But thet left arm wasn't useless
yet, fer he grabbed up the gun, an' with a shakin' aim thet would
hev been pitiful to me--in any other man--he began to shoot. One
wild bullet struck a man twenty feet from Lassiter. An' it killed
thet man, as I seen afterward. Then come a bunch of thunderin'
shots--nine I calkilated after, fer they come so quick I couldn't
count them--an' I knew Lassiter hed turned the black guns loose
on Dyer.
"I'm tellin' you straight, Miss Withersteen, fer I want you to
know. Afterward you'll git over it. I've seen some soul-rackin'
scenes on this Utah border, but this was the awfulest. I remember
I closed my eyes, an' fer a minute I thought of the strangest
things, out of place there, such as you'd never dream would come
to mind. I saw the sage, an' runnin' hosses--an' thet's the
beautfulest sight to me--an' I saw dim things in the dark, an'
there was a kind of hummin' in my ears. An' I remember
distinctly--fer it was what made all these things whirl out of my
mind an' opened my eyes--I remember distinctly it was the smell
of gunpowder.
"The court had about adjourned fer thet judge. He was on his
knees, en' he wasn't prayin'. He was gaspin' an' tryin' to press
his big, floppin', crippled hands over his body. Lassiter had
sent all those last thunderin' shots through his body. Thet was
Lassiter's way.
"An' Lassiter spoke, en' if I ever forgit his words I'll never
forgit the sound of his voice.
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