Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/176

 limping to the door. 'They'll come, all right, but they'll be so mad they may lick ye. They never stole nothin'.'

"I whispered to Tib to put on the brakes and coast a bit, even if he couldn't back-pedal. I reminded him Hiram was a care-free wag who always decorated the town-hall for the Knights of Pythias ball and played in the band, and largely attended to somebody else's business except his own. I wished Hi to give a bond, but Tib insisted a hired man could quaff as deeply and freely at the spring of justice as any village store-keepers, and in about thirty minutes Peasly and Turner drifted in, escorted by a large rural chorus and the only two legal lanterns in town.

"Lawyer Remmy, a tall, thin, sad-faced man, folded his arms, and sinking his head on his chest, much like the Little Corsican, eyed the court sternly and demanded why his two clients had been arrested.

"Tib cheerfully informed him, and gently asked the hired man if he were appearing by counsel. Then Lawyer Bilger, another thin one, took the first position in repulsing a bayonet charge and said he owned Hi.

"‘Very well,' said Tib, shuffling the leaves of Webster's Unabridged to find the Latin quotations. 'Let the prisoners plead.'