Page:Saga of Billy the Kid.djvu/52

There came at last an impasse. Chisum brought about the arrest of thieves who failed to kick or whittle their way out of jail and whom their friends carelessly neglected to rescue. The situation seemed approaching a crisis. Murphy grew perturbed and summoned McSween, his lawyer.

"You will defend these men in court," he said.

"I will not defend them," replied McSween.

Murphy's eyes hardened. This was rebellion.

"I retain you under pay as my attorney," he observed coldly. "Men on my payroll obey my orders."

"These men are thieves," retorted McSween. "I know it; you know it. As a lawyer, I refuse to defend men who have neither legal nor moral defense."

From that moment McSween's services as Murphy's lawyer ended.

Chisum retained McSween at once. For Chisum, McSween prosecuted the thieves Murphy had ordered him to defend. They were convicted and sent to prison. It was established by evidence at their trial that Murphy was their patron and sponsor, and not only bought their stolen cattle, but did a regular business in buying stolen cattle from thieves who lived by plundering Chisum's herds.

Later on, after the first blood had been spilled in the feud and McSween had been secretly marked as the next victim of Murphy's vengeance, John Riley, still ostensibly friendly for reasons of his own, dropped in at the McSween home on what he explained was merely a social call. There was no six-shooter at his belt; as far as appearances went, his mission was peaceable. But his social call was at eleven o'clock at night, when he might reasonably have expected to catch McSween and his wife alone.

But instead he found McSween sitting in his parlour