Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/19

 the juryman, with a laugh. "Matt Coyle is a hard case, if all I hear about him is true, and it sorter runs in my mind that he will turn up again some day, as full of meanness as he ever was."

"You wouldn't think so if you could see Indian River booming as it was on the day we came home," said Joe, earnestly. "It must have been a great deal worse when Matt saw it, but he had the hardihood to face it."

"And went to the bottom," added Roy.

"Would you have the law on him for tying you to a tree and threatening to wallop you with switches?" asked the juryman.

"No sir, I would not," said Joe, truthfully. "All we ask of Matt Coyle or any other tramp is to keep away from us and let us alone."

"Do you believe any one told Matt that you had the bank's money and sent him to No-Man's Pond to whip it out of you?"

"No, I don't."

"Matt's boys stick to it that such is the fact."

"I don't care what Matt's boys say or what they stick to," answered Joe. "You can