ELDER DANIELS. Never mind him, Feemy: he's not right in his head to-day.
[She receives the assurance with contemptuous credulity, and sits down
on the step of the Sheriff's dais].
Sheriff Kemp comes in: a stout man, with large flat ears, and a neck
thicker than his head.
ELDER DANIELS. Morning, Sheriff.
THE SHERIFF. Morning, Elder. [Passing on.] Morning, Strapper. [Passing
on]. Morning, Miss Evans. [Stopping between Strapper and Blanco]. Is
this the prisoner?
BLANCO [rising] Thats so. Morning, Sheriff.
THE SHERIFF. Morning. You know, I suppose, that if you've stole a horse
and the jury find against you, you wont have any time to settle your
affairs. Consequently, if you feel guilty, youd better settle em now.
BLANCO. Affairs be damned! Ive got none.
THE SHERIFF. Well, are you in a proper state of mind? Has the Elder
talked to you?
BLANCO. He has. And I say it's against the law. It's torture: thats what
it is.
ELDER DANIELS. He's not accountable. He's out of his mind, Sheriff. He's
not fit to go into the presence of his Maker.
THE SHERIFF. You are a merciful man, Elder; but you wont take the boys
with you there. [To Blanco]. If it comes to hanging you, youd better for
your own sake be hanged in a proper state of mind than in an improper
one. But it wont make any difference to us: make no mistake about that.
BLANCO. Lord keep me wicked till I die! Now Ive said my little prayer.
I'm ready. Not that I'm guilty, mind you; but this is a rotten town,
dead certain to do the wrong thing.
THE SHERIFF. You wont be asked to live long in it, I guess. [To
Strapper] Got the witness all right, Strapper?
STRAPPER. Yes, got everything.
BLANCO. Except the horse.
THE SHERIFF. Whats that? Aint you got the horse?
STRAPPER. No. He traded it before we overtook him, I guess. But Feemy
saw him on it.
FEEMY. She did.
STRAPPER. Shall I call in the boys?
BLANCO. Just a moment, Sheriff. A good appearance is everything in a
low-class place like this. [He takes out a pocket comb and mirror, and
retires towards the dais to arrange his hair].
ELDER DANIELS. Oh, think of your immortal soul, man, not of your foolish
face.
BLANCO. I cant change my soul, Elder: it changes me--sometimes. Feemy:
I'm too pale. Let me rub my cheek against yours, darling.
FEEMY. You lie: my color's my own, such as it is. And a pretty color
youll be when youre hung white and shot red.
BLANCO. Aint she spiteful, Sheriff?
THE SHERIFF. Time's wasted on you. [To Strapper] Go and see if the boys
are ready. Some of them were short of cartridges, and went down to the
store to buy them. They may as well have their fun; and itll be shorter
for him.
STRAPPER. Young Jack has brought a boxful up. Theyre all ready.
THE SHERIFF [going to the dais and addressing Blanco] Your place is at
the bar there. Take it. [Blanco bows ironically and goes to the bar].
Miss Evans: youd best sit at the table. [She does so, at the corner
nearest the bar. The Elder takes the opposite corner. The Sheriff takes
his chair]. All ready, Strapper.
STRAPPER [at the door] All in to begin.
(The crowd comes in and fills the court. Babsy, Jessie, and Emma come to
the Sheriff's right; Hannah and Lottie to his left.)
THE SHERIFF. Silence there. The jury will take their places as usual.
[They do so].
BLANCO. I challenge this jury, Sheriff.
THE FOREMAN. Do you, by Gosh?
THE SHERIFF. On what ground?
BLANCO. On the general ground that it's a rotten jury. [Laughter].
THE SHERIFF. Thats not a lawful ground of challenge.
THE FOREMAN. It's a lawful ground for me to shoot yonder skunk at sight,
first time I meet him, if he survives this trial.
BLANCO. I challenge the Foreman because he's prejudiced.
THE FOREMAN. I say you lie. We mean to hang you, Blanco Posnet; but you
will be hanged fair.
THE JURY. Hear, hear!
STRAPPER [to the Sheriff] George: this is rot. How can you get an
unprejudiced jury if the prisoner starts by telling them theyre all
rotten? If theres any prejudice against him he has himself to thank for
it.
THE BOYS. Thats so. Of course he has. Insulting the court! Challenge be
jiggered! Gag him.
NESTOR [a juryman with a long white beard, drunk, the oldest man
present] Besides, Sheriff, I go so far as to say that the man that is
not prejudiced against a horse-thief is not fit to sit on a jury in this
town.
THE BOYS. Right. Bully for you, Nestor! Thats the straight truth. Of
course he aint. Hear, hear!
THE SHERIFF. That is no doubt true, old man. Still, you must get as
unprejudiced as you can. The critter has a right to his chance, such as
he is. So now go right ahead. If the prisoner don't like this jury,
he should have stole a horse in another town; for this is all the jury
he'll get here.
THE FOREMAN. Thats so, Blanco Posnet.
THE SHERIFF [to Blanco] Dont you be uneasy. You will get justice here.
It may be rough justice; but it is justice.
BLANCO. What is justice?
