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Arabic and the Media
Studies in Semitic Languages
and Linguistics

Edited by
T. Muraoka, C. H. M. Versteegh, A. D. Rubin

VOLUME 57
 Arabic and the Media

Linguistic Analyses and Applications

Edited by

Reem Bassiouney

BRILL

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Arabic and the media : linguistic analyses and applications I edited by

Reem Bassiouney.
p. em. - (Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ; v. 57)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mass media and language-Arab countries. 2. Diglossia (Linguistics)-Arab
countries. 3. Code-switching (Linguistics)-Arab countries. 4. Arabic language-
Discourse analysis. 5. Arabic language-Variation. 6. Arabic language-Rhetoric.
7. Arabic language-Usage. I. Bassiouney, Reem.
P96.L34A73 2010
492.701'41-dc22
2009051729

ISSN 0081-8461
ISBN 978 90 04 18258 5

Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints BRILL, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by

Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.

PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

 CONTENTS

Introduction 1

PART ONE

NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE

The Evolution and Role of Newspapers 13

Jean Aitchison

Cases of Written Code-Switching in Egyptian Opposition

Newspapers 23
Zeinab Ibrahim

Communities of Use in Arabic Newspaper Language:

The Meaning of the Country Effect 47
Dilworth Parkinson

PART TWO

ARABIC VARIATION AND THE MEDIA

Arabic Oral Media and Corpus Linguistics: A First

Methodological Outline 63
Marc Van-Mol

Patterns and Predictions for Code-Switching with Arabic 81

Carol Myers-Scotton

Identity and Code-Choice in the Speech of Educated Women

and Men in Egypt: Evidence from Talk Shows 97
Reem Bassiouney

I;Ial id-Dunya: An Arabic News Bulletin in Colloquial

('Ammiyya) ..................................................................................... 123
Madiha Doss
vi CONTENTS

Performance, Language and Power: Nasrallah's Rhetoric and

Mediated Charisma in the Context of the 2006 July War 141
Dina Matar

Pidginisation in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia:

Media Presentation 159
Munira Al-Azraqi

Internet Bulletin Boards in Saudi Arabia: Analogues of Change

and Resistance 175
NadavSamin

Linguistic Varieties in Twenty First Century Arabic Novels:

An Applied Study 20 1
Soha Abboud-Haggar

PART THREE

APPLICATIONS: APPROACHING MEDIA IN THE

CLASSROOM

Media Arabic as a Regional Standard 219

Karin Christina Ryding

A Framework for Teaching Vocabulary Through Printed Media 229

Raghda El-Essawy

The Place of Media in the Arabic Curriculum 253

Mahmoud Abdalla

List of Contributors 291

Index .................................................................................................... 297
 INTRODUCTION

Today we are beginning to notice that the new media

are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds
of illusion, but new languages with new and unique
powers of expression
Marshall McLuhan, Educator, writer and social
reformer 1911-1980
The term 'media' refers to the organizations that produce communica-
tion devices such as the press, cinema, broadcasting, publishing and
so on and so forth. However, it is also used to denote the cultural and
material products of these organizations and entities, such as the 'forms
and genres' of news and soap operas, for example, which then take the
forms of newspapers, paperback books, films, tapes, discs ... etc. (Lister
2003:12; Thompson 1995: 23-24).
According to Lister (2003) there has been a development in media
due to different factors including; globalisation, the dissolving of
national state and national boundaries, and shifts in industry, trade,
culture, customs and beliefs. These independent factors have led to a
change in the form of media and also in the means of its distribution.
Now there are new patterns of organization and production of media
such as computer mediated communication; e-mail, chatrooms, and
blogs. These new forms are commonly called 'new media'. The main
characteristic of new media is its availability to everyone with little or
no ownership regulations, or censure-ship. According to Eickelman
(2003:2) new media 'feeds into new senses of a public space that is
discursive, performative, and participative, and not confined to for-
mal institutions recognized by tate authorities." This may explain why
Lister speaks of media as 'a fully social institution' (2003:12).
Aitchison and Lewis (2003) start their book on new media by posit-
ing that the media has witnessed an 'unprecedented' amount of change,
in terms of quantity, technology and modes. 'The spread of transmis-
sion has increased, and many more readers/viewers participate both
passively and actively.' If this is true for Western media then it is ten
folds true for the Arab world.
The media has ruthlessly and meticulously penetrated Arab commu-
nities at all levels. Governments in Arab countries are becoming aware
2 INTRODUCTION

by the day of the importance of the media. To give but an example, the
president of Egypt when speaking to University students in Alexandria
1999 urges the students to be frank with him since, as he posits, 'the
world has become like a small village. Anything that happens in any
place in the world is known by the media, and by television. Even in
hovels you find the satellite dish.' (cited in Bassiouney 2006:182).
Until a decade ago, most Arab countries had one or two official
television channels that are usually monitored and owned by the gov-
ernment. Now the satellite dish has changed everything. As Mansfield
(2003:404) puts it, in the Arab world, 'exposure', through the media 'to
other opinions has eroded taboos'. Business men throughout the Arab
world rushed to open new private channels that speak directly to the
people. With the increase in competition between different channels,
diversity, especially linguistic diversity has become a crucial element
in deciding what to listen to or watch and why.
The same is true for other forms of media like newspapers and
the internet. Opposition parties in a great number of countries were
allowed at least partially to create new newspapers that highlight their
agendas and even criticise Arab governments. The internet provided
the outlet that young people needed to express their dissatisfaction at
times and their opinions at others. In the year 2007, 20,000 Egyptians
agreed to go on a strike that took place in Cairo days later. The 20.000
Egyptians did not meet or form a group but communicated via blogs,
which are difficult to control or monitor. It becomes clearer everyday
that the media is forming the people while the people are also using
the media as a tool for self expression, and language, in both cases is
in the forefront.

AIMS OF THIS BOOK

The focus of this book will be on the use of Arabic as evidenced in

visual and written media, newspapers and satellite channels.
This book raises two fundamental questions: First, is Arabic influ-
enced in its development by the media, like other languages? That is, is
it changing rapidly to meet the needs of the modern world, in its stan-
dard and colloquial varieties? If so, what are the social mechanisms or
institutions that shape the use of Arabic?
Second, can the media give rise to new hybrid language forms?
Conversely, are the media themselves influenced by Arabic?
 INTRODUCTION 3

This book plans to address these fundamental questions, and further

our understanding of the mechanism at work in the development of
modern Arabic, in its standard or colloquial variations. In doing so
this book will focus on a cluster of crucial issues and themes related
to these questions:
One of these issues is how written media, mainly newspapers are dif-
ferent from other media. There will be one part devoted to the exami-
nation of newspaper language. In addition, the question of whether
media is exclusive to standard Arabic or not will be addressed; if
media is not exclusive to standard Arabic then how are dialects used
in the media? does their usage have a discourse function and is their
usage related to a more political and ideological entities? Similarly,
what are the mechanisms of diglossic switching in the media? Can we
outline rules that explain how people switch between different variet-
ies of Arabic and why they do so?
How do the media affect language as a whole? Is it possible to dis-
cern certain media-related trends in the development of Arabic-and
other languages? If so, how does the case of Arabic compare to that
of English, for instance? Is Arabic being adapted to meet new needs?
What are the factors that can shape this adaptation?
To what extent does the Arabic used in the media reflect social and
linguistic realities of Arabic speaking audiences? ('cliched' dialects,
code-switching and socialects). How can our knowledge of the linguis-
tic reality of the media in the Arab world contribute to teaching the
media to foreign students learning Arabic? What are the challenges
and significance of teaching media Arabic to foreign students? More
generally what is the state of the art in Arabic teaching and the media?
The book aims at offering a significant theoretical, methodological
and applicable framework to the study of Arabic media and to the
teaching of media as well.

Audience and Significance of this Book

Scholars interested in the media in general with no knowledge of
Arabic will find this book very useful. Also Arabic linguists will find
excellent data and hypotheses in this book. Graduate and undergradu-
ate students of both general linguistics and Arabic will find this book
useful as a reference book. Teachers of media Arabic can also benefit
from the surveys in part three of this book as well as the methods of
teaching media discussed in this part.
4 INTRODUCTION

There are no reference books or otherwise that deal exclusively with

the media from a sociolinguistic perspective in the market and no
book with such an amount of variety of topics on the media written
by leading scholars in the field. There are more sociolinguistics courses
offered nowadays than ever and there are very few books on Arabic
sociolinguistics, and none that I know of on Arabic and the media
from a linguistic perspective.
The book offers a fresh insight into a crucial part of our life, the
media. The participants are as diverse in their background and research
interests as the topic itself is. There are scholars from Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Spain, Belguim, the UK and the USA.
Note that the fact that North Africa is not represented in this book
is purely circumstantial. Since this is an edited volume the scope is to
a great extent influenced by the scholars interested in contributing and
the researchers who were available at the time the book was compiled.
North Africa presents a crucial part of the Arab world and research
conducted on it provides fresh insights into the field of sociolinguistics.

0RGANISA TION OF THE BOOK

Newspaper language
Part one of this book is devoted to newspaper language. Aitchison,
starts part one by positing that 'Humans perpetually juggle words,
stringing them together in new and inventive ways. Sometimes they do
this by chattering to one another, at other times by writing or signing.
Yet, increasingly these days, the characteristics of spoken and written
language overlap, particularly in newspapers'. Her study though not
about Arabic specifically sets the tone for the rest of the discussion in
this book. She highlights the similarities in linguistic styles adopted by
newspapers world wide and the reasons behind this overlap in style.
She contends that the aim of journalists worldwide is to involve the
reader and this is achieved by adopting a number of approaches sum-
marised in her article.
Ibrahim examines the use of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA)
in opposition newspapers in Egypt and attempts a small scale cor-
pus study in order to explain and systematise cases of code switching
between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and ECA, or even cases of
increase in use of ECA in newspapers which may be a new phenom-
enon in Egypt. She concentrates on two newspapers specficially, one
 INTRODUCTION 5

more radical than the other and contends that Al-Dustuur, the more
radical opposition newspaper uses more colloquial than Al-Masri, the
less radical opposition newspaper and both use more colloquial than
the government newspapers.
Parkinson by counting variables from different newspapers includ-
ing Egyptian and Lebanese ones finds that there are different kinds
of standard Arabic and not just one standard. There are for example
some lexical items that are exclusive to Egyptian standard Arabic and
others that are exclusive to Lebanese standard Arabic. Thus one can
conclude that there are more than one standard Arabic in the media.

LANGUAGE VARIATION AND THE MEDIA

Eid posits that the media "creates in between spaces that serve as excel-
lent sites for the negotiation of identities. It does so by bringing public
content into the privacy of the home and taking private content to the
public view to audiences that are local and, when aired over satellite
channels, global as well." (Eid: 2007:405).
In part two linguistic variation in the media is discussed and exam-
ined from different perspectives. Van-Mol first attempts, in his article,
to linguistically define 'Media Arabic' and the methodological prob-
lems associated with this term. He argues that written media is dif-
ferent from spoken media. However even spoken media language
is difficult to classify into one unit. As will be clear in the article a
number of factors are crucial in examining the language of the media.
Some of these factors are related to the nature of the programs analy-
sed as well as the speakers in these program.
Myers-Scotton also examines the matrix language hypothesis and its
new development, the 4-M model, in relation to diglossic switching.
She argues that diglossic switching between standard Arabic and aver-
nacular is becoming more and more common in the mass media. She
attempts at providing a model that can be applied to both classic code
switching between different languages and diglossic switching. This
model can thus, regulate and explain rules of switching between the
standard and different vernaculars. These rules are dependent on the
morphological elements present in each clause of the data. By count-
ing morphological features one can decide on the base language/vari-
ety which is used whether standard or colloquial. Bassiouney in her
study of diglossic switching between men and women in Talk shows
6 INTRODUCTION

concludes that contrary to the belief of a number of linguists, educated

Egyptian women do not use Standard Arabic less than men in talk
shows, but that standard Arabic usage is related to the role the speaker
wants to play and thus acts as a reflection of the speakers identity.
Doss in her article discusses the use of Egyptian colloquial Arabic
(ECA) in News broadcasts, a domain associated exclusively with Stan-
dard Arabic (Ferguson 1959) in the relatively new Egyptian channel
OTV (2006). She discusses the logistics behind the use of ECA in news
broadcasts as well as the controversy surrounding the channel and its
connotations. Doss argues that although the newsbroadcasts in OTV
are supposed to be in ECA, they are not in fact in pure ECA, but
exhibit features of standard Arabic, whether morphological, phono-
logical or lexical ones. She also poses the question of writing in col-
loquial and whether the role of colloquial in written texts is increasing
and what the outcome and reasons for this increase could be.
Matar analyses the political speeches of Hizbollah leader Nassrallah
in the wake of the 2006 war with Israel. Matar argues that Nassrallah's
speeches draw on socio-historical references which are related directly
to the established culture of communication of his community. His
speeches help construct an image of a national and religious leader
whose significance and relevance is intelligible to his intended audi-
ence in context-dependent ways. She also refers to his use of both col-
loquial and standard Arabic to construct this image and enhance it.
Al-Azraqi concetrates on her study on pidgin Arabic as used in
Saudi Arabia specficially and examines the syntactic features that char-
acterise this pidgin and the reasons why it may not develop into a
Creole. Al-Azraqi also notes the recent presence of this pigdin in the
media, written and spoken; in Saudi Newspapers as well as the famous
Saudi comic show, Tash rna Tash. However, Al-Azraqi contends that
the use of pidgin Arabic in the media is exclusive to Asian characters
and is looked down upon by native Saudis.
Samin Examines the discourses on two Saudi Internet bulletin
boards, one representing a Najdi tribe, the other a Shi'ite community
in eastern Saudi Arabia. He shows how Saudi youth can flout strict
codes of behavior through the language used in the internet and can
thus express different facets of their identity. Samin demonstrates how
independent sociolinguistic variables, such as religion and tribal affili-
ations are reflected through new forms of media in the middle east in
general and in Saudi society in particular.
 INTRODUCTION 7

A theme which is related indirectly to the media but which I believe

has to be covered at least partially in this book is the use of dialect in
literature. Literature, especially popular literature such as the novels
that Aboud examines in her study are accessible to many and reflects
both the attitude of the writer as well as the demands of the audience.
Abboud argues that media language has affected literature in irrevo-
cable ways. Abboud examines two novels which have been bestsellers
in both the Arab world and in the west as translations, Yacobian build-
ing and Girls of Riyadh, the latter written in e-mail messages form.
Abboud in her study poses such relevant questions as, what is the
function of the use of dialect in literature and does this use present
an ongoing trend that will develop in all the Arab world or should it
just be exmained on a case by case basis? The written media influences
literature same way as literature influences the written media and both
influence Arabic in its entirety.

