mare. I should not have been
a bit surprised if they had carried the idea of extraction to a finish;
but the counsel for defence interposed, waiving the point. He did not
want the fun to come to that sort of a termination.

Prosecution then offered the evidence of Chino's brand. Now that old
mare was branded from muzzle to tail, and on both sides. She must have
been sold and resold four or five times for every year of her long and
useful life. The network of brands was absolutely indecipherable.

"Shave her!" yelled some genius.

That idea caught hold. The entire gathering took an interest in the
operation, which half a dozen men performed. They shaved that poor old
mare from nose to the tip of her ratlike tail. Not even an eye-winker
was left to her. She resembled nothing so much as one of the sluglike
little Mexican hairless dogs we had seen on the Isthmus. The brands now
showed plainly enough, but were as complicated as ever in appearance.
Thunders of mock forensic oratory shook the air. I remember defence
acknowledged that in that multiplicity of lines the figure of Chino's
brand could be traced; but pointed to the stars of the heavens and the
figures of their constellations to prove what could be done by a vivid
imagination in evolving fancy patterns. By this time it was late, and
court was adjourned until next week.

The following Sunday, after a tremendous legal battle, conducted with
the relishing solemnity with which Americans like to take their fooling,
it was decided to call in an expert on brands, and a certain California
rancher ten miles distant was agreed upon.

"But," objected the defence, "he is a countryman of the complainant.
However honest, he will nevertheless sympathize with his own blood.
Before the case is put before him, he should view these brands as an
unprejudiced observer. I suggest that they be transcribed to paper and
submitted to him without explanation."

This appealed to the crowd. The astonished mare was again led out, and
careful drawings made of her most remarkable sides. Then the case was
again adjourned one week.

On that day the Californian was on hand, very grave, very much dressed
up, very flattered at being called as an expert in anything. The drawing
was laid before him.

"Don Luis," said the court formally, "what do you, as expert, make of
that?"

Don Luis bent his grave Spanish head over the document for some minutes.
Then he turned it upside down and examined it