nesses for the defense?"

"Call my horse," said Johnny Dines.

"Your Honor, I object! This is preposterous--unheard of! We will admit
the height of this accursed horse as being approximately fourteen
hands, if that is what he wants to prove. I ask that you keep this
buffoon in order. The trial has degenerated into farce-comedy."

"Do you know, Mr. Wade, I seem to observe some tragic elements in this
trial," observed Hinkle. "I am curious to hear Mr. Dines state his
motive in making so extraordinary a request from the court."

"He's trying to be funny!"

"No," said the judge; "I do not think Mr. Dines is trying to be funny.
If such is his idea, I shall find means to make him regret it. Will
you explain, Mr. Dines? You are entitled to make a statement of what
you expect to prove."

Johnny rose.

"Certainly. Let me outline my plan of defense. I could not call
witnesses until I heard the evidence against me. Now that I have heard
the evidence, it becomes plain that, except for a flat denial by
myself, no living man can speak for me. I was alone. When I take the
stand presently, I shall state under oath precisely what I shall now
outline to you briefly.

"On the day in question I was sent by Cole Ralston to Hillsboro to
execute his orders, as I will explain in full, later. I came through
MacCleod's Park, started up a Bar Cross cow and her unbranded
yearling, and I caught the yearling at the head of Redgate. While I
was branding it, a big man--I have every reason to believe that this
man was Adam Forbes--came down the canyon. He rode up where I was
branding the yearling, talked to me, smoked a cigarette, gave me a
letter to mail, and went back the way he came. I went to Garfield. My
horse had lost a shoe, as the witnesses have stated. I nailed on a
fresh shoe in Garfield, and came on. I was arrested about dark that
night while on the road to Hillsboro. That is all my story. True or
false, I shall not vary from it for any cross-examination.

"I shall ask Your Honor to consider that my story may be true. I shall
ask Your Honor to consider that if my story is true no man may speak
for me. I saw no other man between Upham and the Garfield
ditch--twenty-five miles.

"You have heard the prosecution's theory. It is that I was stealing a
calf belonging to the dead man--branding it; that he caught me in the
act, and that I foully murdered him. If I can prove the first part of
that theory to be entirely false; if I can dem