APPLICATION: APPROACHING MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

In part three of this book, the role of teaching Arabic through the
media is examined. Ryding posits in her article that 'no other form of
Arabic is so widely spread, so accessible to the inter-regional public.
Arabic media is both constitutive and reflective of a subaltern Arab
culture and world-view that contrasts in both sharp and subtle ways
with what the West often attributes to Arab public opinion. This genre
is therefore of central concern to those who study and teach Arabic
language and culture in terms of its reach, its role, its structure, and
its content'. Ryding (in this volume).
First, Ryding highlights the fascinating role that language plays in
the media of the Arab world. She argues in her article that the rich-
ness, sophistication and diversity of newspaper Arabic cannot be fully
appreciated nor covered in a textbook of Media Arabic. Although
textbooks provide students with the linguistic tools and vocabulary
needed to understand newspapers, they are not a substitute for real
media. Ryding also relates the media to teaching Arabic in an unprec-
edented way, with reference to specific old and new textbooks as well
as proficiency guidlines and goals.
El-Essawy investigates methods and resources of teaching vocabu-
lary through written media, especially newspapers. El-Essawy high-
lights the role of newspapers in facilitating vocabulary teaching
8 INTRODUCTION

through inferences, guessing and frequent exposure. She also alludes

to the relation between media and culture and the techniques that can
be used in classrooms to emphasise the relation between the culture
and written media.
Abdalla sheds light on the state of teaching Arabic through the mass
media in Arabic language programs. He argues that media courses
focus mainly on the language of journalism and TV broadcasting. In
his article he discusses the characteristics of media language including
the ongoing debate on the use of dialect in the media as well as the
importance of media literacy in the Arabic language curriculum. The
article also provides recommendations for future teaching plans and
highlights the role of Arabic teachers in reflecting the rapid changes
in modern Arab media.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Crucial sociolinguistic discussions have been tackled directly or indi-

rectly in this book: Structural constraints and discourse functions of
diglossic switching have been examined. Pidgin Arabic, an increasing
phenomenon in Gulf countries nowadays, has also been explored.
This book also touches upon independent sociolinguistic variables
that affect linguistic variation. Such variables are of direct relevance
to variation quantitative research and appear in a number of articles
in this book such as that of Samin on Saudi internet bulletins boards
and Bassiouney on diglossic switching on talk-shows. Independent
variables include religion, gender and tribal affiliations (cf. Bassiouney
2009).
In addition, a theme that runs throughout this book is the symbolic
signifiance of both the dialects and the standard. Language ideologies
and language attitudes are behind a number of the linguistic choices
in the articles. For example, the use of colloquial in opposition news-
papers in Egypt and the use of colloquial in news bulletins in OTV
reflect an assertion of a narrow identity rather than an assertion of
a broader Arab one. However, the use of specfic dialect or even of a
pidgin demonstrates the asscoiations and attitudes that native speakers
have towards different varieties. The question of whether there is one
standard is also posed and as Parkinson shows in his article the answer
is not clear-cut and the assumption that there is one and only one
standard form of Arabic that unites all Arabs, though not necessarily
false, is more of an ideological than a linguistic one.
 INTRODUCTION 9

Note that the term language ideologies refers to the belief system
that is prevalent in a specific community about language and language
use. As Hill and Mannheim ( 1992:382) argue, language ideology may
remind us that cultural concepts analysed by linguists are usually
subjective and contentious. Language attitudes on the other hand, as
Walters (2006: 651) posits, 'are psychological states related in complex
ways to larger abstract language ideologies'.
This book demonstrates the complexity of both ideologies and atti-
tudes on a state-level as well as on a broader nation level. By providing
data, theories and postulations, the book aims at setting the reader
thinking about different linguistic issues raised mainly by the use of
language in the media and how teachers of Arabic as a foreign lan-
guage could attempt to make use of this complexity of the media in
their classes and render the cultural nuanced representation of Arabic
speakers in the process.

REFERENCES

Aitchison,]. and D. Lewis (2003), New media language, London: Routledge.

Bassiouney, R (2006), Functions of Code Switching in Egypt, Leiden: Brill.
- (2009), Arabic sociolinguistics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Eickelmann, D. (2003), New media in the Muslim world: The emerging public sphere,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Eid (2007), "Arabic on the media: Hybridity and styles", in E. Ditters and H. Motzki
(eds), Approaches to Arabic linguistics: Presented to Kees Versteegh on the occasion
of his sixtieth birthday, Leiden: Brill, 403-34.
Ferguson (1972 [1959]), "Diglossia", Word 15: 325-40. Reprinted in P. P. Giglioli
(ed), Language and social context, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 232-51.
Hill, J. and B. Mannheim (1992), "Language and world view", Annual Review of
Anthropology 21: 381-406.
Lister, M., J. Dovey, S. Giddings, I. Grant & K. Kelly (eds.) (2003), New media: A criti-
cal introduction, London ; New York : Routledge.
Mansfield, P. (2003), A history of the Middle East, 2nd edn, New York: PenguiiL
Thompson, R (1995), Media and modernity: A social theory of the media, Stanford,
CA: Stanford Univeristy Press.
Walters (2006), "Language attitudes", lemma inK. Versteegh, M. Eid, A. Elgibali,
M. Woidich and A. Zaborski (eds), Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics,
Leiden: Brill, ii: 650-64.
 PART ONE

NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE
 THE EVOLUTION AND ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS*

Jean Aitchison
University of Oxford

Humans perpetually juggle words, stringing them together in new and

inventive ways. Sometimes they do this by chattering to one another,
at other times by writing or signing. Yet, increasingly these days, the
characteristics of spoken and written language overlap, particularly in
newspapers.
This contribution will first, consider some of the changes that have
taken place, particularly in British newspapers over the last few cen-
turies. Second, it will assess the role of newspapers today, both in
England and elsewhere. Finally, it will point out that as globalization
spreads, the same media styles are spreading worldwide.

DAILY NEWSPAPERS

Newsbooks, the 17th century forerunners of newspapers, were pub-

lished every few days, whenever the compilers thought they had
accumulated sufficient material (Raymond 1993). The first daily news-
paper, the Daily Courant began publication in 1702. Throughout most
of the 18th century, the press was viewed with suspicion, particularly
by politicians. Taxes were levied on newspapers, and the publication
of parliamentary debates was prohibited. Consequently, any so-called
news contained a high percentage of gossip. Oliver Goldsmith in his
satirical fictional correspondence The citizen of the world (1762/1970)
suggested that so-called 'news' came 'from the oracle of some coffee-
house, which oracle has himself gathered them the night before from
a beau at a gaming-table, who has pillaged his knowledge from a great
man's porter, who had his information from the great man's gentle-
man, who has invented the whole story for his own amusement.'

* The topics dealt with in this article are explored more fully in Aitchison (2007), and
this article is a summary of sections of that book.
If two dates are given in the references, the first is that of the original work, the second
of a more readily accessible reprint.
14 JEAN AITCHISON

Towards the end of the 18th century, restrictions began to be lifted,

and parliament opened up its proceedings to the press. Newspapers
proliferated, both morning and evening ones. As George Crabbe wrote
(1785):
For soon as morning dawns with roseate hue,
The 'Herald' of the morn arises too,
'Post' after 'Post' succeeds, and all day long
'Gazetters' and 'Ledgers' swarm, a motley throng.
When evening comes she comes with all her train,
Of 'Ledgers', 'Chronicles' and 'Posts' again. (Engel1996: 19).
In the 19th and much of the 20th century, the most prestigious news-
paper in England was The Times. This began in 1785, and was origi-
nally named the Daily Universal Register. It brought the number of
London morning papers to nine.
At that time, all newspapers were a dense mass of prose, written
in a pompous style. The death of the British naval hero Lord Nel-
son in November 1805 was reported in The Times in a restrained and
long-winded way: 'We know not whether we should mourn or rejoice.
The country has gained the most splendid and decisive Victory that
has ever graced the naval annuals of England; but it has been dearly
purchased. The great and gallant Nelson is no more: he was killed
by almost the last shot that was fired by the enemy.' The first picture
appeared several days later, of his casket and funeral car.
In its early days, The Times was notable in two main ways. First, it
invested in technology, which enabled its print-run to outnumber that
of other newspapers. In 1814, it installed a steam press, and circulation
figures leapt. By 1844, more than 20,000 copies a day were sold. By
1854, the figure had doubled to 40,000, and by 1864, to over 50,000.
The early record may have been the death of Prince Albert in Decem-
ber 1861, when the sales rose to 91,000 (Grant 1871).
Second, The Times spent money on getting news fast. In 1834, Lord
Durham, a prominent politician, had been invited to give a speech in
Glasgow, Scotland, and there was great interest in what he would say.
The Times sent two of its best parliamentary reporters to Glasgow, and
set up relays of postmen and horses at intervals between Glasgow and
London. The 400 mile journey was performed at the rate of 15 miles
an hour, and the speech appeared in The Times a day before it was
expected, a widely acclaimed achievement (id.). However, galloping
horses were soon obsolete, because the electric telegraph was invented
in the 1840s, and The Times made full use of this new technology.
 THE EVOLUTION AND ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS 15

The Times was also praised for its size, though this varied. The record
was reportedly held by the issue of 22 June 1861, which contained 'no
fewer than 24 pages or 144 columns! ... If no waters nor mountains
intervened, a column of The Times might be laid down almost half
the distance to India', it was claimed (id. p. 23), assuming that all the
text from 70,000 impressions was cut up into single columns, and laid
end to end.
The Times was referred to as 'The Monarch of the Press'. But its
monarchy was soon challenged by the Daily Telegraph, which had been
established in 1855. It overtook The Times by means of two hard-sell
tactics: price cuts on the one hand, and livelier content on the other.
At first, it cost two pence, and even though it was the cheapest paper,
it almost went bankrupt. Then the price was reduced to one penny,
and sales rocketed. By 1870, it claimed to have the largest circulation
in the world, an average daily sale of almost 200,000.
Then in 1882, the Daily Telegraph 'stumbled across a journalistic
crock of gold. It was grey and enormous ... This was Jumbo, already
the best-known animal in London Zoo' (Engel 1996: 37). The Zoo had
sold Jumbo to Barnum, an American circus owner, and Jumbo was led
away to the Docks, for transportation across the Atlantic. Jumbo was
supposedly devastated at this turn of events. According to the Daily
Telegraph reporter: 'The poor brute moaned softly ... embracing the
man [his keeper] with his trunk, and actually kneeling before him.
Jumbo's cries were soon heard in the elephant house, where poor Alice
[his presumed wife] was again seized with alarm and grief' (id. p. 38).
Eventually, Jumbo was led back to the delight of everyone, including
Alice. But Jumbo and Alice never did share a cage, and their romance
was a journalistic invention. Jumbo did kneel down, but this was due
to a serious and long-standing knee problem. Jumbo was eventually
taken off to America, where he was killed by a freight train as he was
being led across a railway line. 'Both train and Jumbo were wrecked',
as the journalist Matthew Engel expressed it. (id. p. 40)
Towards the end of the 19th century, entertainment increasingly
pushed aside more serious news, and the Daily Telegraph was over-
taken by newspapers whose primary aims were to shock and amuse.
The serious papers (now known as broadsheets) were overtaken by the
so-called tabloids (originally a printing term referring to a newspaper
of compact size, though increasingly used to refer to lurid, popular
'rags'). An anonymous verse which went round Fleet Street in the 19th
century summarised this downmarket trend:
16 JEAN AITCHISON

Tickle the public, make 'em grin,

The more you tickle, the more you'll win;
Teach the public, you'll never get rich,
You'll live like a beggar, and die in a ditch. (Engel1996:17).
This view was echoed in 1932 by a verse published in the New Clar-
ion, set to the tune of a well-known song: 'What shall we do with a
drunken sailor?'
What shall we put in the daily paper?
Suicide of linen draper,
Duchess poisoned by noisome vapour
Early in the morning! (Engel1996:129)

AN OBSESSION WITH GosSIP

From the early 20th century onwards, newspapers became easier to

read. They were more colloquial in style, and included more pictures.
Readers became increasingly preoccupied with gossip and celebri-
ties. Yet a desire for chit-chat and scandal was by no means new. Ben
Jonson's play The staple of news (1626) was set in an imaginary news
agency where the employees were instructed to gather gossip:
Sirs,
You must get o'this news ...
Who dines and sups i'the town, where and with whom ...
Richard Sheridan's play The school for scandal ( 1777) began with Lady
Sneerwell checking that the gossipmonger Snake had inserted false
gossip into a publication. Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies (1930)
featured two young aristocratic gossip columnists who bemoan the
fact that they find it difficult to say anything new about the same peo-
ple whom they repeatedly see at parties.
But, in recent years, the appetite for gossip has markedly increased:
'Gossip has become a sulphurous brew that has long since burst the
confines of traditional gossip columns and cascades over the daily
newspaper diet of millions' commented Roger Wilkes (2002: 275) in
a book aptly titled Scandal. If a genuine celebrity marries or dies, the
coverage can be overwhelming. When George Harrison, one of the
pop group the Beatles died of cancer in November 2001, the entire
British press cleared their front pages, and many more inside, for an
appreciation 'on a scale that, only a few years ago, would have been
reserved for the Second Coming [of Christ].' (id. p. 9).
 THE EVOLUTION AND ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS 17

This trend has continued, with increasing quantities of tittle-tattle

about celebrities, their appearance, and their love-life. Not long ago,
a tabloid devoted its main story on the front page to opinions about
a pop singer's breast structure: 'The verdict is in-Posh's boobs are
FAKE. Brits reckon by a landslide majority that Victoria Beckham's
cleavage is man-made. A bouncing 72% of voters thought that Posh's
breasts were not real.' (Daily Star 26 February 2004).
This flood of celebrity trivia is deplored by some of the reading pub-
lic, others have been more forgiving. Such gossip can serve a serious,
though not always recognized purpose. It gives readers a comforting
sense of rapport with the celebrities, making them feel that everyone,
with a little money and some luck, could be famous. The media imply
that 'dressing the part' might make it all happen. These days, that
means going shopping. 'The biggest area of mass reporting is simply
shopping, news as thinly disguised advertising. Editors believe that the
British today are most interested in their number-one leisure activity:
buying stuff. So shopping mad have we become as a society that the
adverts are now becoming the news' suggested the journalist Andrew
Marr (2004: 106).
Yet maybe this is not such a surprise. Newspapers and other media
always have been, and maybe always will be, a mixture of news and
entertainment. These days, they are part horror-comics (when disas-
ters happen), part gossip-mongers (when celebrities marry or split
up), part shopping aids (a solidarity ploy in a prosperous society). The
news-entertainment mix varies from day to day, but it is still essen-
tially the same bubbling broth of news and entertainment.

