Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/247

 pleased your fancy when you come into the territory?"

Ben answered curtly:

"It's my name anyhere."

"Whatcha gotta say, Mr. Evans, about this here rustlin' charge?" The judge's tongue sounded a little thick, and his eyes, as he fixed them upon Ben, watered weakly. "Air you guilty, young feller?"

"No; and what I have to say won't take long. I never run our brand on Spiser's cows, and he knows it. The rustlin's on the other side, and I can prove it. That's all I got to say, and you can believe it or not, as you blame please."

The prisoner sat down abruptly.

"Would it not be as well, your honor"—again the judge's spine stiffened—"a trifle more regular perhaps, to swear the jury and to request the plaintiff first to state his case?"

Bob's tone and manner was all deference as he arose to make the suggestion, but Nan saw his lips twitch ever so slightly at the corners.

The judge closed his eyes and considered