The court-room fairly seethed with interest. The crowd was smiling,
amused; but, under the surface smile, every face reflected a strong
sympathy for the quaint old figure standing there, about to fight his
own battle. As Bill turned to conduct his case, Blodgett took Marvin by
the arm.
"You come out here!" he commanded, roughly.
Marvin pulled his arm free and appealed to the judge.
"I am a witness for the defense, your Honor," he said.
"Then you may remain where you are," replied Townsend, with a nod. He
looked at Lightnin'. "Examine your witness," he directed.
For a moment Lightnin' stood in front of the frowning man in the chair
and silently inspected him with humorous interest, from the top of his
sleek, pomaded head to the gleaming toes of his immaculate boots.
"Looks kinder all polished up, don't he?" Bill remarked.
The noise of the general laughter and the pounding of the sheriff's
gavel seemed to distract Townsend's attention; anyway, he uttered no
objection when Marvin slipped from his place among the witnesses and
dropped into his former chair directly behind Bill. Looking up at
Townsend, Lightnin' resumed:
"The things Marvin asked him were all right, your Honor," he said. Then,
with a terse but rather humorous shrug, he addressed Hammond, "Answer
'em!"
"You mean the testimony he has already given will stand?" asked the
judge.
"I got a right to ask 'em again, 'ain't I?" questioned Bill.
Townsend nodded. Hammond could much better stand the young and impatient
manner of John Marvin than he could the wise humor of Bill. He grew red
and shifted in his chair angrily, asking the judge:
"Do I have to go all over that, your Honor?"
"Would your replies be the same?" Townsend's eyes as well as his
question begged Hammond for the answer and he was not comfortable. But
there was nothing else for him to do, and after a moment's hesitation,
in which he lowered his lids to avoid the judge's scrutiny, he replied:
"Certainly."
The cross-examination reinstated, Hammond for the fourth time started to
leave the stand. Bill held up his hand and snapped in a determined tone,
but with a smile playing among the wrinkles of his face:
"Hold on! I got some more for you!"
His victim threw himself back into the chair with a shrug and a sneer as
he gave his head an irate shake.
"Mr. Hammond," Bill went on, "when you went after Mr. Marvin with the
sheriff, what was the charge against him?"
Hammond answered, with a ready enthusiasm, "Trespassing on the property
of the Pacific Railroad Company."
Bill nodded his head and said:
"Uh, ha."
He assumed an air of wisdom and raised his voice to the pitch that it
seldom knew, but to have the floor again after so many months was having
its effect upon him and he was taking the task in the same way and with
the same glee as if it were the opportunity for telling a good story.
"If he was on their property," he began--then he seemed to forget what
it was he was going to ask. He turned to Marvin in whispered conference.
The unusual character of his procedure did not affect Lemuel Townsend,
who was anxious to give the old man his full chance.
His way evidently made clearer by Marvin's advice, Bill sauntered slowly
back to Hammond.
"If he was on the railroad's property, what did you have to do with it?"
he asked.
"Oh, that's easy enough!" said Hammond, nonchalantly crossing one leg
over the other. "I went at the request of the president of the road."
Bill grinned. "You sold the railroad the land he was trespassing on,
didn't you?"
Thomas broke in with an endeavor to show that the question was
irrelevant, but Townsend, knowing Bill's natural acumen, felt that the
question did have some real connection with the case.
"Mr. Thomas," he said, "you and your witness have been accused of
conspiracy. If I were you, I would allow him to answer Mr. Jones."
Thomas knew that he was sparring for his life and he didn't intend to
let the question get by if he could help it, so he tried another
subterfuge.
"Your Honor," he deplored, his voice hoarse with anger, "I don't propose
to defend the witness and myself from such a ridiculous charge at this
time. We are not on trial. This is a divorce action." He glared at
Marvin, pulling his cuffs angrily, in a way that he had, down over his
wrists.
But the judge's opinion was unchanged. "If there is any conspiracy about
this action, the court wants to know it. Answer the question."
With an insulting drawl, Hammond did as he was bid.
"I purchased the property for the railroad, acting as their agent."
"Who did you buy it from?" Bill snapped.