REPORTING STYLES

Yet some things are new. Over the decades, styles of reporting have
altered. Up until the beginning of the 20th century, newspapers, like
their predecessors, the newsbooks, recounted events in the order in
which they occurred. In 1888, for example, The Times published a
report of one of the murders of the notorious killer known as 'Jack
the Rippper' The account was matter of fact: 'Another murder of the
foulest kind was committed in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel in
the early hours of yesterday morning. At a quarter to 4 o'clock Police
constable Neill 97J, when in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, came upon
the body of a woman lying on part of the footway, and on scooping
her up in the belief that she was drunk discovered that her throat
18 JEAN AITCHISON

was cut almost from ear to ear' (The Times 1 September 1888). The
report continued with an inspection by a doctor, who pronounced
the woman dead. The body was removed to a mortuary, and attempts
were made to find the identity of the victim, who was finally named
as a prostitute, Polly Nicholls.
This pedestrian 'order of events' account contrasts strongly with
reports typically found in recent newspapers, which condense essential
information into the first sentence: 'A pensioner died yesterday after
being dragged from his car, robbed and beaten when he stopped to
ask for directions yesterday morning'. (The People 7 November 2004).
Here we are told succinctly WHO was involved, WHAT happened,
WHERE it happened, HOW it happened, WHY it happened, and
WHEN it happened, the so-called 6 WHs, which trainee journalists
are taught to specify in the first sentence.
Beneath this informative initial summary, the rest of the report
is carefully organized. The commonest type of structure in modern
newspapers may be the 'inverted pyramid', basically an upside down
triangle. After the summary, surrounding events are then fitted in, in
a way which progressively explains the situation. In the case of the
robbed pensioner, readers might be told how the pensioner had man-
aged to get lost. Each subsequent piece of information is assumed to
be less important, and is given less space. Finally, an evaluation (some-
times optional) is added, which says something such as 'The investi-
gation continues', perhaps tempting the reader to buy the next day's
newspaper.
The advantage of the inverted pyramid is that all new or important
information is conveniently located at the beginning of the article, so
anyone perusing a paper in a hurry could get the maximum amount of
information with a minimum of effort-though other variants are also
found. For example, an 'hour-glass structure' begins with an inverted
pyramid, and then moves to a chronological survey (Fedler et al. 2001).
This is particularly common if the information is complex, and the
journalist wants to be sure that readers can follow the story clearly.
But it is not only the structure of an article that has been carefully
arranged. The words too have been skilfully polished. Any piece of
good journalism is honed down to a set of precise, readable and com-
pact paragraphs. Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), best known as the
au thor of the 'Uncle Remus stories, was a journalist for most of his life,
and he expressed the need for polished concision well:
 THE EVOLUTION AND ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS 19

When you've got a thing to say,

Say it! Don't take half a day ...
Life is short-a fleeting vapour-
Don't you fill the whole blamed paper
With a tale, which at a pinch,
Could be covered in an inch!
Boil her down until she simmers,
Polish her until she glimmers. (Boyd 1994:52).
George Orwell, the author of the novel 1984, was deeply concerned
with 'language as an instrument for expressing and not for conceal-
ing or preventing thought' (Orwell 1946/1952: 257). Even today, his
'rules' for clear writing are often handed over to trainee journalists
(id. p. 156):

(1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you
are used to seeing in print.
(2) Never use a long word when a short one will do.
(3) If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.
(4) Never use the passive when you can use the active.
(5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if
you can think of an English everyday equivalent.
(6) Break any of these rules rather sooner than say anything outright
barbarous.

Various books of advice to journalists add to these in various ways,

such as 'use adjectives sparingly'

THE ROLE OF JoURNALISTS

The role of journalists is often thought to be straightforward: they

provide information about recent events, especially juicy shock-horror
stories which will capture readers' attention. According to this simple
view, journalists are 'newshounds', skilled hunters and gatherers who
are permanently on the look out for juicy pieces of news, like pigs snuf-
fling for truffles. When they have found some, they dig them out, and
transmit the essence to their readers. As C. P. Scott, a long-standing
editor of The Guardian newspaper (1872-1929), famously said: 'The
primary office of a newspaper is the gathering of news. At the peril of
its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it
20 JEAN AITCHISON

gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation,
must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong ... Comment is free, but
facts are sacred' (Manchester Guardian 5 May 1921). This ties in with
journalists' own self-perception: 'Central among journalistic beliefs is
the idea of news as random and unpredictable events tracked down
by the skills of journalistic anticipation and circumspection.' (Golding
and Elliott 1979!1999: 112).
But this view is an oversimplification, and the role of journalists
is more complex. No journalist or group of journalists could ever
cover everything that happens: they have to choose what to report.
And what they report is what people expect them to report. This is
remarkably similar from paper to paper. As the journalist Andrew
Marr observed:'It is not uncommon to leaf through four tabloids and
four broadsheets and find almost exactly the same stories in every one'
(Marr 2004:116). And these tend to be handled in similar ways, both
from day to day, and across newspapers, even though some variation
in vocabulary is found. 'News cannot stray too far from what news has
been, because news stories must be resonant with the stories that Soci-
ety believes about itself the media researcher Dan Berkowitz pointed
out (Berkowitz 1997b: 497).
Newspapers provide a comforting sense of normalcy and also of
continuation. The stories follow a predictable pattern, often, that of
a titillating serial. A murder with the discovery of a grisly corpse, is
followed by an account of the police hunt for the killer, who is even-
tually captured. Then comes a trial, and a conviction. So there is both
an ongoing story, as well as the maintenance of important society val-
ues: that crime will be punished, that murder, especially of children,
is wrong, and so on.
Readers need to feel that newspapers are promoting accepted val-
ues of decency and civilisation. They also require the news they are
reading to seem important, to contain events are worthy of note. One
way journalists ensure this is by reporting facts and figures, preferably
mind-boggling one: 'Tidal waves that carried terror to the coastlines
of seven countries had claimed 12,000 lives last night' (Daily Mail 27
Dec 2004). Sometimes this can be overdone. The death toll of the so-
called 9/11 disaster, when two planes intentionally crashed into New
York's World Trade Centre, was at first the focus of wildly inaccurate
guesswork: 6,818 are feared dead, claimed the Deutsche Press-Agentur
and the Sunday Times. Over 4,000 dead, said a British politician. Even-
 THE EVOLUTION AND ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS 21

tually, 2,672 death certificates were issued, and a further 158 people
remained unaccounted for (Aitchison 2003).
Finally, readers require newspaper reports to be relevant to them
personally. This has been called a 'concept of involvement' (Bassiouney
2006), and is a key component of modern news stories. Skilled jour-
nalists convey this involvement in various ways, but above all by jux-
taposing huge horror and small personal details. They describe a major
devastating event, making it seem of universal importance, but then
add in picturesque trivia which enable the reader to relate the tragedy
to individuals who lead lives similar to their own. After a massacre in
Uganda , readers are told about the sad remnants of the event: 'On the
path leading to the hills were a single boot and a plastic shoe' (Sunday
Times 7 March 1999). Indeed, "'one little shoe is all that was left of
flight 999" is a journalistic cliche'. (Aitchison and Lewis 2003a:2).
The examples in this paper are from British newspapers. Yet in-
creasingly, international communication, especially in newspapers, is
becoming similar worldwide (Cameron 2003). The stories may differ,
but the style in which the information is transmitted will be familiar
everywhere.
News is a multilayered confection. Something happens, maybe a
murder, a mugging, a robbery, or a road accident. Newspapers decide
whether this is newsworthy, and relevant facts are selected from the
complexity of the overlapping events. Hidden messages underlie the
stories, such as 'crime must be punished'.
The filtering down processes are sometimes referred to as 'gatekeep-
ing' and 'representation'. 'Gatekeeping is the process by which the bil-
lions of messages that are available in the world are cut down and
transformed into the hundreds of messages that reach a given person
on a given day' (Shoemaker 1991/1997: 57), while 'representation' is
the way in which journalists either consciously, or subconsciously,
represent the world to their readers.
To summarise, modern newspapers provide readers with a sense
that their world behaves in a predictable and normal way. Journal-
ists try to convince their readers not only that all is fair, familiar and
coherent, but also that it involves them personally.
The feeling of warm involvement captured by journalists is well
expressed by the novelist Virginia Woolf She admired newspaper
writing, and recognized that its precision and its temporary nature
made it different from other types of writing (Woolf 1925: 214):
22 JEAN AITCHISON

The newspaper crocus fills precisely the space allotted to it. .. It radiates
a golden glow. It is genial, affable, warm-hearted ... It is no despicable
feat to start a million brains running at nine o'clock in the morning, to
give two million eyes something bright and brisk and amusing to look
at. But the night comes and those flowers fade ... the most brilliant of
articles when removed from its element is dust and sand and the husks
of straw.

REFERENCES

Aitchison, J. (2003), "From Armageddon to war: The vocabulary of terrorism", in

Aitchison and Lewis (2003a), 193-203.
- (2007), The word weavers: Newshounds and wordsmiths, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Aitchison, J. and D. M. Lewis (eds.) (2003a), New media language, London: Rout-
ledge.
- (2003b), "Introduction", in Aitchison and Lewis (2003a), 1-3.
Bassiouney, R. (2006), Functions of code switching in Egypt: Evidence from monologues,
Leiden: Brill.
Berkowitz, D. (ed.) (1997a), Social meanings of news: A text reader, London: Sage.
- (1997b), "Epilogue", in Berkowitz (1997a), 497-502.
Boyd, A. (1994), Broadcast journalism: Techniques of radio and TV news, 3rd edition,
Oxford: Focal Press.
Cameron, D. (2003), "Globalizing 'communication'", in Aitchison and Lewis (2003a),
27-35.
Engel, M. (1996), Tickle the public: One hundred years of the popular press, London:
Gollancz.
Fedler, F., J. R Bender, L. Davenport and M. W. Drager (2001), Reporting for the
media, 7th edition, New York: Harcourt.
Golding, P. and P. Elliot (1979/1999), "Making the news", in H. Tumber (ed.), News:
A reader, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 112-120.
Goldsmith, 0. (1762/1970), The citizen of the world, London: Dent.
Grant, J. (1871), The newspaper press: its origin-progress-and present position. vol. 2,
London: Tinsley.
Jonson, B. (1631/1988), The staple of news, ed. by A. Parr. Manchester: Manchester
University Press.
Marr, A. (2004), My trade: A short history of British journalism, London: MacmillaiL
Orwell, G. (1946/1952), "Politics and the English language", in Inside the whale and
other essays, London: Penguin, 143-156.
Raymond, J. (ed.) (1993), Making the news: An anthology of the newsbooks of revolu-
tionary England, 1641-1660, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucs.: The Windrush Press.
Sheridan, R. B. (1988), The school for scandal and other plays, ed. by Eric Rump. Lon-
don: PenguiiL
Shoemaker, P. (1991/1997), "A new gatekeeping model", in Berkowitz (1997a),
57-62.
Waugh, E. (1930/1938), Vile bodies, London: Penguin
Wilkes, R (2002), Scandal: A scurrilous history of gossip, London: Atlantic.
Woolf, V. (1925), The essays, London: Hogarth Press.
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING IN EGYPTIAN
OPPOSITION NEWSPAPERS

Zeinab Ibrahim
American University in Cairo

Code-switching research focuses entirely on the spoken language;

however, in recent years with the emergence of many opposition
newspapers in Egypt, the extensive use of code-switching has found
its way into the written opposition press. In 1997, the researcher has
documented the use of some colloquial usage in the Lebanese news-
paper Al-Hayaat, and it was minimal while no occurrence of any col-
loquial usage occurred in Al-Ahraam newspaper. However, recently,
it was noted that some opposition Egyptian newspapers tend to use
more and more of the dialect. Some of these opposition newspapers 1)
use the dialect (or ECA) exclusively in their headlines, 2) mix between
the dialect and the standard, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in their
headlines, 3) incorporate entire sections that are in the dialect, i.e.
'Mail' sent by readers, which resembles the language of a conversation
of a monologue, and 4) use the dialect in their headlines and MSA in
the body of their articles.
This research compares one Egyptian governmental newspaper and
two opposition newspapers to clarify these instances. It presents some
new data on code-switching or mixing in written text. The research
follows Ferguson's (1959 and 1991) definition of diglossia in relation
to one point and that is the relatedness of the two varieties of the Ara-
bic language, High and Low, 'classical diglossia'.
According to Ferguson (1959), the 'High' variety is used in writing
and is learned in formal education, while the Low is the mother tongue
and used in daily conversation and informal situations. In 1959, Fergu-
son stated that the two varieties do not mix in their particular domains;
while in 1991, he thought of the relationship between the two varieties
as more of a continuum and that mixing may occur. However, the
topics related to diglossia are many, such as Fishman's (1980) point
of view of diglossia that the relatedness of both varieties is not essen-
tial. Additionally, he explains that it can be diglossia with bilingual-
ism depending on the functions carried out by each language. Fasold
24 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

(1984) agrees with Fishman, and this kind of diglossia is referred to as

'broad diglossia'. Hudson (2002) summarizes several issues related to
diglossia including varieties of relatedness, diglossia with or without
bilingualism, social impact, and other issues.
Thus in the Arabic language with its diglossic situation, the written
text is in MSA and the spoken word is in the different dialects. Since
there are more than twenty Arab countries, the need to communicate
between these nations caused the emergence of a spoken form of MSA,
which is referred to as Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA). This spoken
variety contains both MSA and dialectal variation. El-Hassan (1977
& 1978) and Mitchell (1978 & 1980) investigated the features of this
variety, indicating that in some instances dialectal words may be used,
especially on the part of the Egyptian and Lebanese. Eid ( 1988) carried
out research to find the rules or focal points where code-switching
between MSA and ECA occurred. Moreover, Bassiouney (2000) inves-
tigated three morphosyntactic variables in code-switching between
ECA and MSA. Mejdell in her book Mixed Styles in Spoken Arabic
in Egypt examined instances and causes for code-switching. There is
endless work done on code-switching in the spoken variety, while this
phenomenon is neglected in the written variety with the assumption
that it should be strictly in the high variety. The following research
introduces the new phenomenon of code-switching in the high variety
in the opposition newspapers.

THE RESEARCH

Three newspapers are included in this research. Al-Ahram newspaper,

which is a governmental newspaper, and ad-Dustur and Al-MiSrii al-
yawm, which are two opposition newspapers. The reasons for choos-
ing these three newspapers are:

1. al-Dustur newspaper incorporates colloquial language.

2. Investigation of whether this phenomenon exists onlyinAd-Dustur,
or in other opposition newspapers as well was necessary. Therefore,
Al-MiSrii al-yawm was chosen.
3. A comparison between these two opposition newspapers and a gov-
ernmental newspaper is necessary to illustrate whether the use of
the colloquial is limited to opposition newspapers, or if a new trend
in using the colloquial is taking place in all newspapers.
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 25

A total of 35 issues of each newspaper were collected from April 30th

to June 3rd, 2008. Six issues were chosen randomly from Al-Ahram
newspaper, the April 30th, May 4th, 6th, 13th, 14th and June 3rd, 2008
issues. The same six issues were chosen from the other two newspapers
to unify the dates.

METHOD

The total number of headlines in each issue was counted. When there
was a 'file' (a certain issue that is referred to as a file and that occupied
several pages) each file was counted as one headline. Although head-
lines that included the Egyptian dialect by way of a direct quote were
not counted at the beginning but then when it was found that there
were other instances in which the direct quote was in MSA, it became
clear that using the dialect was done deliberately and consciously. This
is an example were the quote is in MSA:

Example 1 (ad-Dustur, June 3rd, p. 9)

..:..~l.i...:.;~~~if.!.UI..jl~~; =r~.o~r-:,~o..
l:fazim Imam: "I am afraid for Zamalek from the elections fever."
In other instances, where the quotations are in the dialect, it becomes
clear that the dialect is used to represent direct speech:

Example 2 (ad-Dustur, May 4th, p. 7)

"...,. ~ ~• , ••• .J"'T-" . -..vii:.
-·11 ~..A.:- 0 -

'Ayda Sayf al-Na~r "We will not be afraid"

Ms. Sayf al-Na~r is directly quoted here. This quote is in ECA as
mis 'not' is an ECA negation word and l;la- is the ECA future tense
marker.
Headlines that could be read as both MSA and ECA were not
counted.

Example 3 (ad-Dustur, June 3rd, p. 7):

Dr. Fathi Surii.r ... All by law

26 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Though closer in structure to ECA kulluh masii 'everything OK', the

expression 'all by law' could be read both as MSA or ECA.
Headlines that included a name of a film or song originally in ECA
were not counted. However, when the same headline included another
part where a switch from MSA to ECA occurred, the headline was
considered as including a switch.

