DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey

to bring out the word very decided--
"MURDER!"
The way he done it left that there word hanging
in the room, so you could almost see it and almost
feel it there, like it was a thing that had to be faced
and looked at and took into account. They all
felt it that-a-way, too; fur they wasn't a sound fur
a minute. Then Will says:
"We don't plan murder, and you'll find this
ain't a joke. And since you refuse to accept
counsel--"
Jest then Buck Hightower interrupts him by yelling
out, "I make a motion Billy Harden be prosecuting
attorney, then. Let's hurry this thing along!"
And several started to applaud, and call fur Billy
Harden to prosecute. But Will, he pounded down
the applause agin, and says:
"I was about to suggest that Mr. Harden might
be prevailed upon to accept that task."
"Yes," says the doctor, very gentle and easy.
"Quite so! I fancied myself that Mr. Harden came
along with the idea of making a speech either for
or against." And he grinned at Billy Harden in a
way that seemed to make him wild, though he tried
not to show it. Somehow the doctor seemed to be
all keyed up, instead of scared, like a feller that's
had jest enough to drink to give him a fighting edge.
"Mr. Chairman," says Billy Harden, flushing
up and stuttering jest a little, "I b-beg leave to
d-d-decline."
"What," says the doctor, sort of playing with
Billy with his eyes and grin, and turning like to
let the whole crowd in on the joke, "DECLINE? The
eminent gentleman declines! And he is going to
sit down, too, with all that speech bottled up in
him! O Demosthenes!" he says, "you have lost
your pebble in front of all Greece."