CHAPTER XIII

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.