There was also a corresponding atmosphere of relief
when the verdict of Public Opinion was called justifiable
homicide by the coroner and so stamped with official approval.
When that was done they carried Baumberger's gross physical shell
away up the grade to the station; and the dust of his passing
settled upon the straggling crowd that censured his misdeeds and
mourned not at all, and yet paid tribute to his dead body with
lowered voices while they spoke of him, and with awed silence
when the rough box was lowered to the station platform.
As the sky clears and grows blue and deep and unfathomably
peaceful after a storm, as trees wind-riven straighten and nod
graciously to the little cloud-boats that sail the blue above,
and wave dainty finger-tips of branches in bon voyage, so did the
Peaceful Hart ranch, when the dust had settled after the latest
departure and the whistle of the train--which bore the coroner
and that other quiet passenger--came faintly down over the
rim-rock, settle with a sigh of relief into its old, easy habits
of life.
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