Such a fervent appeal, emanating from the lips of so seductive a creature, would have proven difficult to resist, even for a being less susceptible of flattery than Crockett. Before he could comply with this request, however, and embark on a lengthy—if not exhaustive—disquisition, I took a step forward and planted myself squarely within his line of vision.

“Why, I’ll be jiggered!” he exclaimed. “Here’s the feller what sniffed out the varmint in the first place!” Taking a stride in my direction, he encircled my shoulders with one muscular arm and drew me several feet apart from the duster of admirers who had pressed in upon him in anticipation of his impending recitation. Though by nature discomfited, if not actively repulsed, by such gestures of close physical intimacy—particularly from one who was little more than a stranger—I had no choice but to submit to the frontiersman’s familiarities.

“Cricket,” said he, placing his face only inches away from my left ear and lowering his normally stentorian voice to a volume scarcely louder than a whisper. “When word o’ this li’l set-to gets into the newspapers and the public hears about how Davy Crockett single-handedly whupped that nifarious scoundrel, why, my enemies back in Washington City will be fit to be tied! You done me a service, Cricket—there ain’t no two ways about it. So I’m all fer callin’ it quits atween us. What d’ye say?”

And with that he took a step back and thrust out his right hand in the time-honored gesture of manly reconciliation.

For a moment, I stood paralyzed with irresolution. To withhold from Crockett the intelligence I had come to transmit, no matter how unwelcome it would inevitably prove to the hearer, represented a violation of my own lifelong commitment to the sacred cause of absolute truth. But at the same time, I could not help but believe that my tidings would have little immediate effect beyond antagonizing the frontiersman, who would undoubtedly perceive my intervention as a deliberate, if not willfully malicious, attempt to detract from his moment of glory. My brain spun with confusion as I desperately sought a means of resolving this agonizing—this intolerable—this seemingly insurmountable quandary!