PAINTED ROCK
from home, and I knew Ginger was goin' to be City Marshal just as sure as I know four aces and the joker from a bobtail flush. And the scheme bein' to knock a hard skull on a harder rock, I foresaw that the collidin' cabeza was goin' to be Keeley's, and all I begged of Ginger in my mind was jedgment not to fracture it. And I must say he jedged it to a nicety. I heard the crack, and I heard Keeley sigh, and then he lay there like a very peaceful citizen who has been drinkin' more than he can carry. And Ginger rose up and took him in his arms as if he was a little child, and carried him into his cell and laid him down like as if he was Keeley's mother. He came out and locked the cell as a matter of form, and the rule we made, and then unlocked it and said, 'Doctor, would you be so good as to investigate the damage done, which I much lament though unavoidable?' And with that he took a seat on a bench, and the doctor presently reported that Keeley would have no more than a headache. And the boys cheered Ginger for Marshal, and Ginger clinched the popularity he had justly earned in a community
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