and there loaded with shot and slugs, I
can still tell a hawk from a handsaw. Why, I'm getting so I talk
that jargon to my jackass when I wallop him over the place made and
provided on him, the said jackass, with a _curajo_ pole! I'll tell you
what--the first man I catch voting for me next year I'm going to pat
him over the head with a pickhandle. You may proceed with the case,
Mr. Dines."

"This is an outrage!" bawled the furious and red-faced prosecutor.
"This is an outrage! An outrage! These proceedings are a mockery! This
whole trial is a travesty on justice!"

The gavel banged down.

"This court is now adjourned," announced Judge Hinkle.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed luxuriously. He took out a pair
of steel-rimmed spectacles and polished them; he held them poised
delicately in one hand and beamed benevolently on the crowded court
room.

"We have had a very trying forenoon," observed Mr. Hinkle blandly.
"Perhaps some of us are ruffled a little. But I trust that nothing
which has happened in this court room will cause any hard feeling of a
lasting character. And I strongly advise that under no circumstances
will any of you feel impelled to take any man and put his head under a
pump, and pump on his head." The gavel rapped smartly. "This court
will now come to order! Mr. Dines, as I remarked before recess, you
will now proceed with the case."

"I'll not detain you long, Mr. Hales," said Johnny. "I didn't bother
to cross-examine the previous witnesses"--he smiled upon Caney and
Weir--"because they are suffering from the results of an accident. In
the mines, as I hear. Mining is a dangerous business. Very. Sometimes
a man is just one-sixteenth of a second slow--and it gets him trouble.
I understand, Mr. Hales, that you three gentlemen were together when
you found the murdered man?"

"Yes."

"You had been prospecting together?"

"Prospecting, and looking for saddle thieves."

"Did you find the saddle thieves?"

"No; I told you once."

"No," said Johnny; "you told Mr. Wade. Find any mines?"

"Yes."

"Good prospect?"

"I think so."

"Um--yes." Johnny hesitated, and fell silent. Hales fidgeted. "And the
murdered man," began Johnny slowly, and stopped. Hales heaved a sigh
of relief. Johnny darted a swift glance at the judge. "And the
murdered man had been shot three times?"

"Three times. In the back."

"The shots were close together?"

"Yes. My hand would have covered all three."

"S