"Uncle, that is very wicked in you! I declare I won't have it! I'll
write a petition to the Governor to commute his sentence, and carry it
all around the county myself!"
"You wouldn't get a soul to sign it to save your life, much less his."
"I'll go to the Governor myself, and beg him to pardon Donald Bayne!"
"Ha! ha! ha! the Governor would not do it to save all our lives, and if
he were to do such an outrageous thing he might whistle for his
reelection!"
"I declare, Donald Bayne shall not be hanged--and so there!" said Cap,
passionately.
"Whe-ew! You'll deliver him by the strength of your arm, my little
Donna Quixota."
"I'll save him one way or another, now mind I tell you! He sinned more
against me than against anybody else, and so I have the best right of
anybody in the world to forgive him, and I do forgive him! And he
shan't be hanged! I say it!"
"You say it! Ha! ha! ha! Who are you, to turn aside the laws?"
"I, Capitola Black, say that Donald Bayne, not having deserved to be
hanged, shall not be hanged! And in one way or another I'll keep my
word!"
And Cap did her best to keep it. The next morning she mounted Gyp and
rode up to Tip Top, where she employed the village lawyer to draw up a
petition to the Governor for the commutation of Donald Bayne's
sentence. And then she rode all over the county to try to get
signatures to the document. But all in vain. People of every age and
condition too thoroughly feared and hated the famous outlaw, and too
earnestly wished to be entirely and forever rid of him, to sign any
petition for a commutation of his sentence. If a petition for his
instant execution had been carried around it would have stood a much
better chance of success.
Cap spent many days in her fruitless enterprise, but at last gave it
up--but by no means in despair, for-"I'll save his life, yet! by one means or another! I can't change
clothes with him as I did with Clara; he's too big, but one way or
other I'll save him," said Cap, to herself. She said it to no one else,
for the more difficult the enterprise the more determined she was to
succeed, and the more secretive she grew as to her measures.
In the mean time the outlaw, double-ironed, was confined in the
condemned cell, the strongest portion of the county jail. All persons
were strictly prohibited from visiting him, except certain of the
clergy.