"Mr. Thomas."
"When did you buy it?" asked Bill.
"About ten months ago."
Bill's shoulders straightened at Hammond's reply and he drew himself
together with a quick shrug, taking a swift step forward and peering
into Hammond's face.
"That was three months before you bought mother's place?" he asked.
"Yes," jerked Hammond, sulkily.
"Then, why did you say you had never met him until you met him at the
hotel?"
Hammond started, alarm in the quick glance that traveled from Bill to
Raymond Thomas. He realized he had overstepped himself. Thinking the
better plan would be to brave it out, he bellowed:
"Because I never did!"
Bill smiled at him and said, in his slow, gentle monotone:
"You bought all that land of him and never saw him about it?" He looked
up at the judge and laughed. "And he called _me_ a liar!"
Hammond got up, but Bill detained him. "Don't go away," he admonished,
with a jaunty toss of his head. "We got some more for you, 'ain't we?"
and he looked at Marvin, who smiled in approval. "I've got a good one
for him!" Bill went on.
"You know the railroad company leased the waterfall on mother's place
and put a power-plant there?"
"I believe they have," said Hammond, impatiently.
"And you know that the railroad pays you more for that lease in a month
than you agreed to give mother in a year?"
It was a surprise to Hammond, and evidently to Marvin, too, that Bill
should know anything of the details of either the lease of the railroad
company or of what payment had been promised to Mrs. Jones. A great
light flashed on Marvin--obviously Bill Jones had not been altogether
wasting his time during his prolonged disappearance! Hammond, beginning
to suspect that Bill knew more than he had been given credit for,
decided that ignorance was the best stand to take.
"How should I know the petty details of the railroad's lease?" he said.
"How should _you_ know?" echoed Bill, his voice raised, unwontedly clear
and ringing. "Didn't the railroad lease the waterfall from a bum concern
called the Golden Gate Land Company? Didn't you, actin' for the Golden
Gate Company, put through the deal? Don't you know that the Golden Gate
Land Company is controlled by yourself and Raymond Thomas--ain't you and
Thomas the whole works o' that--"
Thomas was on his feet with an objection, but the judge had no
opportunity to overrule it, for Bill had something to say and he was
going to say it. He lifted his voice above that of Thomas, calling out
and waving his arms violently in an excitement he had never known
before.
"And all your stocks in the name of rummies?"
His eyes twinkled as Marvin came up to him and whispered. Again waving
his arms, Bill shouted:
"Dummies, I mean--dummies!"
Thomas had been tried to the point of despair. There was a lump in his
throat as he beseeched the judge:
"I protest against this!"
The judge interrupted him. "I am beginning to believe in this plot
story."
"Then let him go on," was Bill's agreeable reply.
Hammond jumped up out of his chair and descended from the witness-stand.
"Your Honor," he said, in an angry tone, "I absolutely refuse to submit
to this any longer--to stand here and be made to look like a criminal!"
Bill could not withstand the chance for another quip and he smiled at
his antagonist. "Well, you look natural," he remarked.
"Do you expect me to stand for this?" Hammond stormed.
"Sit down, if you want to," said Bill, restored to his old nonchalance.
"I'm through with you," and he turned his back on Hammond and went over
to Marvin.
Thomas, keyed to a high pitch, knew that something must be done at once,
for he saw that not only the Jones case was crumbling, but he sensed
trouble ahead in his afternoon's venture, so he resorted to Everett
Hammond's tactics of placing the matter in an absurd light.
"All this ridiculous testimony," he argued, "has no possible connection
with the case in point, but I propose to prove that all the accusations
against the witness and myself are not only groundless but absolutely
malicious, and I shall do this at the first opportunity."
Unable to stand the situation any longer, he went back and took his
seat.
