hings maybe as has been
a-missin' fer some time. And that a'n't out of the tater side, nuther."

Meantime Bud did not rest. Hearing the nature of the testimony given by
Hank Banta before he entered, he attacked Hank and vowed he'd send him
to prison if he didn't make a clean breast. Hank was a thorough coward,
and, now that his friends were prisoners, was ready enough to tell the
truth if he could be protected from prosecution. Seeing the disposition
of the prosecuting attorney, Bud got from him a promise that he would do
what he could to protect Hank. That worthy then took the stand,
confessed his lie, and even told the inducement which Mr. Pete Jones
had offered him to perjure himself.

"_To_ be sure," said Pearson.

Squire Hawkins, turning his right eye upon him, while the left looked at
the ceiling, said: "Be careful, Mr. Pearson, or I shall have to punish
you for contempt."

"Why, Squar, I didn't know 'twas any sin to hev a healthy contemp' fer
sech a thief as Jones!"

The Squire looked at Mr. Pearson severely, and the latter, feeling that
he had committed some offense without knowing it, subsided into silence.

Bronson now had a keen sense of the direction of the gale.

"If the court please," said he, "I have tried to do my duty in this
case. It was my duty to prosecute Mr. Hartsook, however much I might
feel assured that he was innocent, and that he would be able to prove
his innocence. I now enter a _nolle_ in his case and that of John
Pearson, and I ask that this court adjourn until to-morrow, in order to
give me time to examine the evidence in the case of the other parties
under arrest. I am proud to think that my efforts have been the means of
sifting the matter to the bottom, of freeing Mr. Hartsook from
suspicion, and of detecting the real criminals."

"Ugh!" said Mr. Pearson, who conceived a great dislike to Bronson.

"The court," said Squire Hawkins, "congratulates Mr. Hartsook on his
triumphant acquittal. He is discharged from the bar of this court, and
from the bar of public sentiment, without a suspicion of guilt.
Constable, discharge Ralph Hartsook and John Pearson."

Old Jack Means, who had always had a warm side for the master, now
proposed three cheers for Mr. Hartsook, and they were given with a will
by the people who would have hanged him an hour before.

Mrs. Means gave it as her opinion that "Jack Means allers wuz a fool!"

"This court," said Dr. Underwood, "has one other duty to p