d
having at first refused to plead guilty, not quite understanding what
was to be done with him, he had been perforce bound over to this court
for trial. Afterward he had changed his mind and admitted his guilt, so
he now had to come before Judge Payderson for sentence or dismissal.
The lower court before which he had originally been brought had lost
jurisdiction by binding him over to to higher court for trial.
Eddie Zanders, in his self-appointed position as guide and mentor to
Cowperwood, had confided nearly all of this data to him as he stood
waiting.

The courtroom was crowded. It was very humiliating to Cowperwood to have
to file in this way along the side aisle with these others, followed by
Stener, well dressed but sickly looking and disconsolate.

The negro, Charles Ackerman, was the first on the list.

"How is it this man comes before me?" asked Payderson, peevishly, when
he noted the value of the property Ackerman was supposed to have stolen.

"Your honor," the assistant district attorney explained, promptly,
"this man was before a lower court and refused, because he was drunk,
or something, to plead guilty. The lower court, because the complainant
would not forego the charge, was compelled to bind him over to this
court for trial. Since then he has changed his mind and has admitted
his guilt to the district attorney. He would not be brought before you
except we have no alternative. He has to be brought here now in order to
clear the calendar."

Judge Payderson stared quizzically at the negro, who, obviously not very
much disturbed by this examination, was leaning comfortably on the gate
or bar before which the average criminal stood erect and terrified.
He had been before police-court magistrates before on one charge and
another--drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and the like--but his whole
attitude was one of shambling, lackadaisical, amusing innocence.

"Well, Ackerman," inquired his honor, severely, "did you or did you not
steal this piece of lead pipe as charged here--four dollars and eighty
cents' worth?"

"Yassah, I did," he began. "I tell you how it was, jedge. I was a-comin'
along past dat lumber-yard one Saturday afternoon, and I hadn't been
wuckin', an' I saw dat piece o' pipe thoo de fence, lyin' inside, and I
jes' reached thoo with a piece o' boad I found dey and pulled it over
to me an' tuck it. An' aftahwahd dis Mistah Watchman man"--he waved his
hand oratorically toward the witness-chai