ofound respect for
his own majesty when sitting as a court representing the law. Whatever
maneuvers he might resort to in business affairs in order to avoid a
conflict with his lawless neighbors, he was courageous and inflexible on
the bench. The Squire was the better part of him. With the co-operation
of the constable, he had organized a _posse_ of men who could be
depended on to enforce the law against a mob.

By the time the trial opened in the large school-house in Clifty at
eleven o'clock, all the surrounding country had emptied its population
into Clifty, and all Flat Creek was on hand ready to testify to
something. Those who knew the least appeared to know the most, and were
prodigal of their significant winks and nods. Mrs. Means had always
suspected him. She seed some mighty suspicious things about him from the
word go. She'd allers had her doubts whether he was jist the thing, and
ef her ole man had axed her, liker-n not he never'd a been hired. She'd
seed things with her own livin' eyes that beat all she ever seed in all
her born days. And Pete Jones said he'd allers knowed ther warn't no
good in sech a feller. Couldn't stay abed when he got there. And Granny
Sanders said, Law's sakes! nobody'd ever a found him out ef it hadn't
been fer her. Didn't she go all over the neighborhood a-warnin' people?
Fer her part, she seed straight through that piece of goods. He was fond
of the gals, too! Nothing was so great a crime in her eyes as to be fond
of the gals.

The constable paid unwitting tribute to William the Conquerer by crying
Squire Hawkins's court open with an Oyez! or, as he said, "O yes!" and
the Squire asked Squire Underwood, who came in at that minute, to sit
with him. From the start, it was evident to Ralph that the prosecuting
attorney had been thoroughly posted by Small, though, looking at that
worthy's face, one would have thought him the most disinterested and
philosophical spectator in the court-room.

Bronson, the prosecutor, was a young man, and this was his first case
since his election. He was very ambitious to distinguish himself, very
anxious to have Flat Creek influence on his side in politics; and,
consequently, he was very determined to send Ralph Hartsook to State
prison, justly or unjustly, by fair means or foul. To his professional
eyes this was not a question of right and wrong, not a question of life
or death to such a man as Ralph. It was George H. Bronson's opportunity
to disting