he'd done to Julie. And Paul took in as much of it as he
could understand and he run to Doc with the story.
It's a cinch Doc went up in the air and swore he'd make
Jim suffer. But it was a kind of a delicate thing, because
if it got out that he had beat Jim up, Julie was bound
to hear of it and then she'd know that Doc knew and of
course knowin' that he knew would make it worse for
her than ever. He was goin' to do somethin', but it took
a lot of figurin'.
Well, it was a couple days later when Jim was here in
the shop again, and so was the cuckoo. Jim was goin'
duck-shootin' the next day and had came in lookin'
for Hod Meyers to go with him. I happened to know
that Hod had went over to Carterville and wouldn't be
home till the end of the week. So Jim said he hated to
go alone and he guessed he would call it off. Then poor
Paul spoke up and said if Jim would take him he would
go along. Jim thought a w'ile and then he said, well, he
guessed a half-wit was better than nothin'.
I suppose he was plottin' to get Paul out in the boat and
play some joke on him, like pushin' him in the water.
Anyways, he said Paul could go. He asked him had he
ever shot a duck and Paul said no, he'd never even had
a gun in his hands. So Jim said he could set in the boat
and watch him and if he behaved himself, he might
lend him his gun for a couple of shots. They made a
date to meet in the mornin' and that's the last I seen of
Jim alive.
HYLAND