Example 4 (ad-Dustur, May 14th, p. 19)

.. .. r" ..
J.:!..::!lc:~l..il~l.,jl_,. ~~~.h "\ C::o.DJ..i~lZil::.r J~~l : ~~.,J~
~L.~I._h ... ~_,..)1~
Kanilin Xalil: I liked the honesty of '"i~na 'it'abilna 'abl kida?!" and if
becoming a professional means that I deal with acting with the logic of
an employee ... then I am an amateur.
"'I/:lna 'it'abilna 'abl kida?!" is the name of the film she acted in, and
it is translated as 'Did We meet Before?' This film name is in ECA, so
it is not counted, but what is counted is the last part of the headline.
Almost the entire headline is in MSA, while in the last part, there is a
colloquial word yib'a 'then'. Although yib'a is written with a qaf (i.e.
yibqa), most of the words that include the element q are pronounced
with a !'! in ECA. The rest of the headline following this word can be
read in either MSA or ECA.
Since the main aim of this research is code-switching, the instances
of borrowing were not counted. Moreover, advertisements were not
included in this research as these topics can be separate studies. Fur-
thermore, caricatures are not counted as all newspapers use ECA in
their caricatures.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The first part of this section presents the ratio of the total number of
headlines in each issue to the total number of headlines in ECA or partly
in ECA. The second part presents the columns that use the dialect. The
third part illustrates instances of intersentential code-switching (i.e.,
switching between sentences) and the last part illustrated instances of
intrasentential code-switching (i.e., switching within a sentence).
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 27

Total Number of Headlines

Knowing the total numbers of headlines in each issue investigated is
necessary to determine the ratio between headlines using ECA to the
total number of headlines. It was noticed that when the issue included
a certain file, the number of pages increased while the number of head-
lines decreased, as the headlines inside the file were not counted. The
total number of pages of each newspaper varied in the issues investi-
gated. The number of pages in Al-Ahram ranged from 28 to 40, while
the number of pages in al-Mi~rt al-Yawm and ad-Dustitr ranged from
16 to 20, and 16 to 28, respectively.
As seen from Table no. 1, Al-Ahram does not use ECA. This gov-
ernmental newspaper was established in 1875 and published its first
issue in August 1876. Consequently, the only instances in which ECA
occurs are in caricatures because Al-Ahram is a long-established, con-
servative newspaper.

Al-Mi~rt al-Yawm is an opposition newspaper. It was issued four years

ago (2004) by Al-Mi~rt for journalism, printing, publishing, advertis-
ing, and distribution.

Table 1: headlines using ECA in Al-Ahram newspaper

Date Total number Total number Total no. ofheadlines using

of headlines of pages Colloquial
April 30th, 2008 218 28 0 (only in caricatures)
May 4th, 2008 213 40 0 (only in caricatures)
May 6th, 2008 194 30 0 (only in caricatures)
May 13th, 2008 231 32 0 (only in caricatures)
May 14th, 2008 280 38 0 (only in caricatures)
June 3rd, 2008 190 30 0 (only in caricatures)

Table 2: headlines using ECA in Al-Mi~rf Al-Yawm newspaper

Date Total number Total number Total no. of Percentage

of headlines ofpages headlines using of Colloquial
colloquial headlines
April 30th, 2008 151 16 5 3.31%
May 4th, 2008 116 16 6 5.17%
May 6th, 2008 129 16 10 7.75%
May 13th, 2008 151 20 8 5.29%
May 14th, 2008 106 20 9 8.4%
June, 3rd, 2008 108 20 3 2.7%
28 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Table 3: headlines using ECA in ad-Dustur newspaper

Date Total number Total number Total No. of Percentage

of headlines of pages headlines using of Colloquial
Colloquial headlines
April 30th, 2008 85 28 16 18.82%
May 4th, 2008 118 16 8 6.77%
May 6th , 2008 127 16 16 12.59%
May 13th, 2008 118 16 9 7.62%
May 14th, 2008 85 28 12 14.11%
June, 3rd, 2008 122 16 10 8.19%

Ad-Dustitr is an opposition newspaper that was issued last year (2007),

and is printed in Al-Ahram print shop.
The total number of colloquial headlines in each newspaper varied.
Al-Ahram did not include any colloquial headlines. Al-M~ri al-Yawm
included a total of 41 headlines in ECA out of the total of 773 head-
lines, thus averaging 5.30%. Ad-Dustitr had a total number of 71 head-
lines in ECA out of 655 headlines, thus averaging 10.83%. Therefore,
ad-Dustitr ranks higher in code-mixing in its headlines over al-Mi$ri
al-Yawm, while Al-Ahram does not employ any colloquial language.
This raises the question of what are the reasons behind the usage of
colloquial language in opposition newspapers and not governmental
newspapers. Does the use of colloquial language make the reader feel
closer to the writer? Is the writer trying to make the reader feel that
s/he is part of the conversation? Adams (2003: 300) wrote that code-
switching in written text may express social meanings one way or the
other. For example, the writer might want to establish solidarity with
the addressee, or may want to make the article "interactional" for the
reader.

CONTEXTS IN WHICH CODE-SWITCHING OCCURS: DAILY COLUMNS

In al-Mi$ri al-Yawm there are two daily columns placed beside each
other: za_w innaharda-literally, 'as today', i.e. 'happened on a day like
today'-, and 'ay4an za_w innaharda 'also on this day' (p. 2). In this
latter headline, the first part of the title is in MSA (ay4an 'also'), while
in ECA, the corresponding word is Ieaman. This is a case of intrasen-
tential code-switching. Al-Ahram newspaper has a similar daily col-
umn on the third-to-last page; it is titled l:zadafa fi miJl haqa 1-yawm
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 29

'It happened on this day'. Both columns always report events that have
taken place on the same date, but in different years. Thus, al-M~ri al-
Yawm is aware of the choice of these two colloquial headlines.
Ad-Dustur has a daily column also on the third-to-last page enti-
tled «Mail" which is comprised of messages sent to the newspaper.
The headline of this column is in English, thus the switching here is
between English and Arabic rather than MSA and ECA. Moreover,
because the column comprises of mail submissions, the entire col-
umn is in colloquial and not just simply the headlines. There is a page
in Ad-Dustflr with the title kull J:zaga(t) 'everything' which presents
many news on restaurants, shopping, prices of gold, etc. Many of the
instances of the use of ECA in headlines occurred on this page.
Another column that usually occurs on penultimate page in
ad-Dustur is a column that varies in its headlines, but always discusses
the same subject, computer issues.

Example 5:

... u(-.o~!,~.!ljlP.-J'ZjJ~)J~;u(--.!l~..r...;.-:>1,1 Folder Options

;;.)_,.;. "JJ_r"J
If the "Folder Options" menu disappears, you can restore it, and if you
want to turn off your computer with one click, it is possible ... No magic
and no witchcraft
In this headline, the use of both English and ECA are found. The
phrase 'Folder Options' has the Arabic equivalent milaff al-'ixtiyarat,
while for the word 'awiz 'you (masc. sg.) want', 'aradta would be the
MSA equivalent.

Example 6:

~~.J,~~~J_;i<J~ ... ~.!ljlP.-e­

Put your computer together by yourself...in order to know how to
maintain it also by yourself
This headline can fully be taken as ECA; however, it also embodies
some words which can be either MSA or ECA qualities. The three
underlined words are colloquial words. The first one 'alasan 'in order
to' would be kayy or li-kayy in MSA. The second word ti'amilluh 'you
(2. masc. sg.) do to it', is actually a verb followed by a preposition,
and corresponds to the MSA ta'amallahu. In this headline, the verb
30 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

and preposition is written as one word, which is usually the case when
it is written in colloquial. Finally, the word bar~uh 'also', is another
synonym for kaman and the MSA equivalent is 'ay~an.

Direct Quotations
The total number of headlines using ECA including direct quotations
is 12 out of 112 which presents 10.71% of the total usage of ECA in
both newspapers The sentences using direct quotations (Appendix A
numbers 10, 27, 46, 48, 49, 51, 52, 69, 70, 81, 94, and 104) were written
in the following sections: Art, Reports and news, first page, Sports and
Hot Issues). Eleven of these headlines occur in ad-Dustur while one
occurs in al-M~ri al-Yawm.

NEWSPAPER SECTIONS

Both newspapers have titles for each page. Ad-Dustur includes a page
titled in colloquial kull l;laga(t) 'Everything'. This page includes many
and diverse issues about the local market, restaurants, food prices,
etc ...., and the total number of the headlines used in these pages using
the dialect is 25. Ad-Dustur sometimes has a section titled "Games"
Two headlines using ECA occurred in that section.
Al-Mi$ri al-Yawm includes a mail section entitled al-sukut mamnu'
'Silence is forbidden' and this comprises 10 headlines of the total head-
lines using ECA.

Table 4: ECA use on dedicated pages

Section or page Ad-Dustur al-Mi$rf al-Yawm

Everything 25
Games 2
Mail 10
First Page 2 1
Last page 5
Sports 4 1
Arts 13
Internal Affairs 5 4
Opinion 5
Reports & News 6 1
The Same as today 12
Reports 3
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 31

Three headlines using ECA occurred on the first page which is usu-
ally composed of important political news (two in ad-Dustur and one
in Al-MiSrii al-Yawm). Five headlines occurred in the last page all in
Al-Mi$fi Al-Yawm. Fives headlines in the sports, four in ad-Dustur
and one in Al-Mi$fi Al-Yawm. Thirteen headlines in the Art section
and all were in ad-Dustur.
Ad-Dustur, in its larger issues, includes a pages titled 4arbit sams
'Sun stroke'. This page usually includes articles that discuss internal
affairs while al-Mi$ri al- Yawm has a similar page under the title qa4aya
saxina 'Hot issues'. Five headlines were used by ad-Dustur while four
were used by al-Mi$ri al-Yawm on these pages.
Ad-Dustiir has a page title 'opinion' and five headlines using ECA
were found in it.
Both newspapers have a section entitled taqarir wa-'axbar 'Reports
and news', a total of seven headlines using ECA were found, ad-Dustur
included six of them.
Al-Mi$ri al- Yawm has two daily sections that occur on the same
page and beside each other za_w 'innaharda 'like today' and 'ay4an
za_w innaharda 'Also like today', which occurred 12 times. Ad-Dustur
has a section titled ta/:lqiqat 'reports' which usually is about internal
issues, and which included 3 headlines using ECA.
The extremely interesting point is that all these articles were in MSA
and not one single ECA word was used in them. The only section that
used ECA in the article itself or was all in ECA was in ad-Dustiir news-
paper in the 'Mail' section and sometimes in the Kull /:raga 'Everything'
section. The language of this last section, as well as that of the 'Mail'
section bore a closer resemblance to actual speech than it did to the
language of a written article.

INTER-SENTENTIAL CODE-SWITCHING

Adams (2003: 23) defines inter-sentential switches as that those occur-

ring within clause or sentence boundaries. In this research the total
of such switching occurred forty times out of the total of 112 (sen-
tences 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 28, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 47,
54, 58, 59, 60, 63, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74, 80, 93, 95, 96, 97, 101, 102, 103,
104, 105, 111, 112 in Appendix A). The following headline is a good
example
32 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Example 7 (al-Mi~ri al-Yawm, April 30th, last page)

J!\.. 4 '-:"\.r4:.d:i*~.;..\j~ )1\:..1?.-

Experts: holidays has bears no relation to May 4th demonstrations
The word malhas 'it has not' is a colloquial word and the MSA equiva-
lent is laysa laha 'it (3. fern. sg.) does not have'. The rest of the sentence
is entirely in MSA.

INTRA-SENTENTIAL CODE-SWITCHING

Adams (2003: 24) defines intra-sentential switches as those occurring

within the boundaries of the sentence or clause. In this research the
total of such switching occurred fourteen times out of the total of 112
(sentences 29, 34, 41, 48, 53, 71, 75, 82, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94). The fol-
lowing headline is a good example in which the switch took place:

At the Boundary of the Clause

Example 8 (ad-Dustur, May 6th, p. 3).

..:.-;L. ~)~ ... J\-. \IIJt.I.A;) ~i

The highest Price increase ... 0 happiness, did not happen
The idiom used at the end is a colloquial expression which means that
someone was expecting a good thing to happen but it did not. The
reminder fifty eight sentences are in colloquial.

CONCLUSION

This research attempted to present a case where the use of code-switch-

ing is increasing in two of the Egyptian opposition newspapers. Con-
texts in which code-switching were used as well as different types of
code-switching are illustrated. It also showed that code-switching did
not appear in the governmental newspaper under study. It also proved
that ad-Dustur newspaper ranked higher than al-Mi~ri al-Yawm in
instances of code-switching. Moreover, there were some sections in
which the articles were more such as actual speech rather than written
articles. It is advisable that a study with a larger corpus be carried out
to verify more the results of this one.
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 33

REFERENCES

Adams,]. N. (2003), Bilingualism and the Latin Language,. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
Bassiouney, R (2004), "Diglossic switching in the Egyptian speech community: Impli-
cations for teaching spoken Egyptian Arabic", in Z. Ibrahim, S. Aydelott and N.
Kassabgy (eds), Contrastive rhetoric: issues, insights, and pedagogy, Cairo: AUC
press, 94-114.
Eid, M. (1988), "Principles for code-switching between Standard and Egyptian Ara-
bic", Al-Arabi.Y.Ya 21: 51-79.
El-Hassan, S. A. (1977), "Educated Spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant: A critical
review of diglossia and related concepts", Archivum Linguisticum 8(2), 112-32.
- (1978), "Variation in the demonstrative system in Educated Spoken Arabic",
Archivum Linguisticum 9(1): 32-57.
Fasold, R (1984), The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.
Ferguson, C. (1959), "Diglossia," Word 15: 325-40.
- (1991), "Epilogue: Diglossia revisited," Southwest Journal of Linguistics 10(1):
214-33.
Fishman, J. (1980), "Bilingualism and biculturalism", Journal ofMultilingual and Mul-
ticultural Development 1: 3-15.
Hudson, A. (2002), "Outline of a theory of diglossia", International Journal of the
Sociology of Language 157: 1-48.
Ibrahim, Z. (1997), "Egyptian and Lebanese MSA: Are they one and the same?", PhD
thesis, Georgetown University.
Mejdell, G. (2006), Mixed styles in spoken Arabic in Egypt : somewhere between order
and chaos, Leiden: Brill.
Mitchell, T. F. (1978), "Educated Spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant with special
reference to participle and tense", Journal of Linguistics 14(14): 227-58.
- (1980),"Dimensions of style in a grammar of Educated Spoken Arabic", Archi-
vum Linguisticum 11(2): 89-106.
 34 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

APPENDIX A

F. ....AWl If ~~I ~I &l.::ll

!,)->_,.~... 3 -(.>}.I'Y._,.;. (( ~1..111)) Y.' ":} ~~I J.)3o 1
-.l_:r.:~:;;;.)~~~ (( ~')\.!.)1 )) ~~I
2 o.)_;~.ll~j ~~I J.)30 2
~~I
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~~I
_,.J l._.i....Y.
I.{ o~\11 :.j~J-4Jl..:..l_:,~ )'I :-.lp.. ~~I J.)3o 5
Y.\..4~1_,.;.~ ~~I
..::,~ 2 \-s..\:- ':1~J.--.f...s"it.. :e:_ _;.f--Ill J.)30 6

j~l~ ..::,~ 9 ~~•.Jh..JUI..:,~lA:JI..,..l·

• • ~ _;.f--Ill J...d30 7
~j \AJ ~.4.'6) 0-!....".>W ~.

