After this
affair had blown over, and he recalled the fact that Doc Mason had
performed eleven autopsies on murdered men in the last ten years, and
not one murderer had been hanged so far,--he would rescue Mamie from the
demoralization of the gold fields and take her to live in St. Louis or
New Orleans. And now he saw with some satisfaction that her apparent
complicity in the crime would make life hard for her in Nevada City and
impel her to accept such a proposal.
It might have been just as well if the rattlesnake coiled in his path at
that moment had ended his existence, but the snake was indeed an
honorable highwayman, and sounded a gentlemanly warning in the nick of
time. Collins would have killed it for its pains, but killing had upset
his nerves that day. So he left the reptile to try its fangs on a better
man. Besides, he reflected that he could not consistently advocate
capital punishment, and he sincerely hoped that his humane sentiments
would spread in California. He recalled the fact that there was a strong
party among the good people of the State, represented by several ladies
who had brought him bouquets and jellies when he was in jail, who were
trying to abolish capital punishment.
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