence broken only by tinklings or shufflings along the bar.

Then, all at once, the sound of an excited voice rose and fell, the cry of some one out upon the gallery in the open air.

The silence deepened for one moment, and then there was a surge toward the door.
Far off, over the prairie, there came a little flat, recurrent sound, or series of sounds, as of one patting his fingers softly together.

It fell and rose and grew, coming rapidly nearer, until at length there could be distinguished the cracking and popping of the hoofs of running horses.