Marvin had sat quiet all through this controversy. Now he forgot the
judge's admonition as to his place in the case. He got up, stating to
the judge:
"Your Honor, Mr. Thomas will have that opportunity at two o'clock this
afternoon, when the Pacific Railroad's action against me comes before
the court. At that time I will submit documentary proof that these men
control the Golden Gate Land Company and have been buying up all the
land wanted by the Pacific Railroad. I will submit to the court twenty
cases where the Golden Gate Land Company has swindled innocent farmers
out of their property and paid them with worthless stock. I will prove
to the court--"
"Just a moment, Mr. Marvin," Townsend stopped him. "It will be most
interesting for you to prove your statements at two o'clock; but in the
mean time I must warn you again that you are not a party to this divorce
action and have no standing as an attorney in this court."
Marvin bowed to the ruling and retired quietly to his seat. He stared
calmly at Thomas, seeming to have no fear that he had prematurely
revealed his own case and that his opponents might have an opportunity
to take advantage of his statements.
"If the defense wishes you for a witness, Mr. Marvin," said Townsend,
"you may be sworn."
Bill was on his feet again and, turning to the judge, said: "I don't
need no witness! I didn't know nothing about it at all until I got here,
but I've been thinking it over ever since and I have made up my mind
that mother's right. If mother can prove them things they read," and he
nodded toward the clerk, "she could get a divorce, couldn't she?"
Townsend replied in the affirmative. Bill smiled sadly and, glancing at
Mrs. Jones, who was crying as if her heart would break, he went on,
"Well, I can prove them for her."
"You can prove them?" Townsend asked, in surprise.
"Oh yes," said Bill, with a flash of humor. "I used to be a judge."
He stood still in the middle of the floor and looked into space for a
moment. He was a dejected figure as the humor that was his habit left
him and he stood there deserted by all but Marvin. But it was not his
way to remain an object of pity, either to himself or to anybody else,
and with a slight shrug he straightened and looked the judge in the eye.
Placing his hand in front of him, he tolled off the first count on the
thumb of his right hand.
"Now, first it said," he began didactically, "that I got drunk," and he
paused and thought about it, adding, with a nod, "Well, I can prove
that! And then it said I was cruel to mother." He took a step forward
and bent his shoulders a bit, as if he would look under the brim of his
wife's hat and search her soul for the answer to his plea. "Well, I
can--no, I can't prove that, 'cause it ain't true, judge, an' I don't
believe mother ever said it."
A dramatic hush fell in the court-room. It was suddenly, pathetically
clear to Marvin and to many others that, despite his unexpected
knowledge on other counts, Bill did not fathom the real reason behind
his wife's action for divorce. Plainly he thought she really wanted a
divorce, and, in Lightnin's sensitive code, if mother wanted it she
should have it.
"An' then it said that I failed to provide," he went on, while the
court-room breathed softly, feeling the tug at the old man's
heartstrings. "Well, that what's on my mind, judge. I have failed. I
never thought anything about it before, and I don't see any chance of
providing, now that I do think about it. Mother an' Millie could get
along better without me. So you see, mother should get a divorce,
judge--" and here Bill for the first time in his life broke down. Tears
came into his eyes and he swallowed to keep them back. He hesitated and,
with a last brave effort, he dashed in to complete his testimony against
himself.
"I'm all right, judge. I can go back to the Home and stay there
until"--he hesitated--"until--" and turning quickly away, "that's all,
judge."
Before he could get to his seat Mrs. Jones had jumped up from hers and
was standing before the judge's desk, wiping the tears from her eyes and
sobbing loudly.
"No, please, judge, don't give me a divorce! I don't want one, judge! I
can take care of Bill in our old age. They were just telling me lies,
judge, and I was a fool not to have seen through it!"
Tears were in Townsend's eyes; also, Margaret Davis was sniffing
audibly, and the spectators in the court-room were deeply touched.
Thomas and Hammond gave one glance at each other and groaned, while Mrs.
Jones rushed to Bill and held one of his hands in both of hers,
pleading:
"Bill, I have done you a wrong--a great wrong, and I cannot blame you if
you never look at me again, but I didn't mean to, Bill, I didn't mean
to! And if you will forgive me and take me back I will try all my life
to make up for it! Will you?"
Bill took her hands in his and patted them. His eyes were moist, and
they blinked for a moment; then a slow, happy grin spread over his
stubbled face.
"That's all right, mother," he said, easily. "Say, did you ever get the
six dollars I sent you?"