“Mr. Marion, I have to ask you this. Were you part of a conspiracy with the Allens?”
“Hell no, there wasn’t no damn conspiracy. If they had planned it, you think they’d have gotten themselves shot up like that? And do you think for a second I wouldn’t have helped?”
“So what about the court? Do you think they had a conspiracy?”
Byrd squatted, picked up an oak branch, and began whipping it about in the stream. After what seemed like a full minute, he answered.
“There’s been a lot of tales told. I’ve had some people tell me people from the court warned them to be carrying a gun.”
“You mean like Alph Thomas signing an affidavit that William Foster had advised him to come armed, and if Floyd made any attempt to resist, that if Alph shot him, Foster would get him off?”
“Yeah,” Byrd s
