A CURIOUS COURT.
For a moment Little Snap could not comprehend the meaning of Sheriff
Brady's order.
Mrs. Lewis had been standing but a few feet away, and at the officer's
demand she rushed forward to throw herself between Dix and the other.
"You shall not harm him!" she cried. "I——"
"Be calm, Mrs. Lewis!" commanded the officer. "It is a painful duty I am
compelled to perform, but you only make it the harder by your nonsense."
Mrs. Lewis was about to reply, when Little Snap said:
"Do not mind it, mother; I shall come out all right. There, be calm, and
know that I have done nothing that I am afraid to answer for.
"Mr. Brady, I will accompany you without opposition, so you will not be
obliged to fasten my hands."
"I am not so sure of that. 'Safe bind sure to find,' I have always
noticed. Hold out your hands, young man."
Little Snap was inclined to rebel against this unnecessary treatment,
but, fortunately, his better judgment prevailed, and he held out his
wrists to receive the bonds Sheriff Brady was so anxious to snap upon
them.
"We were lucky to get him so easily," said the officer. "Now we will
take him before Squire Claverton at once."
With these words the sheriff marched away from the home he had so
ruthlessly entered, his arm locked in that of the prisoner, the crowd
following in increasing numbers as the procession kept on.
Mrs. Lewis, without stopping to throw anything over her head, persisted
in keeping close by the side of Dix, though he tried to have her remain
at home, knowing that her presence would be of no avail to him.
Squire Claverton, who was a brother to Clevis Claverton, prided himself
upon being "the great legal light" of Six Roads. He was a man not
generally liked, being too willing to mix in whatever petty quarrels
came up, without regard to the matter of justice. In fact, he had
little, if any, idea of the fundamental principle of law. He seemed to
labor under the belief that might made right, and that it was his
business to crush the weak.
He must have been expecting his callers, for he showed no surprise at
their appearance, but chuckled with evident delight at his prospects.
"I thought it was best to bring him right to your honor," declared the
sheriff. "It seems to me it will be best to settle this matter with as
little delay as possible."
"Exactly," replied the justice, who looked upon the prisoner with a
malicious smile on his thin lips.
For some reason known only to himself, he had long cherished a grudge
against the Lewis family, and he fondly believed the time had come for
him "to get even."
Little Snap looked over the crowd that had filed into the room, until it
was completely packed, without seeing any one who seemed to show him any
favor. He was puzzled to understand this, and began to think his case
might prove more serious than he had anticipated.
Postmaster Rimmon was there, and his words gave the postboy his first
ray of hope.
"Isn't this rather premature?" he asked. "It is now nearly nine o'clock
in the evening, and the prisoner will have no chance to call his friends
to his assistance. Why not wait until to-morrow?"
"You forget, Mr. Rimmon," replied the sheriff, respectfully, but showing
that he did not like this interruption, "that it is necessary to come to
some decision in this matter to-night, so a man can be obtained to fill
his place of duty in the morning. It seems to me we have been very easy
with him, and in return he has shown the greatest contempt. What do you
think of his coming home this evening, and without saying a word of what
he had or had not done, going immediately to his home? This, too, with
the grave charges hanging over him."
"I think he deserves great credit for what he has done to-day," replied
Mr. Rimmon, warmly. "There is not one in a hundred who would or could
have brought the mail through from Salt Works under the circumstances."
"How did you learn all this?"
"From his own lips."
"So he made you his confidant?"
"So far as to give me an inkling of his adventures."
"And you doubtless thought it was sufficient for him to tell you. Were
you the proper person for him to give his excuses to?"
"Yes, sir; the most proper person in Six Roads. I presume the rest of
you would have learned the truth had you given him time."
"We propose to learn the truth and the whole truth in our own time,"
retorted the officer, sharply. "I would like to ask you if he didn't owe
something of an apology to Mr. Meiggs and Mr. Claverton here, both of
whom have a financial interest at stake in this matter?"
"Financial fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Mr. Rimmon, impulsively. "If good
reputations were for sale at ten cents apiece, and they had all the
privilege in the world to buy, they couldn't get enough to supply their
own households."
At this thoughtless speech a murmur of indignation ran over the
spectators, and the postmaster realized that he had said more than he
ought.
"Excuse me, I do not wish to get mixed up in this affair; but I would
like to see the boy have fair play."
"Is Mr. Warfield in town?" asked a voice from the crowd.
"He is not," replied Sheriff Brady, "but his private secretary, Mr.
Jones, is here, prepared to speak for the colonel."
"Order!" commanded Justice Claverton, at this juncture. "Who prefers the
charges against the prisoner?"
"I do," replied Morton Meiggs.
"State them."
"Criminal neglect of duty, theft of valuable letters, conduct unbecoming
an employee of the United States Government."
"Hum!" commented his honor. "State your case."
Mr. Meiggs was then put under oath, when he told how the Hollow Tree
mail had not been found in the mail pouch by its postmaster, but was
later found in the possession of the postboy. He then described the
disappearance of the registered letters, showing that while six could be
traced as far as the Greenbrier office, only three reached the person
for whom they were intended, Mr. Jason Warfield.
"He has been very irregular in the performance of his duties, coming in
some nights before his time, and on others an hour or more late. To-day
he has capped the climax of his careless handling of the mail by coming
over Greenbrier Mountain, through the woods, going the Lord only knows
where. I forgot to mention that one day this week he actually left his
horse, with the mail sack on its back, at least an hour, alone in the
woods, while he explored a cave or did some such foolish thing, showing
that he hasn't proper regard for the welfare of the property in his
keeping."
"John Dix Lewis, what have you to say to these charges?"
"Not guilty, sir," replied the postboy. "I——"
"Be careful how you put on airs, young man. You should remember that you
are addressing the honorable court of the United States. Call your first
witness, Mr. Meiggs."
Dan Shag took the stand, confirming Meiggs' testimony in regard to the
loss of the Hollow Tree mail and the finding of it in the postboy's
keeping.
"We have plenty of witnesses to prove the fact that the mail was in the
pouch at Greenbrier," broke in Sheriff Brady. "I was present at——"
The sheriff was interrupted at this moment by a great commotion near the
door, and it soon became evident that some one was trying to force an
entrance into the room.