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Y'u don't know what it is, 'n' y'u'll never know; but I'll give yer a chance now fer yer life ef y'u'll sw'ar on a stack o' Bibles as high as that tree thar that y'u'll leave these mount'ins ef I whoops ye, 'n' nuver come back ag'in as long as you live. I'll leave, ef ye whoops me. Now whut do ye say? Will ye sw'ar? "I reckon I will, seem' as I've got to," was the surly answer.
"I solem-ny sw'ar," Jim began, "s'welp me! that I will lick Sam Yates as is a lawyer with the privlidge of self-defense if he ever blows on Benedict as is not a pauper no more nor Jim Fenton is an' I solem-ny sw'ar, s'welp me! that I'll foller 'im till I find 'im, an' lick 'im with the privlidge of self-defense."
"I don't ax your pity, 'tarnal death to me, I ax your help." roared Ralph; "Cut me loose is the word, and then sw'ar at me atter! I stole your hoss thar: well, whar's the harm? Didn't he fling me, and kick me, and bite me into the bargain, the cursed savage? and ar'n't you got him ag'in as good as ever?
Them as knowed the man they was writ by 'ud be able to see a heap in 'em. They'd give him away. Ye'd better get hold of 'em. They're worth five hundred. They're yourn ye wrote 'em yourself. Ye ain't jest like him ye're him I'll sw'ar to ye!" Latimer suddenly saw his mother's mild New England countenance, with its faded blue eyes.
The man seemed to be excited. "I don't want to intrude, sar," said the ex-merchant in slaves, "but I come to tell you what you'd orter know. Th' news of th' fire, last night, hev set ev'rybody wild. They're lookin' to you, sar, to sw'ar out a warrant for Joe Lorey an' set th' sheriff on his track." Frank came back into the room with the old man, worried by the news which he had brought.
"I want to have ye sw'ar, an' sign a Happy David." "A what?" "A Happy David. Ye ain't no lawyer if ye don't know what a Happy David is, and can't make one." Yates recognized, with a smile, the nature of the instrument disguised in Jim's pronunciation and conception, and inquired: "What would you have me to swear to?" "To what I tell ye." "Very well.
"In the dug-out," said Ralph; "found her floating among the bushes, ax'd me out a flopper with my tom-axe in no time, jumped in, thought of anngelliferous madam, and came down the falls like a cob in a corn-van ar'n't I the leaping trout of the waters? Strannger, I don't want to sw'ar; but I reckon if there ar'n't hell up thar among the big stones, thar's hell no other whar all about Salt River!
Does ye all sw'ar ter deal with her in full an' unmitigated jestice despite thet she s'arves Satan with a comely face and a comely body? Does ye all sw'ar?" The raised hands, with a unanimous and solemn gesture, fell over the hearts of the questioned and then came aloft once more, still as if with a single nerve impulse.
He laughed and added: "The carcasses is always so chawed up by b'ar and coyote or at least that's what they say done it that you can't sw'ar as to how they did come to die. But I heard one funny thing. It was over at the Pollock boys' camp. Shelby, Wright's straw boss, come ridin' in pretty mad, and made a talk about how it's mighty cur'ous only Wright's cattle is dyin'.
"Whar'fore would I do thet?" "I'll tell you fer why. Ef ye don't ... I'll wake old Caleb up an' sw'ar ter a dyin' statement ... an' I'll tell ther full, total truth.... Does ye agree?" The other hesitated then evaded the question. "S'posin' I does give ye my pledge ... what then?"
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