-s-41 rL-- ~(.¢' 12 .l.r-LJ:-v">)~~~ _;.f--Ill J.)30 8

lf.s.e:_IJ )'u w--'t.l-:..ill~
..f..J'J:Wwl~))l.a
• • ~
1
\.~__, ... ((~1..111

~L..JI~~ d) I 14 ~;; ..\:-.J--'~ 4-JIJ ~ .::...) ~ _;.f--Ill J.)30 9

' .
C.~ 12~ ((.!ll.-. ':11~)) J
(.")l.;i._:.....; :_;jit.t-.~liJI~
rf~--'· . . l-j ':1J-4JI..o;f
~b.__,_p.. ~ j '-!"""I~ \r4-J I
l;i4-JI~UI

~lkL·~.) d) I 15 ...JA!I,f.:.,_;hll...~.:s- :4,...?--'./ _;.f--Ill J.)30 10

~~- .. JUI~o.):$-JIJ Ji;;
_r.i u-- ~)J..~~I.._A.j~.....,.p. L..
,AA..,J$-
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 35

Appendix A (cont.)

F. ~I d' ~~I ~I ~l:ll

.JJ.. L ~I 15 (( ..IJ-~_,zL. )) ~41 .. \A_:..~ J_,:.....lll J!)30 11

~ -~-
"'If~_,:._, ~J L. ..::..~;.¥If~_,:. ...
4..1" lfi 1:-¥u-- ..:.-;!~~ ... ....J....
\JI~~ ••• ~

"":"t.Jllo¥~ ~I 15
-
Jl;:::>l~l~u-o~o,.IS:)
- .
J_,::......\ll J!../.130 12
..;.lAJ~~I, ••• o~41o.r.JI 2008
\~~~jl:ll,
oli':h.~j~~~
vofJ~~fJI..:..:AJJ :~41
f.~J-'.)~b. ··~lk.:ll
\i~~···~~
......A.....%..1::-ll ~iJ 20 t. ti ... ......_..J ~ t.G.,:. J_,:.....\ll J!)30 13
..;4 ~\;J~~ •• • ..:,.IJl:-JI~ 2008
4..1"-'--!.f\6 J~IJ.. ••• Jl..::..:. ~
l<:'aJz;~
.. 4..1"_, Jlll ~J'I•••• •.
~..M

"":"LS~_, ~~,.,.# 22 t..fl.l, .. ·~.el;$'~.1/~ J_,:.....lll J!)30 14

L...~t~,.r.-~· . .I~ ... r; 2008
\I,J...IZ

~.:r--l- ~~_,..# 22 ~o_,e~ •• • ~jA~W

.
J_,:...-lll J!../.130 15
~ ••• (.t.;J~L.'""':'_,~J
~I,
.
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\.k...s-hi~~l
- ••• ....-i.. 2008

~).r" ~~,.,.# 22 ·~)1\~_,s:::...a.~~IJ'f"~ J_,:...-lll J!../.~30 17

'):!._, ~~ )/IJ.J I .i!9 2008

~I_,.;JJJU.. ~IJ
. 25 lfJ'-' ... ~l:liJ~w.- ri
.
J_,:...-lll J.../.130 18
2008

-::"1../.~·~J ..::..~ 26 ..
~C:~-
.. ··L J_,:...-lll
.
J!../.130 19
..:..I::..._, 2008
 36 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Appendix A (cont.)

....AWl u.-,.)1 ~ \::ll

• r;:}

Games 27 Lost Planet: Extreme ;_;:-..\II J..l) 30 20

~~\IIJ.:l.) Condition 2008
l':..~r. ~f..:..\:.e.-o J,rl ...
\4<~

~ rL".J Games 27 2009 _r l_,ij Max Payne 3 ;_;:......\II J.) 30 21

\J.)~~.J~O.)i':»JilS}~ ••• 2008

2 h;4:JI~.f) ~_,....JI ~l..4 22

r.,t.:~l 2oo8

2 t.);4:JilS.Jl...it;!~ ~_,....JI ~l..4 23

r.,t.:~l 2oo8

4 d.-l'J~~Y, ~_,....JI ~l..4 24

r.,t.:ll 2oo8

0--" ..v--i tf-' ..:..,PI 18 j~~l_, ..::..At..!l./ ~_,....JI ~l..4 25

(..ly:) \~u.A.L.IJli
•• ·~I))
~ ((.U.J.:../. i :r.
-.'I 2008

'"~J ·~\11 ... ~.)ll'_,~.;.;...L. ~_,....JI ~l..4 26

r.,t.:~l 2008

. 0 tz ~~ \11 4-J...\i.)~l~i;l....... \11;~ :~ ~_,....JI ~l..4 27

J~,_, Li;.i..:..AJ...\ii4-~~-h«·~)) r.,t.:~l 2oo8
ll!JI

.J~~~i_,.. .~lj.).))..:5 ;_;:-..\II 28

o~?,IJ-o!.J ~J~I;IJ~;~
• \~Sl.,iJ~I

~_r.JIJ,l_..,#..:..l.l~l~ J_;:.....\11 29
~~J
~;~~;1_,..\li_A~'!(
((J~af--)) ... ~_,..\11

J.~~~~lj~_,bJI J_;:.....\11 30
~Y-1~~~.;.;... ... Jr.!.li.'-'
r?.~Y;_~
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 37

Appendix A (cont.)

F. ~~ d' ~~~ ~~ ~l::ll

J

..\_:.-•1-i ~I...J' 14 ~.J;f' ..:..:N ~ .~]1..::, l:1Z ..;rlf ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..4 31

;L.i ~~~.!..\,~~· •• v-t:JI 2008

~IJIJ ~1..-f 14 ~~~ i ~lt:_JI.!.liJ~I....:..;~~ ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..4 32

