Arizona Round-Up — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ARIZONA ROUNDUP 103 his feet, stepping up on a store goods box that had been provided. He held up his hands for silence, got it, and faced three hundred grim faces. “Men,” he called out in a far-reaching, clear voice, cigar stub between two fingers of his left hand, “there isn’t any reason I should waste time telling you why we're here. You know all too well, and I know that you dread this grim business as much as I do. In reality we have no legal right to judge the men now under guard in the jail and charged with certain crimes against the people of this camp.” “The heck we haven't!” roared back a voice from the crowd. It was taken up, grew in volume, and began to swell into thunder. Biggers held up both hands to get them quieted down, and the immaculate, poker-faced Gardner bent down over Pearson’s shoulder. “T forgot to tell you, Harlan,” he said smoothly. “While the crowd was busy getting them out of the cabin, I did a few things in the Pheasant. The dice there have been changed for similar.ones, most of which throw six-ace and five-deuce flats. The roulette wheels are not level now. Somebody generously left the big cabinet on the wall where she keeps her supply of new decks unlocked. I put half of them on a lower shelf and pinned a small white card on it, printed with the words, Marked. For Black Jack and Faro dealers only. Turn the.crowd loose on it at the proper time. You might as well make the job of breaking her complete.” Pearson nodded without looking up. Biggers had the crowd quiet again. He went on: | “This is a terrible decision that we must make this afternoon, men. Don't let the anger and indignation of the moment sway your minds and cause you to do something that might haunt you afterwards. The evidence might—and I said might!—indicate that these men are guilty of the charges to be made. But there is always the possibility that in spite of the circumstantial evidence, a man might be innocent. It has been proven—” He had to break off in the face of the coarse, jeering, sardonic laughter. Men slapped each other on the back and hooted. “Hey, Biggers!” a little wizened miner shouted in a voice not comicbooks.com