“I thought I was going to be able to kill two birds with one stone on that one.”
“You mean me and Phaup?”
“You always had that judge fellow in Richmond getting you out of scrapes. Like in Richmond, then when I planted that pea shooter on you.”
“It was you that slipped that derringer in my pocket at the courthouse?”
He erupted with a demonic laugh that sounded like the bad notes from a fiddle.
“That was pretty slick, wasn’t it? He said. “Pretending I was some drunk? Slipping that gun into your pocket.”
“How much did Deck Goad pay you to do that?” I asked.
His eyes hardened.
“Mr. Goad didn’t know nothing about it. I did it for him. “
“Why did you do it, if he didn’t tell you to?”
“Cause you have tried to overthrow the righteous from their place of authority, for their just puni