~ \'y)~r.~;\..J~I~I_,..-1 2008
JJJ..Ill

t..!'W.v-- ~I...J' 14 - -.
~. ...A-JI~~20...l.iljJI ;.,;:-..\!1 J!\..4 33
JliJ-.liJ 120~JU)t:_J\.!. 2008
~~~~~) ••• t.~t..;
\~y)

~IJI; ~I...J' 15 C:~a$"~\..:v- ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..4 34

~1...~\..~1...:~ 2008

~.;.._r~ 16 4-.P-IJ~J~IJ~ ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..4 35

2008

2 o~;l+JI~j ~_,...JI J!\..6 36

i~l 2008

2 h;4;JI~j~~ ~_,...JI J!\..6 37

i~l 2008

1 a...JJ~~.,ll~lj(( i~)) f ~_,...JI J!\..6 38

(( ~_;:.,l;:AJ.::ll )) If 0.;. It i~l 2008
;I)L}._.i..:..~\... 8 ..o11,~.J •••
;l- \'l..::,b~jl
.)$.~~ ~\...~~ 4 J.W~oJ~~~~~ ~_,...JI J!\..6 39
••• (( ..:....}\..~jY.I~.!.\i~)) i~l 2008
iJ!~~~~~i~l.ffJ
J:li
. ~
~-..r
. ~\...~~ 4
.
~'OJ~I~I.!l;l_..• :•!?.-
)

~_,...JI J!\..6 40
~4-.P-It.~i::J ••• ((~I)) i~l 2008
(( Jl....:JI ))

~Y.i~ ~\...~~ 5 ~IJ;;s:. i ·. i :~1

.iJ~J . ~i ~_,...JI J!\..6 41
~_,11....,)-1 ~
. . (( ~ )) i~l 2008
(( ~\'~~~)) ... ~\;-)'I_,
 38 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Appendix A (cont.)

F. ~~ d' ~~~ ~~ ~l:ll

u-#.rJ.:s-1-l tt-~.PI 10 Y..t..Jt;.. ... ~!J;..I.;:!;s:JIJ"i ~_,.-JI J!\..6 42

J!y (~../.) ~../. i~l 2008

OJWaiy.i~i tt-~PI 10 ~o~-'~J_;:ll.l.,i~l_r,..y..l

. ~_,.-JI J!\..6 43
(~../.) ~J~~~~_y_,Qll rJ-dl
~_,~......All~,? 13 \)::Allu--..l!.i ••• ((~I)) ~_,.-JI J!\..6 44
i~l 2008
.
o~\'1 ~J.!.UJ...i~c)l ~_,.-JI J!\..6 45
i~l 2008
1 ~~"!,;.~)" ... o_, "h!l J.,;:-..1!1 J!\..6 46
~_,.-JI 2008
1 " 'J :4.~ ~L"·I.>-!1"
""- • ../. •
~J J.,;:-..1!1 J!\..6 47
JIJ-..-_,~1.-ll~~~..\ll 2008
Jl "~"~_, ... ~...All60
\"..vi.?. i ~» ~la..·i
. J
tt...._,._fJy .f.JIZ 3 ~j~ ... Jl..... ~IJttA;).Ji J..;:-..1!1 J!\..6 48
..::..-;\.. 2008
._:,1_;.
. ~~

\'l~~l
Jl;.>-1_,

.f.JIZ 4 ~Jld'o.)_,:..!.~l:!IJL~L!. J..;:-..1!1 J!\..6 49

Jl;.>-1_,
.
.!.U~_,l~ :~.)J•I.......,.IIJ
.
•..::,.;1 :.!.U 1;_,~_,..\llu--lu--.J..\.,
"
2008

bl~_p~.;.....n~.!l..uouJI"!.l
\ ~~Jll"!.l~ ... ~IJ
~_,~~ 9
.
... ~I:~J!;~I~Lsi
~~ij \'~\'I :~~~~t......:..;l
J.,;:-..1!1 J!\..6
2008
so

\~..w.~~\!.k.~~.r.l- 5.5

~~..u....~ ~_,~~ 10 \~\..~_,~~..~_, J.,;:-..1!1 J!\..6 51

2008
 CASES OF WRITTEN CODE-SWITCHING 39

Appendix A (cont.)

F. ~~ d' ~~~ ~~ ~l::ll

J

'--:"'I..Jll¥~ 13 ~~.u\!...J.l...~;<lii£1 ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 52

~Wij~.r~~~~~~ 2008
~~fto-la..:-Jl
\((~~))
~~I)~ :'-:-'i.)iJ.)~~~
((J_,.)~I41J)) J~~lj.-:.!
(( ~~)) ~44i;~~
sj..I.O'-ii::_,..IJ~~,~,...... 1...u ~.._, •••
•..
t:fu
·~..:;

\ ((....J.. ))

'--:-'1..)1¥~ ~_,;;_, i.;.. 13 J!\..~~fJ:~..\.4'-iv~.o~ ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 53

~~ ij ~J~l:ai~t.~~ 2008

~I...J' 14 l~a.J~..::,I.:-;.) ••. 2008~ ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 54

~~_,!,;_, 2008
..,~~ ~1..-f 14 .j~ ij ~~p~l~_;!.:ii..J:t ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 55
j~\.."!.~Ji-· .. ..::,~l...~_r 2008
~_,.JI

'-!~.r.l.. ~I...J' 14 ~~,~ a.J~~ J:.··~-.:!1..::..1~ ;j..WI J!\..6 56

···u...l~~;\..~ 2008
IS'WI
• \..\A.. 1!.-
......
'-f~.r.l.. ~I...J' 14 ... ~ lk:l ~ .!1-~ u.. ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 57
~.) a...s.
.•. 2008

~I...J' 14 ...AJz)
-~-J~0 ~~ . ...,..k..
I.J. ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 58
···~--!~~ 2008
_A~OJJJ!I

t.
'")..., ..
'Y! ~I...J' 15
.
..Jl..ll~_,..!l--t!-1 (( ..:.1~~;1_, )) ;.,;:-..Ill J!\..6 59
....t_r ••• ~j~fo~)J"JJ:. ~1.} 2008
\"!.~Y
 40 ZEINAB IBRAHIM

Appendix A (cont.)

._AWl ~J \:JI
F. If ~~I ~I

__,.2.>..1.0"-i ~l...f 15 .....;_ri ~ 1.!.\w 0 0 0 ~ .!l_) ~C" J.f-J.ll Y.L.6 60

~~'J'. 7\il-.U~
- 0
2008

__,.2.>..1.0"-i ~l...f 15 ~!_,J4.) '!l_j Yl~l!.l!:. J.f-J.ll Y.\..6 61

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Another random document with
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 ‘Never noticed. His brother used to work with Noah. But what is
fine about his eyes?’
‘The way they look at you, Lem.’
The sheriff laughed softly. ‘You’re a pretty girl, Nan.’
‘But they didn’t look at me that way.’
‘I pass,’ sighed Lem.
The three men were coming from the livery-stable with their
horses.
‘Mebby you better stay here in town until this thing is over,’
suggested Lem.
‘Not me,’ declared Nan. ‘I’m going back with you, if that stolen
horse is able to make the trip.’
‘Looks like Dave Morgan’s bronc,’ grinned Lem. ‘He’ll want me to
arrest yuh for stealin’ his horse, I suppose. Mebby I will, Nan; who
knows?’
‘I—I hope you won’t, Lem,’ she said seriously.
‘Well, I won’t. And if he swears out a warrant, I’ll give yuh plenty
of room for a getaway.’
Lem introduced Hashknife and Sleepy to Nan, and they all rode
out of town together. Nan was worried over what might happen to
Rex Morgan, but Lem refused to hurry.
‘Yore horse is all tired out, and, anyway, they won’t hurt young
Morgan,’ he said. ‘Them boys will find out their mistake. One of ’em
might take a punch at him for foxin’ ’em thataway.’
‘Oh, I hope not,’ said Nan. ‘His head is badly hurt, and he isn’t
very strong, anyway.’
‘Did he pull that winder stunt to give yore dad a chance to git
away?’ asked Noah.
‘I don’t know. Perhaps he was so frightened at the sight of those
guns that he went right out through the window. You see,’ turning to
Hashknife, ‘he isn’t used to this kind of a country, Mr. Hartley.’
 ‘I can imagine how he’d feel,’ smiled Hashknife. ‘What do yuh
know about young Morgan, Miss Lane?’
‘Only what he has told us.’
‘Kind of a misfit,’ growled Lem. ‘Ort to be back in the city where
he belongs.’
Noah winked at Hashknife meaningly, and Nan saw it. She
blushed and turned her head away. It was nearly dark when they
reached the Lane ranch. Rex was sitting on the front porch, with
Paul Lane’s double-barrel shotgun across his lap. In the dim light he
recognized Nan, and came out to meet them.
‘What did they do to you, Rex?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Not much,’ cheerfully. ‘One of the boys knocked me down, and
then I knocked him down.’
‘The hell yuh did!’ blurted Lem, swinging down from his saddle.
‘Which one was it, Morgan?’
‘I think it was Mr. Cahill.’
‘Spike Cahill!’ exploded Noah. ‘You knocked him down?’
‘Yes. It was quite a while before he recovered.’
‘Say-a-a! C’mere and shake hands.’
Rex shook hands with Noah, who doubled up with mirth.
‘Is Spike Cahill a fighter?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Not necessarily; but he’s shore belligerent. Wish t’ gosh I’d ’a’
seen it. That’ll stigmatize Spike to his dyin’ day.’
‘C’mere, Morgan,’ ordered Lem severely. ‘What was it all about?
Didn’t they tell yuh?’
‘Yes, they told me. I tried to find out how they knew so much
about it—the evidence, you know—but they——’
‘The evidence of what?’
‘That Mr. Lane had killed Peter Morgan.’
‘F’r God’s sake! Is Peter Morgan dead?’
‘I would gather from their remarks that he is, Mr. Sheeley. I asked
them where he was killed and when he was killed, but none of them
were able to answer my questions. They rode away without
molesting me further.’
‘Did Spike Cahill knock you down, Rex?’ asked Nan.
‘Oh, certainly. I suppose he was excited. In fact, one of them
fired three shots at me, and one went through my sleeve, but no
harm was done. But for fear that some of them might come back, I
armed myself.’
Sleepy picked up the shotgun and opened it.
‘This gun is empty,’ he said.
‘Didn’t you load it, Rex?’ asked Nan.
‘No. You see, I didn’t know——’
‘And there yuh are!’ snorted Lem. ‘Hell’s bells! We’ve got to get to
town and find out about this. Noah, you stay here and help hold
down the ranch. We can’t leave Nan alone with that damn idiot.’
‘Suppose you stay here, too, Sleepy,’ suggested Hashknife.
‘Suits me.’
‘I thought it would,’ meaningly.
Lem and Hashknife mounted and headed for Mesa City, riding
knee-to-knee.
‘What was it about that gun in the corral?’ queried Hashknife, as
they swung back on the main road.
‘I dunno, Hartley. Gad, it looks bad for Lane. Of course, we’ll
have to get the details before we can figure on anythin’. I feel awful
sorry for that girl. But she’s plumb game, she is. Imagine a girl actin’
like her, when her father and brother are both accused of murder,
and both hidin’ in the hills.’
‘She’s shore cool, sheriff. It takes cool folks to live in this kind of a
country.’
‘In more ways than one, Hartley.’
They rode into Mesa City and tied their horses at the Oasis
saloon, where they found Dave Morgan, Cal Dickenson, Spike Cahill,
Napoleon Bonaparte Briggs, and Red Eller, all more or less drunk.
They looked the sheriff over coldly.
‘What’s been goin’ on, boys?’ asked the sheriff.
‘A-a-a-a plenty!’ snorted Dave Morgan. ‘Didn’t yuh hear about it?’
‘I haven’t heard much, Dave. Nan Lane came to Cañonville after
me, but she didn’t know what it was all about. Young Morgan said
yuh accused Paul Lane of murderin’ Peter Morgan. It’s a damn
wonder that some of yuh couldn’t have come after me in the first
place. Now, the soberest one of yuh tell me what happened to-day.
No, don’t all talk at once. Spike, you tell it.’
‘I can damn soon tell yuh, Lem,’ declared Spike. ‘When we got up
this mornin’, Peter Morgan was gone. He’d saddled up and pulled out
before breakfast. Me and Bert Roddy came to town. Well, you met
us here, Lem. We went back to the ranch, and it wasn’t so very long
after that when here comes Peter Morgan’s horse, and on his back is
Pete Morgan, tied on—dead as a doornail.[’]
‘He’d been hit over the head with somethin’, and his gun was
gone. There was blood on the horse’s shoulder, and we thought the
horse had been shot, but it was Pete’s blood. And the horse came
from down toward the Lane ranch. You know that Pete and old Lane
had a fight yesterday here in town, and Lane said he’d kill the first
one of the 6X6 that ever came on his ranch.’
‘Where’s Pete’s body now, Spike?’
‘Out at the ranch.’
‘And nobody thought to notify me, eh? I suppose the sheriff and
the coroner——’
‘We didn’t need yore help,’ said Dave Morgan. ‘You haven’t even
tried to find young Lane. Things like this don’t require a sheriff, Lem.’
‘Things like this require a little brains and horse-sense,’ retorted
Lem. ‘And there ain’t a damn one of you fellers that qualify. You was
jist smart enough to send old man Lane into the hills.’
‘If it hadn’t been for that fool kid——’
‘Smart, I’d call it,’ said Napoleon Bonaparte Briggs.
 ‘Hello, Napoleon,’ smiled Lem. ‘How come you in town?’
‘He’s scared to stay on the ranch with a corpse,’ laughed Spike.
‘Wouldn’t even stay there along with Dell Bowen and Bert Roddy.’
‘All right,’ grunted Briggs. ‘I don’t crave no dead folks. Every
person’s got a hobby. Mine’s to keep a long ways ahead of the dead.’
‘You got a rig we can take the body to Cañonville in?’ asked Lem.
‘Shore,’ nodded Spike. ‘Got a hack.’
‘All right; c’mon and drive it.’
‘Aw, hell, Lem! I’m all——’
‘You’re deputized, Spike.’
‘I hoped yuh wouldn’t do that, Lem.’
‘Well, it’s done—c’mon.’
‘You have to come back through here, don’tcha?’ asked
Hashknife. ‘All right; I’ll stay here until yuh come back.’
‘You got a hobby like mine?’ asked Briggs.
‘Somethin’ like it.’
‘Good! I’ll buy a drink.’
Dave Morgan, Cal Dickenson, and Spike Cahill went with the
sheriff, while Hashknife stayed with Napoleon and Red Eller. The
Oasis was not busy. Only on Saturday and Sunday was the trade
heavy. The bartender was a portly sort of person, collarless, moist of
skin, with the proverbial ‘spit-curl’ over his left eye and an odor of
perfume.
‘It sure was a blow to this country when Peter Morgan died,’ he
said mournfully. ‘Grand man; big man. In fact, he was the biggest
——’
‘Yore loop’s around yore feet,’ warned Briggs. ‘All you know about
him is seein’ him once or twice a week.’
‘I worked for him, didn’t I?’
‘Yea-a-ah, yuh did and yuh do. But I knowed him better than you
ever could. I’ve filled his belly with food for years, and I shore know
him from his chilblains to his dandruff. And he wasn’t a big man. He
was pretty much of a damn fool in lotsa ways.’
‘Just what ways?’ asked the bartender.
‘Lotsa ways. Say! He shore got popped over the head awful hard.
I got one look at him, and that was s’ficient f’r me. I says t’ myself,
“Pete, you’re a gonner.” And he was, too.’
‘Who was there when he came, Briggs?’
‘Oh, me and Spike and Bert and Dell and Dave Morgan. It shore
hit Dave awful hard. Him and Peter never was real friendly, but they
was cousins.’
‘Who gets the 6X6 ranch?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Prob’ly lotsa folks are wonderin’ about that,’ said Briggs slowly.
‘Dave looks like the lee-gitimate heir, unless old Pete made out a will.
That’ll all be found out later on, I reckon. Pete wasn’t much of a
hand to monkey with lawyers. Kinda wanted t’ be his own law.’
‘Dave’ll probably git the Oasis saloon, too,’ said the bartender.
‘Mebby he’ll get his fill of liquor and poker.’
‘Dave’s all right,’ defended Red Eller.
‘I’m not sayin’ a word agin’ him, Red. Let’s all have a drink.’
They accepted the drink, and Hashknife turned to Red.
‘Were you at the Lane ranch this mornin’?’
‘I shore was,’ grinned Red. ‘That tenderfoot shore foxed us a-
plenty. We was so anxious to git our hands on old man Lane that we
plumb forgot he might stampede; and when we heard that winder
go smash, we busted our legs tryin’ to head him off.[’]
‘And he shore led us a merry chase. By the time we did catch
him, Spike was awful sore. He busted the kid flat with a punch on
the jaw, but the kid got up, kinda white, spiffin’ blood. And when
Spike grabbed him by the arm, the kid knocked Spike plumb cold
with an uppercut to the jaw.[’]
‘Oh, it was a complete knockout. That tenderfoot kid may be
crazy, but don’t never let anybody tell yuh he can’t hit. He took all
the fight out of Spike. Why, he hit Spike so damn hard that Spike got
on his horse from the wrong side.’
‘Is he any relation to Dave Morgan?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Na-a-aaw!’
‘What’s he doin’ in this country?’
‘Quien sabe? He ain’t been here long enough for anybody to find
out. Hello, Bunty.’
Bunty Smith came over to the bar, glanced quickly at Hashknife,
and returned Red’s greeting. Red turned to Hashknife.
‘I dunno yore name, pardner; but whatever it is, this is Bunty
Smith, one of the stage drivers. Bunty’s the owner of the stage line,
and drives every other day.’
‘My name’s Hartley,’ smiled Hashknife, and shook hands with
Bunty.
‘We was jist talkin’ about young Morgan,’ said Red.
‘Oh, that damn fool! Is he still alive?’
‘Live enough to knock Spike Cahill out.’
‘You love to lie, don’tcha, Red?’
Red explained what had happened that morning, and Bunty
apologized by buying a drink.
‘That tenderfoot shore had me moppin’ my brow,’ laughed Bunty.
‘I still think he’s loco. Hartley, did yuh hear about him headin’ for
town on one of my horses, and failin’ off on his head in front of the
Lane ranch-house?’
‘He said somebody hit him, didn’t he?’
‘Shore he did. Alibi for failin’ off.’
‘I never thought of that,’ laughed Red. ‘By golly, and I thought it
was a mystery.’
‘It’s like the usual mystery,’ smiled Hashknife.
‘Do you like mishteries?’ asked Napoleon Bonaparte Briggs, who
was not carrying his liquor so well.
‘I don’t,’ replied Hashknife.
 ‘Shame here. I like romansh. Didja ever read “Lef’ at the Altar”?
Great book. You don’t happen to know where I c’n fin’ the rest of it,
do yuh?’
‘The rest of the book?’
‘Shertinly. Mine’s been docked. Right on the las’ line it says, “Lord
Mort’mer flung the heavy draperies ashide with the point of his sh-
sh-shword, and there stood——” And that’s the end of it.[’]
‘I’ve ’magined my own endin’ for the shtory, but it ain’t so good.
But she’s a dinger up to where she skips off into space.’
‘Sheriff ain’t caught young Lane yet, has he?’ asked Bunty.
‘Na-a-aw, and he never will,’ flared Red. ‘I think he’s stuck on that
girl.’
‘Shows damn good taste,’ said Briggs. ‘I’ve only sheen her once,
but I was shober enough to r’lize that she was pretty nice for to
gaze upon.’
‘The sheriff,’ said Hashknife, anxious to switch the subject away
from Nan, ‘seems of the opinion that this young Lane shot in self-
defense.’
‘All right,’ said Red, ready for an argument. ‘If he did, why did he
take Ben’s horse and gun? I’m not tryin’ to stick him for killin’ Ben, if
he had to do it; but he took the horse and the gun.’
‘Yes, that looks bad. But he was drunk.’
‘Not too drunk, Hartley. Remember he shot straight.’
‘That’s true. And what evidence have yuh that old man Lane
killed Peter Morgan?’
‘None,’ said Red honestly. ‘Lane swore he’d kill him, if he came to
his ranch. Peter Morgan is dead, and his body came from toward the
Lane ranch. That’s all we’ve got.’
‘Lane was heard to say that he’d kill any of the 6X6 that came to
his ranch, wasn’t he?’
‘He shore was.’
 ‘And if Peter Morgan went there, after that warnin’, wasn’t he
expectin’ to kill or be killed?’
‘I dunno what he thought. But that can’t be made out as self-
defense, Hartley. If Lane killed him, why didn’t Lane report it to the
sheriff? I mean, if it was self-defense, Lane could clear himself, I
reckon.’
‘Could he, Eller? With his own son hidin’ out from the law? With
the feeling against nesters? Do yuh think he could clear himself?
Remember, Peter Morgan was a big man around here—Lane the
smallest. Look at it from Lane’s angle.’
Red gazed moodily at his empty glass.
‘I see what yuh mean, Hartley. I never did put myself in Lane’s
