He said to tell Wes to get himself at least twelve men
and swear them in as jurors-have them take the oath.
"Then, he insisted that I hold the line while he got down his
law book and read the oath to me. He had me copy it down, word
for word, in case Wes needed it.
"But, Nannie, right after the old fellow had rambled through
another five or ten pages of his state books, he said that if it
was plain that Ward's gun went off accidentally while he was
trying to climb a fence, why, we won't have to hold no inquest."
"I thought you always had to have an inquest."
"No, apparently not. He said that a county coroner is not
obliged to call a inquest if there's no suspicion of foul play."
"What do you figure y'all will do?"
"I just don't know. But I gotta get on over there and tell
Wes what the coroner said. We may have to ride around and get
twelve men together. Hal Goode will be there. I phoned Doctor
Elton, and he'll be on as soon as he can. He'd just come in off
an all-night case. Dan's going. With me, that'll make four.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252