He told Lawler how Warden had come to him with the statement--the charge; and of how he had waited until Della Wharton had personally appeared before him to corroborate what she had signed.
"She don't want to have her reputation dragged into it," sneered Moreton.

"Well, before it's over she won't have no more reputation than a coyote! I'll make the thing so damned public that she'll think I've hired a brass band to blare it all over the country!" Lawler merely smiled.

He might have further increased the sheriff's rage by showing him the signed confession in his pocket--the confession he had secured from Link and Givens--but he preferred to keep silent until he discovered why Della Wharton had brought the charge against him.
There were two possible motives.

One was that Della was still in the grip of the vindictiveness that had characterized her that last day in the cabin--and had charged him with murder merely to be revenged upon him; the other was that she had been influenced to the action by Gary Warden.

He intended to keep silent until events explained the motive.
And he smiled faintly at Moreton when the sheriff opened the jail doors for him--Moreton saying that he "hated like poison to do it." Two persons had watched Lawler and Moreton ride into town.