sitate or demur. There was not a shadow of
doubt in his mind that his neighbors, men who had known him all his
life, and his father before him, would acquit him of all blame in the
matter and set him free. They would believe him, assuredly. Therefore,
he answered cheerfully when the coroner put the usual questions
concerning age and nativity. Then the coroner leaned back in his chair.

"Now, Joe, tell the jury just how it happened," said he.

The jury looked up with a little start of guilt at the coroner's
reference to itself, presenting a great deal of whiskers and shocks of
untrimmed hair, together with some reddening of the face. For the jury
had been following the movements of the coroner's stenographer, as if
it, also, expected to catch him in the trick of it that would
incriminate him and send him to the penitentiary for life.

"I'd been down to the barn and out by the gate, looking around," said
Joe. There he paused.

"Yes; looking around," encouraged the coroner, believing from the lad's
appearance and slow manner that he had a dull fellow in hand. "Now, what
were you looking around for, Joe?"

"I had a kind of uneasy feeling, and I wanted to see if everything was
safe," said Joe.

"Afraid of horse-thieves, or something like that?"

"Something like that," nodded Joe.

Mrs. Newbolt, sitting very straight-backed, held her lips tight, for she
was impressed with the seriousness of the occasion. Now and then she
nodded, as if confirming to herself some foregone conclusion.

"Isom had left me in charge of the place, and I didn't want him to come
back and find anything gone," Joe explained.

"I see," said the coroner in a friendly way. "Then what did you do?"

"I went back to the house and lit the lamp in the kitchen," said Joe.

"How long was that before Isom came in?"

"Only a little while; ten or fifteen minutes, or maybe less."

"And what did Isom say when he came in, Joe?"

"He said he'd kill me, he was in a temper," Joe replied.

"You had no quarrel before he said that, Isom just burst right into the
room and threatened to kill you, did he, Joe? Now, you're sure about
that?"

"Yes, I'm perfectly sure."

"What had you done to send Isom off into a temper that way?"

"I hadn't done a thing," said Joe, meeting the coroner's gaze honestly.

The coroner asked him concerning his position in the room, what he was
doing, and whether he had anything in his hands that excited Isom when
he saw it.