'"
Here was something tangible.
"What happens when a man steals another man's brand in this country?"
"He mustn't get caught; that's all. They all do it, but they never bring
their troubles into court. They just shoot it out there in the bresh.
The last time old Colonel Zuigg brought Zorn Zuidden in here and had him
indicted for stealing cattle, said Zorn: 'Now see here, old man Zuigg,
what do you want for to go and git me arrested fer? I have stole
thousands of cattle and put your mark and brand on 'em, and jes because
I have stole a couple of hundred from you, you go and have me indicted.
You jes better go and get that whole deal nol pressed;' and it was
done."
The argument was perfect.
"From that I should imagine that the cow-people have no more idea of law
than the 'gray apes,'" I commented.
"Yes, that's about it. Old Colonel Zuigg was a judge fer a spell, till
some feller filled him with buckshot, and he had to resign; and I
remember he decided a case aginst me once. I was hot about it, and the
old colonel he saw I was. Says he, 'Now yer mad, ain't you?' And I
allowed I was. 'Well,' says he, 'you hain't got no call to get mad. I
have decided the last eight cases in yer favor, and you kain't have it
go yer way all the time; it wouldn't look right;' and I had to be
satisfied."
The courts in that locality were but the faint and sickly flame of a
taper offered at the shrine of a justice which was traditional only, it
seemed.
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