You fork over proper-like, as you should, and he pays back what he
owes Grand, preferring to owe you. So he got rid of the devil for more
than forty days. That's about the time I goes to the pen. I carelessly
lets myself get nabbed, actin' on Ernie's advice. He's a slick kid,
that boy is. He ain't goin' to let me get hung if he can help it. You
see, I'm booked for hangin', sure as fate; he knows it as well as I
do, only he's smart enough to want to put it off till I'm so old I
won't mind it. So I goes to the pen just to keep from killin' Bob
Grand. A year in the cooler makes you see things most sensible-like. I
knowed that when I went in. If I'd waited a week after hearin' Joey's
story of that dog's attentions to Ruby, I'd ha' been in Kingdom Come
long ago, and so would he. We'd both been down below to welcome Mrs.
Grand's lawyer when he arrived. So, actin' on Ernie's advice, I gets
pinched the second night after hearin' about it. Ernie's a humane
cuss. He saved two lives, then and there."
"You deliberately put yourself in prison?" cried David.
"Just to postpone the hangin', kid, that's all.
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