Stepsons of Light Part 29

"His name is Twilight," added Johnny, "and he is over at the Gans stables."

"I protest! Your Honor, I protest against such unmitigated folly,"

stormed Mr. Benjamin Attlebury Wade, in a hot fury of exasperation.

"You are making a mockery of the law! There is no precedent on record for anything like this."

"Here's where we make a new precedent, then," observed the court cheerfully. "I have given my instructions, and I'd be willing to place a small bet on going through with my folly. I don't know much about the law, but the people who put me here knew I didn't know much about the law when they elected me--so I guess they aimed to have me get at the rights of things in my own way." He twisted his scanty beard for a moment; his faded blue eyes peered over the rims of his gla.s.ses. "Not that it would make any great difference," he added.

A little wearied from the strain of focalized effort, Johnny looked out across the blur of faces. Hobby Lull smiled at him, and Charlie See looked hardihood like his own. There were other friendly faces, many of them; and beyond and above them all shone the faces of his straining mates, Hiram and the three John Cross men.

"Judge, may I speak to the prisoner?" asked Hiram Yoast. He tugged at a grizzled foretop.

"You may."

"Old-timer," said Hiram, "we didn't hear of you till late last night.

We had moved on from Hermosa. That's all, Your Honor. Thank you."

"Will the learned counsel for the defense outline the rest of his program?" inquired the judge, with respectful gentleness.

"He will," said Johnny. "I'll have to ask you to continue the case until to-morrow, or maybe later--till I can get some of the Garfield men who can swear to the size of the horse Adam Forbes rode. Then I want--"

Charlie See rose.

"I offer my evidence. I slept with Adam Forbes the night before he was killed; and I saw him start. He rode a big horse."

"Thank you," said Johnny. "I'll call you after a while. Get yourself a reserved seat inside here. I knew Adam Forbes rode a big horse, and I can describe that horse--if Adam Forbes was the man I met in Redgate, which I've never doubted. A big blaze-faced bay with a Heart-Diamond brand. This way." He traced on the wall a heart with an inscribed diamond. "But I want to call the men who brought in Adam Forbes. I want to question them about all the tracks they saw, before it rained.

So you see, Your Honor, I'll have to ask for a continuation. I can't afford to be hanged to save the county a little money."

"You'll get your continuation."

"But that isn't all. That yearling I branded--he was from the river _bosques_, for he had his tail full of sand burs, and the bunch he was with was sure snaky. His mammy's a Bar Cross cow and he's a Bar Cross bull--and so branded by me. He'll be back with her by this time. He had all the Hereford markings, just about perfect. His mammy wasn't marked so good. She had a bald face and a line back, all right, and white feet and a white belly. But one of her stockings was outsize--run clear up her thigh--and she had two big white spots on her ribs on the nigh side. I didn't see the other side. And one of her horns drooped a little--the right one. I would like to have you appoint a commission to bring them into court, or at any rate to interview them and get a statement of facts."

"That's reasonable," said the judge. "Application granted." He called to Tom Ross. "Tom, that's your job. You and your three peelers find that Bar Cross cow--objection overruled--and that bull yearling. Mr.

Clerk, you may so enter it, at the charge of Sierra County."

Wade was on his feet again.

"But, Your Honor," he gasped, "those men are the prisoner's especial friends!"

"Exactly. That's why they'll find that calf. Results are what I'm after, and I don't care a hang about methods." He frowned. "Look here, Mr. Wade--am I to understand that you want this prisoner convicted whether he's guilty or not?"

"No, no, certainly not. But why appoint those four men in particular?

There is always the possibility of collusion."

Judge Hinkle's face became bleak and gray. He rose slowly. The court room grew suddenly still. Hinkle walked across the little intervening s.p.a.ce and faced the prosecutor.

"Collision, perhaps you mean," he said. His quiet, even voice was cutting in its contempt. "What do you think this is--a town full of thugs? I want you to know that those four men stand a d.a.m.n sight higher in this community than you do. Sit down--you're making an indecent exposure of your soul!"

As he went back to his desk, an oldish man came to the door and caught Hobby Lull's eye. He beckoned. Hobby rose and went to the door. They held a whispered council in the anteroom.

Judge Hinkle busied himself with the papers on his desk for a moment.

When he looked up his face had regained its wonted color.

"Here comes Gwinne with the horse," announced Hobby Lull from the anteroom.

"Mr. Dines, how does your client propose to question that horse, if I may ask?" inquired the judge.

"I propose to prove by my horse," said Johnny, "that though I may have murdered this man I certainly did not shoot him while I was riding this horse. And I depend on the evidence of the prosecution's witnesses"--he smiled at the prosecution's witnesses--"to establish that no one rode in Redgate that day except me--and them! If the court will appoint some man known to be a rider and a marksman, and will instruct him to ride my horse by the courthouse windows, we can get this testimony over at once. It has been shown here that I carried a .45. Set up a box out there where we can see from the windows; give your man a gun and tell him to ride as close as he likes and put three shots in that box. If he hits that box more than once--"

"Gun-shy?" said Judge Hinkle.

"Watch him!" said Johnny rapturously.

The judge's eye rested on Mr. Wade with frank distaste.

"We will now have another gross instance of collusion," he announced.

"I will call on Frank Bojarquez to a.s.sist the court."

Francis...o...b..jarquez upreared his straight length at the back of the hall.

"Excuse, please, if I seem to tell the judge what he is to do.

But what Mistair Wade says, it is true a little--or it might seem true to estrangers. For us in Hillsboro, frien's togethair, eet does not mattair; we know. But because the worl' ees full of estrangers--theenk, Judge Hinkle, eef it is not bes' that it ees not a great frien' of the preesoner who is to examine that horse--what? That no estranger may have some doubts? There are so many estrangers."

"Humph! There is something in that." The justice scratched his ear.

"Very well. George Scarboro, stand up. Are you acquainted with this prisoner?"

"No, sir."

"You are one of the Arizona Rangers?"

"I am."

"Slip your saddle on that blue horse. You know what you have to do?"

"Yes, sir."

Scarboro departed, and half the court room went with him. Five minutes later he rode the Twilight horse, prancing daintily, under the courthouse windows. The windows were lined with faces. Johnny, the judge and Wade had a window to themselves, within the sacred railing.

But Spinal Maginnis did not look from any window. Spinal was looking elsewhere--at Caney, Weir and Hales.

The ranger wore a loose and sagging belt; his gun swung low on his thigh, just at the reach of his extended arm. As he came abreast of the destined box Scarboro's arm flashed down and up. So did Twilight.

A pistol shot, a long blue streak, and a squeal of anguish ascended together, hopelessly mingled and indiscriminate, spurning the spinning earth. It launched toward outer s.p.a.ce in a complex of motion upward, sidewise, forward and inside out, shaming the orbit of the moon, nodes, perturbations, apsides, syzygies and other symptoms too luminous to mention; but perhaps apogee and acceleration were the most prominent. A clatter, a pitch, an agonized bawl, a sailing hat, a dust cloud, a desperate face above it, with streaming hair; the marvel fell away down the hill and left a stunned silence behind. And presently a gun came down.

"Do you want to cross-examine the witness?" inquired Johnny.

Wade threw up his hands.

"Well!" he said. "Well!" His jaw dropped. He drew Johnny aside and whispered, "See here, d.a.m.n you--did you kill that man?"