DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey
DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey
DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey
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Withers, too."<br />
Every one turned toward the door as he mentioned<br />
Old Man Withers. He had never been very<br />
far into the room.<br />
"Oh, he's gone," said Colonel Tom, as they<br />
turned toward the door, and then looked at each<br />
other. "Gone home. Gone home with the name<br />
of every man present. Don't you see you'd have<br />
to kill Old Man Withers too, if you killed me? And<br />
then, HIS WIFE! And then--how many more?<br />
"Do you see it widen--that pool of blood? Do<br />
you see it spread and spread?"<br />
He looked down at the floor, like he really seen<br />
it there. He had 'em going now. They showed it.<br />
"If you shed one drop," he went on, "you must<br />
shed more. Can't you see it--widening and deepening,<br />
widening and deepening, till you're wading<br />
knee deep in it--till it climbs to your waists--till<br />
it climbs to your throats and chokes you?"<br />
It was a horrible idea, the way he played that<br />
there pool of blood and he shuddered like he felt it<br />
climbing up himself. And they felt it. A few men<br />
can't kill a hull, dern county and get away with it.<br />
The way he put it that's what they was up against.<br />
"Now," says Colonel Tom, "what man among<br />
you wants to start it?"<br />
Nobody moved. He waited a minute. Still<br />
nobody moved. They all looked at him. It was<br />
awful plain jest where they would have to begin.<br />
It was awful plain jest what it would all end up in.<br />
And I guess when they looked at him standing there,<br />
so fine and straight and splendid, it jest seemed<br />
plumb unpossible to make a move. There was a<br />
spirit in him that couldn't be killed. Doctor Kirby<br />
said afterward that was what come of being real<br />
"quality," which was what Colonel Tom was--<br />
it was that in him that licked 'em. It was the best