place—until now.’
‘The law,’ said the bartender wisely, ‘is supposed to play square
with yuh.’
‘It very often does,’ nodded Hashknife. ‘In case they decide yuh
deserve hangin’, they’ll furnish the rope.’
Red squinted at Hashknife, a half-grin on his lips.
‘You ain’t very strong for the law, are yuh, pardner?’
‘Not for the law—but for justice.’
‘There’s a difference,’ agreed Red. ‘Well, I reckon I better take
Napoleon Bonaparte Briggs over to the hotel and put him to bed.’
‘Lemme shee yuh do it,’ urged Briggs.
‘Oh, I can do it all right,’ declared Red.
He grasped Briggs by the collar and one sleeve and was hustling
him to the doorway, when Rex Morgan came in. He was hatless,
dirty, one shirtsleeve almost torn off at the shoulder. For several
moments he stood there, breathing heavily, before he could speak.
‘Get a doctor!’ he blurted. ‘Mr. Evans has been shot.’
Red released Briggs, who stumbled against the wall and fell in a
heap, swearing drunkenly.
 ‘Who do yuh mean?’ demanded Red. ‘Noah Evans, the deputy
sheriff?’
Rex nodded painfully. ‘At the Lane home. He—he went out on the
porch and somebody shot him.’
‘How badly is he hurt?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Through the shoulder. Mr. Stevens says it is quite bad. They
made me ride here after the doctor and I fell off. But’—he tried to
grin—‘I held to the lines, and got on again.’
‘I’ll get the doctor,’ said Red, and ran from the saloon.
‘You look as though yuh needed a drink,’ said the bartender,
pouring out a stiff drink of whiskey. ‘Throw that into yuh, kid.’
Rex shook his head. ‘I—I never did drink anything.’
‘You prob’ly never needed it before.’
‘Do yuh good,’ nodded Hashknife. ‘Better mix a little water in it, if
yore neck is tender.’
Rex choked over the drink and his eyes filled with tears. Mesa
City liquor was powerful stuff, and after a few moments the effects
of the drink brought a pleasant glow to its owner.
‘Feelin’ better?’ asked the bartender.
‘Wonderful. What was in it?’
‘God only knows. For some men it’s full of fights; for some it’s full
of songs. Didn’t yuh ever take a shot of hooch before?’
‘No, sir.’
‘I reckon you’ve been raised by hand,’ sighed the bartender. ‘Have
another?’
Rex did. Hashknife was standing beside the doorway, listening for
Red Eller to come back with the doctor, and he turned to watch Rex
take his second drink.
‘Are you the feller who knocked out Spike Cahill?’ asked the
bartender.
‘Yes,’ choked Rex. ‘Ah-h-h-h!’
‘They tell me you’re a fighter.’
 ‘I—I do very nicely, thank you.’
‘My Gawd!’ grunted the bartender. ‘You do nicely, eh?’
Hashknife studied the flushed face of Rex Morgan. The two drinks
of powerful liquor were almost too much for the young man.
‘C’mere, Morgan,’ said Hashknife, and Rex came over to him,
slightly unsteady on his feet.
‘Just what are you doin’ in this country?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Well—’ Rex rubbed the palm of his right hand along his jaw, his
eyes half-shut, as he tried to concentrate on Hashknife’s question.
‘Well, I don’t exactly know,’ he confessed. ‘I’m sure I did not
come here to get the things I have already received. I—I think I
came out of curiosity.’
‘Curiosity, eh? And how did you happen to pick on this part of the
country?’
‘It was a check on the Mesa City Bank, Mr. Hartley; a check which
was sent to my mother. After she died I found the check.’
‘A check sent from here to your mother, eh? Whose name was on
that check?’
‘I don’t know. Queer, isn’t it? The writing was so blurred, don’t
you see? Or perhaps the signature was not well written.’
He grinned at Hashknife foolishly. ‘I feel so free of all pain,’ he
said slowly. ‘Even my head does not pain me now. It is the first time
since I woke up at the Lane residence that my head has not hurt
me.’
‘You’re drunk,’ said Hashknife shortly. A horse and buggy were
coming down the street, and turned in at the front of the saloon.
It was Red Eller and the doctor.
‘Better let Morgan ride with the doctor,’ suggested Hashknife. ‘I’ll
go back to the Lane place, and as soon as the sheriff shows up, you
can tell him what happened, Eller.’
‘All right. It’ll give me a chance to put Briggs to bed.’
‘I’m going to ride a horsh,’ declared Rex.
 ‘You’re goin’ to ride on a buggy seat,’ replied Hashknife. ‘Get in
with the doctor and I’ll lead yore horse.’

It was possibly an hour later when the sheriff came back to Mesa
City with the body of Peter Morgan. Dave Morgan and Spike Cahill
came back with him, and when they stopped at the Oasis saloon,
Red Eller told them what had happened at the Lane ranch.
Joe Cave, Bunty Smith’s driver, had joined Red at the Oasis, and
now they all headed for the Lane ranch, taking the body of Peter
Morgan along with them. Red knew nothing about the shooting,
except what Rex had told them.
‘That’s what yuh get for leavin’ yore deputy at that place,’
declared Dave Morgan. ‘Old Lane probably mistook Noah for one of
the 6X6 outfit.’
‘Don’t talk too damn much, until yuh know what it is all about,’
replied Lem, and Dave subsided.
They were unable to travel very fast over the old road, for fear of
jolting the corpse out of the hack, but they eventually drew up at
the Lane ranch. Hashknife met them at the porch.
‘Evans is pretty badly hurt, but conscious,’ he told them. ‘The
doctor thinks he might stand the ride to Cañonville, where we can
ship him to a hospital, if he needs one; and this ain’t such a good
place for him.’
They shoved in past Hashknife and found Noah on a bed in the
living-room, with the doctor bandaging him with yards of cloth, while
Nan stood beside the bed, assisting him.
Noah tried to smile, but it was an effort.
‘Don’t ask him to talk,’ warned the doctor. ‘He’s been hurt badly.
Have you something we can take him to town in, boys?’
‘Got a hack,’ said Lem. ‘But we’ve got a dead man in the bottom
of it. Who knows what happened here?’
‘Nobody,’ said Sleepy quickly. ‘Noah went out on the front porch,
just kinda lookin’ around, and somebody potted him from the brush.
We heard the shot, and Noah came clear back in here before he fell.
By the time we got over the shock and got outside, there wasn’t
anybody in sight. Anyway, it was too dark to see. I reckon they saw
him against the light of the doorway.’
‘Where was the girl and that young feller?’ asked Dave Morgan.
‘Right in here with me.’
‘Who are you?’ asked Joe Cave.
Sleepy considered Joe gravely.
‘You ought to study law, pardner. I think I’ll object to that, as
bein’ a leadin’ question, irrelevant, immaterial, and having no
bearing upon the case.’
‘Yuh don’t say!’ snorted Joe.
‘Keep out of this, Joe,’ growled Dave Morgan.
‘Well, damn it, I jist asked a question.’
‘And didn’t get it answered.’
‘Well, what about it?’ queried Lem. ‘How are we goin’ to take
Noah to town? He can’t stand ridin’ in a lumber wagon. We might
leave the corpse here——’
‘Like hell yuh will!’ snapped Dave Morgan.
‘What harm would it do?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Peter Morgan is dead. There’s nothing yuh can do for him,
except to bury him. Bein’ a relative, I know how yuh feel, but yuh
can’t let sentiment interfere in a case of this kind. We’ve got to get
Evans to a hospital; sabe?’
‘Since when did you start runnin’ this country?’ demanded Dave
Morgan hotly.
‘Since about a minute ago, Morgan. Sleepy, you and Eller fix a
place in the stable where we can leave a corpse until mornin’. See if
yuh can’t find an old piece of canvas or——’
‘In the stable, eh?’ grunted Dave. ‘By Gad, you——’
‘In the stable!’ snapped Lem. ‘Now, shut up, Dave. I’ll send a
livery rig out after the body to-night, if that will ease yore mind any.’
 Dave shrugged his shoulders and turned away, muttering under
his breath, while the boys prepared a place for Peter Morgan. One of
the boys piled some hay in the bottom of the hack, and they fixed
Noah up as comfortably as possible. There had been no hint of who
had shot him, but Nan knew what they were thinking.
When they were ready to leave for Cañonville, Lem took
Hashknife aside and asked him to stay at the ranch.
‘You and Sleepy stay, will yuh, Hartley? I’m darned if I want Nan
to be here alone with that fool kid.’
‘Sure, we’ll stay. Intended to all the time. What’s yore idea of it
all, sheriff?’
Lem shook his head. ‘I dunno; we’ll talk later.’
Nan had kept her nerve well, but after they had gone, she sat
down and cried. Rex sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her
gloomily. His head was aching again, and the bandage had assumed
a rakish angle over his left ear.
Hashknife tilted back against the wall in a chair and smoked a
cigarette, while Sleepy sat on his heels against the wall, also
smoking. Finally Nan got to her feet and shook back her hair.
‘No use being a little fool,’ she choked. ‘Crying won’t make
anything right. I—I’m going to get us some supper.’
She stopped in the doorway and looked back at Hashknife.
‘I know what they’re saying. They think my father shot Noah
Evans, don’t they?’
‘By mistake—I suppose,’ replied Hashknife.
‘Thinking he was one of the 6X6?’
‘Probably.’
She came back closer to him. ‘Do you think so?’
‘I’m kinda funny,’ he smiled at her. ‘They’ve got to prove
anythin’—and then I only believe half of it. Yuh see, I don’t know
yore father, Miss Lane.’
‘I see. What did the sheriff say about it?’
 ‘He didn’t say. That’s one thing I like about him.’
‘But I know he suspects.’
Nan was thinking of the gun in the corral. After a moment she
turned and went into the kitchen, where she began preparing a
meal.
Hashknife studied the attitude of Rex Morgan, who might well
have been posing for a statue of Despondency.
‘How do yuh like this country, Morgan?’ he asked.
Rex looked up slowly and sighed audibly.
‘I think I prefer civilization, Mr. Hartley.’
‘You are seeing life in the rough, Morgan,’ grinning.
‘Seeing? Horned frawgs, as Mr. Bunty Smith says—I’m living it.’
 CHAPTER X: LYNCH LAWYERS
The following morning, shortly after daylight, Lem Sheeley and
Joe Cave arrived at the ranch with the hack from the 6X6 and a top-
buggy. They were going to take Peter Morgan’s body to Cañonville in
the hack, and Lem brought the top-buggy to take Nan to the inquest
—or rather the double inquest.
This had been the date set for the inquest over the body of Ben
Leach; so they were going to hold one over Peter Morgan on the
same day. Lem had appointed Joe Cave to act as his deputy while
Noah Evans was out of commission.
‘They know Nan was here at the ranch when her brother came
from Mesa City, and heard what he said about fixin’ one of the 6X6
outfit,’ explained Lem. ‘Me and Noah heard it; but they want her
testimony.’
Nan agreed to go, and while she was getting ready, Hashknife
took Lem aside and questioned him about the gun he found in the
corral.
‘Are you goin’ to offer that as evidence?’ asked Hashknife.
‘I’m kinda stuck about that,’ said Lem. ‘I hate to do it, and still I
figure I ought to, Hashknife. It’ll hang Lane as sure as hell.’
‘They’ll have to catch him first.’
‘Yeah, I know; but I’ll catch him. I wasn’t goin’ to do a thing until
the coroner’s jury decides; but if they say it was murder and name
the murderer—what can I do? I’m jist an instrument, Hashknife.’
‘I know, Lem. How’s Noah this mornin’?’
‘Crazy as a shepherd. The doctor was with him all night, and he
says Noah’s got a fightin’ chance. That ride last night didn’t do him a
bit of good, and the doctor says we can’t take a chance on shippin’
him to a hospital.[’]
 ‘The folks down in Cañonville want to go right out and hang a
rope on old man Lane and his son. They figure one of ’em mistook
Noah for somebody from the 6X6.’
Sleepy and Joe Cave were putting the body into the hack, while
Rex stood against the side of the stable, watching them.
‘What do yuh think of that young Morgan?’ asked Lem.
Hashknife grinned slowly. ‘He’s so damned ignorant that he might
do somethin’ smart. I figure he’s been raised in a hothouse, Lem.
Still, he’s got a sense of humor, and he ain’t all fool. Just between
me and you, he’s got somethin’ on his mind.’
‘Mebby it’s the wallop he got on the head, Hashknife.’
‘Mebby.’
Nan had come out to the buggy; so the two men sauntered
toward the front of the house.
‘We’ll stay here at the ranch,’ said Hashknife, as Nan held out her
hand to him.
‘Thank you,’ she said simply.
‘And when they put yuh on the witness stand,’ said Hashknife
slowly, ‘don’t offer anythin’. If yuh don’t feel like answerin’ a
question, jist say yuh don’t know. The law never hung anybody for
not rememberin’.’
‘That’s fine advice to a witness, right in my presence,’ grinned
Lem, as he untied the horse.
‘I shall follow that advice,’ said Nan firmly. ‘Good-bye, Mr. Hartley.
Take good care of Rex.’
‘Can’t he take care of himself?’ growled Lem.
‘I don’t think so, Lem. He needs somebody to look after him.’
‘He ort to get a keeper, or a nurse.’
The two vehicles rolled away up the dusty road, leaving
Hashknife and Rex together at the front porch. Sleepy had gone to
the rear of the house to wash his hands.
 ‘So that’s the opinion she has of me, is it?’ queried Rex wearily.
‘Need some one to look after me.’
‘I don’t think she meant it exactly that way,’ smiled Hashknife.
‘Oh, I guess she’s right as far as that goes, Mr. Hartley; I guess I
do need some one to look after me. I—I don’t know anything.’
‘Uh-huh?’ Hashknife considered Rex gravely. ‘Morgan, if it was
rainin’ real hard right now, what would you do?’
‘Why—er—go in the house, I suppose.’
‘I reckon you’ve got as much sense as the rest of us, but yuh lack
in experience.’
Sleepy came around the house and they all sat down in the
shade of the porch. Rex wanted to know what an inquest meant,
and Hashknife explained all about it.
‘And if that jury decides that Mr. Morgan was killed by Mr. Lane,
they will hang Mr. Lane?’
‘Well, not immediately,’ said Hashknife. ‘They will have to capture
Mr. Lane and give him a fair trial.’
‘Have they any evidence that Mr. Lane killed him?’
‘Only that Lane hated Morgan and threatened to shoot any of his
outfit that might come over here; and the fact that the horse bearing
the body of Morgan came from this direction. Of course those are
merely circumstantial facts. And there’s the fact that the sheriff
found Peter Morgan’s gun in the corral down there.’ Hashknife was
watching Rex closely when he brought out the last evidence, and he
saw Rex change color quickly, shutting his lips tightly. And he did not
look at Hashknife when Hashknife added:
‘That last bit of evidence might hang him.’
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ said Rex slowly.
‘Of course not.’
‘I—I didn’t see the gun.’
‘Prob’ly not. The sheriff found it. He said that you fainted in the
corral.’
 ‘Oh, yes!’ Rex tried to laugh. ‘We—Miss Lane and—we heard a
chicken crowing, and she made up a little poem about eggs for
breakfast; so we went to find the egg, you see. Yes, I fainted.
Foolish thing to do, wasn’t it?’
‘Mebby not. But neither of you saw the gun, eh?’
‘Oh, no. We were excited and——’ Rex stopped quickly.
‘Excited over what?’ asked Hashknife quickly.
Rex shut his lips tightly and looked away for several moments.
Finally he sighed softly.
‘Eggs,’ he said simply.
‘Excited over eggs?’
‘Yes. Oh, it doesn’t require much to excite me.’
‘Uh-huh.’
Hashknife and Sleepy exchanged glances. Hashknife was sure
that Rex Morgan knew more than he was willing to tell. It was
evident that this young tenderfoot was protecting Nan Lane—and
Hashknife admired him for it.
‘Do you intend to stay in this country?’ asked Sleepy.
‘Do you mean always?’ Rex shook his head slowly. ‘No, I—well, I
don’t really know. Do you know, everything has been more or less
like a dream since my mother died. I have been jerked around so
badly that I hardly know what to do next. I realize that I shouldn’t
be here, sponging, I believe you’d call it, on the Lane family. But I
just simply don’t know what to do.’
‘Didn’t you ever have a job?’ asked Hashknife.
Rex pursed his lips thoughtfully for a moment.
‘Yes, I did. I believe it lasted less than an hour. Mr. Weed, a
grocer, employed me as a driver for one of his delivery wagons, but I
tried to outrun a fire department.’
‘And didn’t make it?’ smiled Hashknife.
‘Oh, but I did! But when I was forced to stop, I—I threw out the
anchor, and——’
 ‘Uh-huh!’ snorted Sleepy. ‘That’s what Bunty Smith said.’
‘Threw out the anchor?’ queried Hashknife.
‘That is what one of the men called it. It was a heavy weight
which they have fastened to the horses, and when you make a
delivery you leave it on the ground. It prevents the horses from
running away, don’t you see?’
Hashknife laughed softly. ‘I know what yuh mean, kid.’
‘Well, when I threw it off, I believe it wrapped around a pole. At
any rate, we stopped so suddenly that I entered a store on the back
of my neck, and by the time I had recovered, I had lost my position.’
‘And that’s the only job yuh ever had?’
‘The only one.’
‘How old are yuh, Morgan?’
‘Twenty.’
‘Yore folks have plenty of money?’
‘I didn’t have folks—just a mother.’
‘Yea-a-ah?’ Hashknife leaned back, resting his shoulders against
the wall, and began rolling a cigarette.
‘What became of yore father?’ asked Sleepy.
Rex shook his head. ‘I never knew him. In fact, I never heard his
name mentioned.’
