Page:06-24-1920 -The Story of the Jones County Calf Case.pdf/8

 some hardware. Bob was going to build a house. They went into the store kept by Coppes & Derr, merchants, and talked about hardware in there, and finally Bob said to Coppes & Derr that Potter had been down at his house the night before and wanted him (Bob) to buy some calves for him, and asked Coppes if he know of any one that had calves for sale, and Coppes said, no, he did not. Whereupon a stranger who was sitting in the store came forward and said to Bob, "I have got four calves down here on the commons, down on the river bottom, that I would be glad to sell you." And Bob said, "All right. I have got to go down to Stanwood and price hardware, anyway, and that is on the road and we will go down and see your calves." And he said, "By the way, what is your name?" and the stranger said, "My name is John Smith." He picked and unfortunate name. And he said, "I am Clem Lane's son-in-law." "All right," Bob said, and he and Newt went out and got on their horses, and Smith got on his horse there in front of Coppes & Derr's store, and they started down to see Smith's calves. They got down into the neighborhood on the river where the Smith calves were supposed to be running out on the common. In those days we all let our cows run out and even the lawyers wore boots. They hunted them up and they found three of the calves that Smith said were his, but they could not find the fourth one. There were a good many cattle on the river bottom, but Smith said that the fourth one was just as good as the other three. "Well," Bob said, "You find him and bring them and put them up in the Hines pasture, and then come over to my house and I will pay you." The Hines pasture was up towards Bob's house. "Well, now," Smith says, "I will tell you, Mr. Johnson; I would not sell you these calves as cheap as I have priced them to you if it was not for the fact that I have got to have some money tomorrow morning. I am sued." Bob said, "I haven't got money enough with me to pay you." His brother, Newt, however, said that he had, and so Bob borrowed some money from Newt and put it with his money and paid Smith, and Bob and Newt went on the Stanwood.

The next day after that Bob got word from Potter that he was