THE SHERIFF. Hanging horse-thieves is justice; so now you know. Now
then: weve wasted enough time. Hustle with your witness there, will you?
BLANCO [indignantly bringing down his fist on the bar] Swear the jury. A
rotten Sheriff you are not to know that the jury's got to be sworn.
THE FOREMAN [galled] Be swore for you! Not likely. What do you say, old
son?
NESTOR [deliberately and solemnly] I say: GUILTY!!!
THE BOYS [tumultuously rushing at Blanco] Thats it. Guilty, guilty.
Take him out and hang him. He's found guilty. Fetch a rope. Up with him.
[They are about to drag him from the bar].
THE SHERIFF [rising, pistol in hand] Hands off that man. Hands off him,
I say, Squinty, or I drop you, and would if you were my own son. [Dead
silence], I'm Sheriff here; and it's for me to say when he may lawfully
be hanged. [They release him].
BLANCO. As the actor says in the play, "a Daniel come to judgment."
Rotten actor he was, too.
THE SHERIFF. Elder Daniel is come to judgment all right, my lad. Elder:
the floor is yours. [The Elder rises]. Give your evidence. The truth and
the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God.
ELDER DANIELS. Sheriff: let me off this. I didn't ought to swear away
this man's life. He and I are, in a manner of speaking, brothers.
THE SHERIFF. It does you credit, Elder: every man here will acknowledge
it. But religion is one thing: law is another. In religion we're all
brothers. In law we cut our brother off when he steals horses.
THE FOREMAN. Besides, you neednt hang him, you know. Theres plenty of
willing hands to take that job off your conscience. So rip ahead, old
son.
STRAPPER. Youre accountable to me for the horse until you clear
yourself, Elder: remember that.
BLANCO. Out with it, you fool.
ELDER DANIELS. You might own up, Blanco, as far as my evidence goes.
Everybody knows I borrowed one of the Sheriff's horses from Strapper
because my own's gone lame. Everybody knows you arrived in the town
yesterday and put up in my house. Everybody knows that in the morning
the horse was gone and you were gone.
BLANCO [in a forensic manner] Sheriff: the Elder, though known to you
and to all here as no brother of mine and the rottenest liar in this
town, is speaking the truth for the first time in his life as far as
what he says about me is concerned. As to the horse, I say nothing;
except that it was the rottenest horse you ever tried to sell.
THE SHERIFF. How do you know it was a rotten horse if you didn't steal
it?
BLANCO. I don't know of my own knowledge. I only argue that if the horse
had been worth its keep, you wouldn't have lent it to Strapper, and
Strapper wouldn't have lent it to this eloquent and venerable ram.
[Suppressed laughter]. And now I ask him this. [To the Elder] Did we or
did we not have a quarrel last evening about a certain article that was
left by my mother, and that I considered I had a right to more than you?
And did you say one word to me about the horse not belonging to you?
ELDER DANIELS. Why should I? We never said a word about the horse at
all. How was I to know what it was in your mind to do?
BLANCO. Bear witness all that I had a right to take a horse from him
without stealing to make up for what he denied me. I am no thief. But
you havnt proved yet that I took the horse. Strapper Kemp: had I the
horse when you took me, or had I not?
STRAPPER. No, nor you hadnt a railway train neither. But Feemy Evans saw
you pass on the horse at four o'clock twenty-five miles from the spot
where I took you at seven on the road to Pony Harbor. Did you walk
twenty-five miles in three hours? That so, Feemy, eh?
FEEMY. Thats so. At four I saw him. [To Blanco] Thats done for you.
THE SHERIFF. You say you saw him on my horse?
FEEMY. I did.
BLANCO. And I ate it, I suppose, before Strapper fetched up with me.
[Suddenly and dramatically] Sheriff: I accuse Feemy of immoral relations
with Strapper.
FEEMY. Oh you liar!
BLANCO. I accuse the fair Euphemia of immoral relations with every man
in this town, including yourself, Sheriff. I say this is a conspiracy to
kill me between Feemy and Strapper because I wouldn't touch Feemy with
a pair of tongs. I say you darent hang any white man on the word of a
woman of bad character. I stand on the honor and virtue of my American
manhood. I say that she's not had the oath, and that you darent for the
honor of the town give her the oath because her lips would blaspheme
the holy Bible if they touched it. I say thats the law; and if you are
a proper United States Sheriff and not a low-down lyncher, youll hold
up the law and not let it be dragged in the mud by your brother's kept
woman.
[Great excitement among the women. The men much puzzled.]
JESSIE. Thats right. She didn't ought to be let kiss the Book.
EMMA. How could the like of her tell the truth?
BABSY. It would be an insult to every respectable woman here to believe
her.
FEEMY. It's easy to be respectable with nobody ever offering you a
chance to be anything else.
THE WOMEN [clamoring all together] Shut up, you hussy. Youre a disgrace.
How dare you open your lips to answer your betters? Hold your tongue and
learn your place, miss. You painted slut! Whip her out of the town!
THE SHERIFF. Silence. Do you hear? Silence. [The clamor ceases]. Did
anyone else see the prisoner with the horse?
FEEMY [passionately] Aint I good enough?
BABSY. No. Youre dirt: thats what you are.