And while Hashknife and Sleepy lounged in the shade and
listened closely, Rex Morgan told them of his life. He did not
condemn his mother for the way she had raised him.
‘Mebby she wanted yuh to be a preacher,’ suggested Sleepy. ‘Was
she very religious?’
‘No; not very. In fact, she seldom went to church.’
‘And you say that check was on the Mesa City Bank?’ asked
Hashknife.
‘Yes. That was why I came here; trying to find out who sent her
that money. Perhaps they might tell me more.’
‘Did yore mother ever mention Mesa City?’
 ‘No.’
‘Well, that’s shore a queer deal, Morgan. Even if you never find
out anythin’, I think you came to the right country. It’ll make a man
out of yuh. Get a job. Even if yuh don’t know anythin’, take the job
and learn. Make good out here. Folks are rough out here, but if yuh
make good with them, they’ll stand at yore back until yore belly
caves in.’
‘I suppose you are right, Mr. Hartley.’
‘Call me Hashknife.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I’m Sleepy.’
Rex turned his head and glanced at Sleepy.
‘Why don’t you go in and lie down?’ asked Rex.
Hashknife grunted so explosively that he blew his cigarette out
into the yard, while Sleepy slid down on his shoulders, shaking with
laughter.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Rex blankly.
‘That’s what made it so damn funny,’ choked Hashknife. ‘He
meant that his nickname was Sleepy.’
‘Oh, I knew that; but I—I didn’t realize it at the time. I guess it
did sound rather like a joke.’
‘Rather,’ chuckled Sleepy. ‘But don’t mind me; I’m just a bow-
legged puncher, tryin’ to get along in the world.’
‘Morgan, you must have had quite an experience the night you
arrived here,’ said Hashknife.
Rex grinned slowly. ‘I surely did, Hashknife. I wonder why that
man struck me over the head.’
‘Some of the folks,’ said Hashknife slowly, ‘seem to doubt that
yuh got hit. They think yuh fell off the horse and hit yore head on a
rock.’
‘I did not!’ indignantly. ‘Not that I couldn’t have done such a
thing. You see, I had never ridden a horse before. But there is
something that has bothered me, Hashknife. Just before I reached
the house I went through a big gate.’
‘You went through a big gate?’ pondered Hashknife.
‘I was obliged to get off the horse to open the gate.’
‘But there is no gate here.’
‘That is the queer part of it.’
‘Hm-m-m-m,’ Hashknife grunted softly as he rolled another
cigarette. ‘Went through a big gate, eh? How was it fastened?’
‘I don’t remember that it was fastened.’
‘Uh-huh. But this was the house, eh?’
‘I suppose so. It was very dark that night, and I was unable to
see more than the outline of the house.’
‘Are yuh shore yuh didn’t dream about that gate?’
Rex frowned thoughtfully.
‘Perhaps I did, Hashknife. As far as that is concerned, I might
have dreamed all of it. But if you do not think I was struck on the
head—look at it.’
‘I saw it,’ grinned Hashknife. ‘That’s no dream.’
‘Well, that’s no more true than the rest of it.’
‘You ain’t been to Mesa City yet, have yuh? I mean, to make any
investigations about that check.’
‘No; I haven’t had a chance. But just as soon as possible, I shall
go over there.’

It was late in the afternoon when Nan came home, accompanied

by a man from the Cañonville livery-stable. Hashknife met her and
they walked from the buggy to the house. She did not mention the
inquests until Sleepy and Rex met them in the living-room, and the
four of them sat down together.
‘They asked the sheriff to arrest Walter for shooting Ben Leach,’
she said bravely. ‘They say, because he took Ben’s horse and gun, it
don’t look like self-defense.[’]
 ‘But they say Dad murdered Peter Morgan.’
‘Who testified?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Some boys of the 6X6 testified that Peter Morgan’s body came
on, roped to the saddle of his horse. That was all the testimony,
except what was said about the fight Dad had with Peter Morgan in
Mesa City, and that Dad swore he’d kill them if they came here.’
‘And that’s all the evidence they needed to name yore dad as the
murderer?’
‘That was all. They didn’t ask me to testify. Lem told them about
Walter coming home from Mesa City drunk, and what he said about
“fixing” one of the 6X6 outfit. Lem tried to give his opinion of Ben
Leach following Walter, but the coroner wouldn’t let him talk, and
they almost had a fight.’
‘And will the sheriff be obliged to capture your father and brother
now?’ asked Rex.
Nan nodded wearily. ‘I guess he will. Oh, I don’t know what to
do. We haven’t any money to hire lawyers; nothing to fight with.’
‘The court will appoint a lawyer to defend them,’ said Hashknife.
‘To represent them,’ corrected Nan quickly. ‘But of what value will
he be to us? It is merely a matter of form. Oh, I know enough about
the law to know what it will mean. A cow-town jury, sitting in
judgment on a nester.’
‘Well,’ said the optimistic Sleepy, ‘they ain’t got ’em in jail yet,
Nan.’
‘But they will have. Dad and Walter are not far away from here.’
‘I’d like to have a talk with ’em before the sheriff gets his hands
on ’em,’ said Hashknife.
‘What for?’ asked Nan.
‘Oh, just to talk about things. I’d like to get their version of things
ahead of the rest.’
Later that day Hashknife and Sleepy talked things over from the
top-pole of the corral fence.
 ‘I tell yuh, it’s no puzzle,’ declared Sleepy. ‘Old man Lane killed
Pete Morgan, jist as sure as a Californian will lie about his climate. Of
course, Pete had no business bein’ here. He’d been warned to stay
away—and didn’t. If me and you was on a jury, we’d turn him loose
—because we don’t hate a nester.[’]
‘Likewise, this here Ben Leach got his needin’s. Hunted for
trouble, and found it. Self-defense of course; but yuh never can
convince these natives that Lane didn’t bushwhack Leach. Of course,
Lane made a mistake in takin’ the horse and gun, but he was drunk
and mad.’
It was a long speech for Sleepy to make. Hashknife lifted his
brows in mock astonishment.
‘Yore gettin’ kinda technical, ain’t yuh, Sleepy?’
‘Well,’ confessed Sleepy, ‘that’s the way she looks to me. Whatsa
use of stayin’ around here any longer? We’ve got to land a couple of
jobs for the winter, ain’t we?’
‘Did we ever quit before the last dog was hung?’
Sleepy shook his head gloomily. They had been together for quite
a number of years, these two drifting cowboys. Their trails had led
from the wide lands of Alberta to the Mexican border, and no matter
where they were there was always a hill just beyond which
beckoned them on.
Sleepy had been christened David in the little Idaho town where
he was born, but it had been soon changed to his present cognomen
because of the fact that, like a weasel, he seemed to sleep with both
eyes open.
He and Henry Hartley had met on the old ranch which gave
Henry the name of Hashknife, and together these two cowboys of
the itching feet struck out for themselves. The ranges were wide and
there was plenty of demand for the services of top-hand cowboys,
but they did not stay long in any one place.
Fate had given Hashknife an analytical mind. In a different
environment he might have been a famous detective instead of a
drifting cowboy, a Nemesis of range crooks, where, in most cases,
the six-shooter superseded the court of law.
It seemed as though Fate continually threw them into troubled
places, no matter which way they traveled, until even Sleepy, prone
to argument, admitted that there was little use trying to dodge the
issue. Sleepy analyzed nothing. He was content to follow the lengthy
Hashknife, no matter where the trail led, and to be ready for trouble
at the finish.
Their remuneration had been small. In fact, they might better
have been working at forty dollars a month, as far as the financial
end of their partnership was concerned. Two horses, riding rigs,
clothes, guns, and a few dollars were all they ever had.
‘Yuh can’t take anythin’ with yuh,’ Hashknife had often said when
Sleepy remarked about their financial returns.
‘The farther we go, the less chance we have of livin’ to a ripe old
age; so what good is the money? I’d rather give while I’m alive to
see the happiness it brings. And if we had a lot of money, we
wouldn’t know what in hell to spend it for.’
Hashknife debated over Sleepy’s resume of the case. It was the
reasonable decision, and was probably the decision of everybody
who knew of the case; but Hashknife withheld his opinion because
he refused to agree with the masses. To Sleepy, the case was
closed; but to Hashknife, it was just beginning to open.
‘They tell me that Paul Lane is a salty old jigger,’ said Sleepy
thoughtfully. ‘It would be like him to kill a man and send him home
on his own horse. I wish I knew what Pete Morgan was doin’ over
here that night?’
‘Evidently tryin’ to “get” old man Lane, Sleepy.’
‘Why?’
‘There yuh are. He came alone. Why?’
‘Don’t ask me—I’m no mind-reader.’
‘And still yuh think there’s nothin’ to the case?’
‘I wasn’t figurin’ any reasons for the killin’.’
 ‘There’s got to be a reason for the killin’, Sleepy. I want to know
why Pete Morgan got up long before daylight, saddled his horse, and
came over here—if he did come here. Of course, we’ve got no proof
that he did except that the sheriff found his gun in the corral.’
‘Guns don’t fly.’
‘This ’n didn’t have any wings. Sleepy, didja ever see a girl with
more nerve than Nan Lane? By golly, she’s a dinger. Wants to cry,
but won’t. It’s a hell of a position for her to be in, don’tcha know it.
She’s up there in the kitchen cookin’ up a meal for us, when down in
her heart she wants to lie down and cry her eyes out. If I ever get
married, I hope I get her kind.’
‘One that won’t cry, Hashknife?’
‘Sure.’
‘Yuh never will, cowboy. Mebby she won’t cry from ordinary
causes, but jist let you put on a boiled collar and a white shirt, and
she’ll cry.’
‘Is it that bad?’ sadly.
‘Worse than that, Hashknife. Yuh look jist like a half-broke
Apaloosie lookin’ over a whitewashed fence.’
‘I might get one with a sense of humor, Sleepy.’
‘She’d have to have, cowboy.’
Rex was wandering around the yard, like a lost pup, and finally
joined them at the corral.
‘I wish I knew what to do,’ he said sadly. ‘Nan is up there in the
kitchen, crying. I—I tried to solace her, but it didn’t seem to do
much good. She’s afraid they are going to hang her father, you
know. Perhaps I handled the situation badly when I told her we’d
both be orphans if such a thing happened. And then I asked her to
marry me.’
‘You damn fool!’ exploded Sleepy. ‘That ain’t no time to propose
to a girl.’
‘I didn’t know. You see, I—I never proposed before.’
‘There’s a hell of a lot of things you don’t know.’
 ‘There’s a hell of a lot of things I want to learn,’ retorted Rex
heatedly.
‘That’s a lot better,’ grinned Hashknife. ‘Use a little profanity and
less dictionary. Correct English is great; but out here they think
you’re crazy. You’ll forget how to talk it soon enough. As far as you
marryin’ Nan Lane—I’d forget it, Morgan.’
‘What in hell would you support a wife on?’ asked Sleepy.
‘I’m sure I don’t know.’
‘Well, you’re honest,’ grinned Hashknife. ‘I reckon you’re a good
kid, Morgan. You mean well enough. Now, forget the marriage stuff
for a while.’
‘The sheriff wants to marry her.’
‘Fine. Lem’s a good man; got a good job.’
‘But I don’t think she loves him.’
‘No? Does she love you?’
‘I—I never asked her.’
‘A-a-aw, hell!’ snorted Sleepy. ‘Let’s go and help her cook supper
instead of talking about her feelin’s.’
It was after supper that night when Paul Lane came home. Rex
was washing the dishes and Hashknife was wiping them, much
against the wishes of Nan.
‘It’s the only thing I can do well,’ declared Rex.
‘I used to wash them for my mother.’
Nan was in her room and Sleepy was perched on the woodbox,
smoking a cigarette, when Paul Lane stepped into the kitchen, gun
in hand. Rex was the only one of the three who had ever seen him
before.
He stopped just inside the door and looked at the men.
Rex stopped washing dishes and started to introduce the old man
to Hashknife, but the old man stopped him.
‘Where’s Nan?’ he demanded.
‘Here, Dad.’
 Nan had stepped from her room and now she crossed the kitchen
to her father, who put one arm around her, but still kept his eyes on
Hashknife and Sleepy.
‘Who are these men?’ he asked.
‘Friends, Dad; Mr. Hartley and Mr. Stevens. You have met Mr.
Morgan before.’
‘Yeah, I’ve met him. I’ve been around here quite a while, lookin’
’em over through the windows. I didn’t quite figure out who they
were, but it didn’t look to me as though an officer of the law would
be washin’ dishes. I had to come back, Nan. What’s the news? What
has happened?’
With as few words as possible she told him everything that had
happened since he left the house. She told him of the shooting of
Noah Evans, the double inquest, and their verdicts. Hashknife
watched the face of the old man during her recital, and decided that
Paul Lane was a tough old ranger. He did not flinch at the verdict,
but his blue eyes clouded a trifle.
He was not a big man, and age had sapped some of his vitality,
but he was wiry, keen-eyed, and the hands that gripped the
Winchester were muscular and steady.
‘Kinda looks as though they had the dead wood on me and the
kid,’ he said bitterly. ‘We been hidin’ out in the brush, wonderin’ what
was goin’ on; so I took a chance. We got a look at you fellers to-day
and wondered who yuh might be. And we seen Nan come back in
that buggy; so I decided that there had been an inquest at
Cañonville.’
‘Why don’t the both of yuh sneak down and give up to the
sheriff?’ asked Hashknife. ‘Looks like the only way out of it, Lane.’
‘And get hung for it, eh?’
‘Mebby not. The law won’t hang yuh without a trial.’
‘Meanin’ that the 6X6 outfit will, eh?’
‘Might be more than them in on the deal. There’s always a pack
of wolves, yuh know.’
 ‘That’s right, Hartley. It shore makes it tough for Nan.’
‘And she’s been mighty game,’ said Hashknife quickly.
‘I—I’m not so game,’ choked Nan. ‘I don’t know what to do
except to grin and bear it.’
They moved to the living-room, leaving Rex to finish the rest of
the dishes, and sat down together. Hashknife wanted a chance to
talk with Paul Lane, and this seemed like the opportune time, but
before he could frame the opening question, the front door was
flung violently open, and three rifles were covering them through the
doorway.
There were Dave Morgan, Red Eller, Spike Cahill, and Ed Jones.
There was only one thing to do; so the three men in the room threw
up their hands. It took Spike Cahill about ten seconds to collect their
guns, and then the captors relaxed.
‘I reckon that about ends the deal,’ growled Dave. ‘We been
watchin’ for yuh, Lane. Knowed you’d have to come home, sooner or
later.’
‘Well?’ said Lane coldly. ‘What now, Morgan?’
‘A lot depends. Get a rope, Spike.’
‘Just what’s the idea of a rope?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Keep yore nose out of it,’ growled Morgan. ‘I’d advise you two to
high-tail out of this country. About the time we tell folks about findin’
yuh here, hobnobbin’ with a man wanted for murder, they might talk
of more ropes.’
‘Oh, is this man wanted for murder?’
‘You know damn well he is! Wasn’t that girl at the inquest? Don’t
try to be funny.’
Spike Cahill stepped in and flung out the coils of his rope,
preparatory to roping Paul Lane.
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Nan. ‘Don’t put a rope on him.
Dad will go to jail peacefully.’
‘Jail, eh?’ Spike laughed softly. ‘Yuh think he will? After we exhibit
him in Mesa City? Guess ag’in, sister.’
 ‘You better put your hands up,’ said a voice at the doorway to the
kitchen, and the captors jerked around to see Rex Morgan, holding
the heavy, double-barrel shotgun against his shoulder, the twin
muzzles covering them.
Dave Morgan’s hands jerked shoulder-high, and the other three
were quick to follow his lead. Even a tenderfoot could score a bull’s-
eye with a shotgun at fifteen feet.
‘Good, kid!’ exclaimed Hashknife, while Dave Morgan swore
bitterly, as he watched Sleepy and Hashknife gather up all the guns.
‘You can take a rest with that gun now,’ laughed Hashknife.
‘Well, I’m glad,’ sighed Rex. ‘It is very heavy, and I was afraid
some one might know it isn’t loaded.’
Hashknife backed against the wall, gun in hand, and laughed at
the expressions on their faces when they realized that the shotgun
was not loaded.
‘You can’t get away with this,’ gritted Morgan, facing Hashknife.
‘By God, we’ll show you how to tamper with things that don’t
concern yuh. And we’ll make that half-witted, white-faced kid wish
he’d kept out of it.’
‘I got away with it—my part of it,’ said Hashknife coldly. ‘I think
that kid outsmarted yuh, and saved yuh from lynchin’ a man to-
night. And as far as yuh doin’ anythin’ about it—cut yore wolf loose.’
‘We were goin’ to take him to jail,’ said Eller.
‘You’re a liar!’
Eller bristled angrily. ‘You wouldn’t call me that if I had a gun,
you hatchet-faced bum.’
‘Step into the middle of the room,’ ordered Hashknife. ‘Right out
there, away from the rest. Watch ’em, Sleepy.’ Hashknife stepped up
to the bed, picked up a six-shooter and walked back to Eller, who
stared at him foolishly. With a flip of his wrist, Hashknife dropped
the gun into Eller’s empty holster, and stepped back about six feet
and bolstered his own gun.