ox to try
the charge of assault. There was little proof but a multitude of
witnesses, and before all were heard the Deemster adjourned the court
for lunch and ventilation, for the old courthouse had become
poisonous with the reeking breath of the people that crowded it.

And the jury being free to lunch where they pleased, each of the
parties to the dispute laid hold of his man and walked him off by
himself, to persuade him, also to treat him, and perhaps to bribe
him. Thus Thurstan was at the Saddle Inn with a juryman on either
hand, and Jacob was at the Plough with as many by his side, and Ross
and Stean had one each at the tavern by the Cross. "You're right,"
said the jurymen to Thurstan. "Drink up," said Thurstan to the
jurymen. "I'm your man," said the jurymen to Jacob. "Slip this in
your fob," said Jacob to the jurymen. Then they reeled back to the
courthouse arm-in-arm, and when the six good men of Maughold had
clambered up to their places again, the juror's box contained several
quarts more ale than before.

The jury did not agree on a verdict, and the Deemster dismissed them
with hot reproaches. But some justice to Greeba seemed likely to come
of this wild farce of law, for an advocate, who had learned what her
brothers were doing for her, got up a case against them, for lack of
a better brief, and so far prevailed on her behalf that the Deemster
ordered that each of the six should pay her eight pounds yearly, as
an equivalent for the share of land they had unlawfully withheld.

Now Red Jason had spent that day among the crowd at the courthouse,
and his hot blood had shown as red as his hair through his tanned
cheeks, while he looked on at the doings of Thurstan of the swollen
eyes, and Jacob of the foxy face. He stood up for a time at the back
like a statue of wrath with a dirty mist of blood dancing before it.
Then his loathing and scorn getting the better of him he cursed
beneath his breath in Icelandic and English, and his restless hands
scraped in and out of his pockets as if they itched to fasten on
somebody's throat, or pick up something as a dog picks up a rat. All
he could do was to curl his lip in a terrible grin, like the grin of
a mastiff, until he caught a side-long glimpse of Greeba's face with
the traces of tears upon it, and then, being unable to control any
longer the unsatisfied yearning of his soul to throttle Jacob, and
smash the ribs of Thurstan, and give dandified John a backhanded
fac