lucky they took my rifle away from
me, Colonel Raoul."

Ford said, "I think that's all. Mr. Bennett, do you wish to
cross-examine?"

Raoul, from the back, cut in, "Judge, this man is a deserter from my
militia battalion. He's been on the run for the past three months. What
he's said here is worth nothing."

Cooper frowned at Greenglove, then at Raoul. "I don't see what
difference that makes. They bring convicted criminals out of prison
cells to testify."

Ford said, "In fact, if this man risked arrest to come here, that makes
his testimony all the more believable. To say nothing of going all the
way to New Orleans to bring Mr. Wegner back."

"No, it doesn't show him any more honest," Bennett spoke up. "It just
means he wants revenge against Raoul de Marion."

Cooper rapped with his mallet. "The testimony can stand. The jury'll
decide what it's worth. Lieutenant Davis, have your corporals see that
Mr. Wegner and Mr. Greenglove reach the town limits safely. And then,
Lieutenant, I'd like a word with you. Meanwhile, the lawyers for each
side can sum up."

Flanked by the two blue-coated corporals, Greenglove and Otto Wegner
started side by side toward the courtroom door, Wegner's peg leg
thumping on the plank floor.

"You go to Hell, Eli!" Raoul snarled as Greenglove passed him.

Greenglove laughed. "I got a better idea from ol' Otto here. I'm a-going
to Texas!"

The two men walked out the door as a silence fell over the courtroom.

Auguste wondered, had their testimony saved him? They had told the truth
about what happened at Old Man's Creek, but since when had truth meant
anything to the pale eyes? If those twelve men sitting in church pews on
the right side of the courtroom decided they wanted to hang him, they
would hang him even if their Jesus spirit himself came into the
courtroom and told the truth about him.

And after seeing the slaughter at the Bad Axe, could Auguste doubt that
killing all red people was what all pale eyes most wanted to do?

Cooper and the lieutenant talked quietly at the judge's table. When
Cooper called on Bennett to sum up, the prosecutor rose and sidled over
to the jury.

"About the supposed adoption papers and Pierre de Marion's alleged will,
Mrs. Russell's claim that Mr. Raoul de Marion ordered these papers
destroyed is hearsay. She has no direct knowledge that Mr. de Marion
gave any such instructions to her husband. More important--if Pierre de
Marion adopted Auguste, t