At other times he would stand at the bedside looking down at
Lawler's closed eyes and ashen face; or he would sit on the edge of a
chair and watch him, intently, with stoic calm, his face as
expressionless as a stone image.
Mrs. Lawler came early the next morning--after the doctor had told Della
and Shorty there was a fighting chance for Lawler; and Ruth Hamlin.
Shorty's eyes grew moist as he watched Mrs. Lawler and Ruth as they
stood by the unconscious man; and his voice was low and gruff when,
during the day Mrs. Lawler asked him for particulars.
"That's all there was to it, ma'am," he said in conclusion. "The boss
oughtn't to have busted in that shack like he did, knowin' Antrim was
there--an' givin' the scum a chance to take the first shot at him. But
he done it. An' he done the same thing to Warden--offered him the first
shot. Ma'am, I never heard the beat of it! I've got nerve--as the sayin'
is. But--Lordy!"
And Shorty became silent again.
For three days Lawler remained unconscious. And during that interval
there were no disturbing sounds to agitate the deathlike quiet of the
sickroom. Riders glided into town from various points of the compass and
stepped softly as they moved in the street--whispering or talking in low
tones. The universal topic was the fight, and Lawler's condition.
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