"They not only kin be foun', but hev been. Hyar they air!"
Saying this, the hunter pulls a boot out of his pocket, and holds it up
before their eyes; Heywood simultaneously exposing another--its fellow!
"That's the fut wear ye're in sarch o', I reck'n," pursues Woodley. "'T
all eevents it's a pair o' boots belongin' to Dick Darke, an' war worn
by him the day afore yesterday. What's more, they left thar marks down
on the swamp mud, not a hunderd mile from the spot whar poor Charley
Clancy hez got his death shot; an' them tracks war made not a hundred
minnits from the time he got it. Now boys! what d'ye think o' the
thing?"
"Where did you get the boots?" ask several, speaking at the same time.
"No matter whar. Ye kin all see we've got 'em. Time enuf to tell o'
the whar an' the wharf or when it kums to a trial. Tho lookin' in yur
faces, fellurs, I shed say it's kim to somethin' o' that sort now."
"_It has_!" responds one of the jury, in a tone of emphatic affirmation.
"In that case," pursues the hunter, "me an' Ned Heywood are ready to
_gie_ sech evidince as we've got. Both o' us has spent good part o'
this arternoon collectin' it; an' now it's at the sarvice o' the court
o' Judge Lynch, or any other."
"Well then, Woodley!" says a planter of respectability, who by tacit
consent is representing the stern terrible judge spoken of. "Suppose
the Court to be in session. Tell us all you know."
With alacrity Woodley responds to the appeal; giving his experience,
along with it his suspicions and conjectures; not simply as a witness,
but more like a counsel in the case. It needs not to say, he is against
the accused, in his statement of facts, as the deductions he draws from
them. For the hunter has long since decided within himself, as to who
killed Clancy.
Heywood follows him in like manner, though with no new matter. His
testimony but corroborates that of his elder confrere.
Taken together, or separately, it makes profound impression on the
jurors of Judge Lynch; almost influencing them to pronounce an instant
verdict, condemnatory of the accused.
If so, it will soon be followed by the sentence; this by execution,
short and quick, but sternly terrible!