Langford of the Three Bars

by Kate Boyles Bingham and Virgil D. Boyles

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE TRIAL

  The next morning, every available seat was filled early. People hadblocked the rough plank walks leading to the court-house long before thedoors were unlocked. The day promised to be fine, and the many teamscoming and going between Kemah and the river to pick up the Velpenpeople who had crossed the ice on foot gave to the little town somewhatof the gala appearance of fair time. The stately and blanketed Siouxfrom their temporary camps on the flat were standing around,uncommunicative, waiting for proceedings to begin. Long before thejudicial party had arrived from the hotel, the cramped room was crowdedto its limits. There was loud talking, laughing, and joking. Local witsamused themselves and others by throwing quips at different members ofthe county bar or their brethren from across the river, as they walkedto their places inside the railings with the little mannerisms that werepeculiar to each. Some swaggered with their importance; others borethemselves with a ludicrous and exaggerated dignity; while a refreshingfew, with absolute self-unconsciousness, sat down for the work in hand.The witty cowboys, restrained by no bothersome feelings of delicacy,took off every one in running asides that kept the room in uproar. Menwho did not chew tobacco ate peanuts.

  The door in the rear of the bar opened and Judge Dale entered. Acomparative quiet fell upon the people. He mounted to his high bench.The clerk came in, then the court reporter. She tossed her note books onthe table, leisurely pulled off her gloves and took her place, examiningthe ends of her pencils with a critical eye. It would be a busy day forthe "gal reporter." Then Langford came shoving his way down the crowdedaisle with a sad-faced, brown-eyed, young woman in his wake, who yetheld herself erect with a proud little tilt to her chin. There was notan empty seat outside the bar. Louise motioned, and he escorted Mary toa place within and sat down beside her. The jurymen were all in theirchairs. Presently came in Gordon with his quiet, self-reliant manner.Langford had been right. The County Attorney was not tired to-day.

  Shortly after Gordon came Small--Small, the dynamic, whose explosives hadso often laid waste the weak and abortive independent reasoning powersof "Old Necessity" and his sort, and were the subject of much satire andsome admiration when the legal fraternity talked "shop." As he strode tohis place, he radiated bombs of just and telling wrath. He scintillatedwith aggressiveness. With him came Jesse Black, easy and disdainful asof old. After them, a small man came gliding in with as little commotionas if he were sliding over the floor of a waxed dancing hall inpatent-leather pumps. He was an unassuming little man with quick,cat-like movements which one lost if one were not on the alert. When hehad slipped into a chair next to his associate, Small, the inflammableSmall, towered above him head and shoulders.

  "Every inch the criminal," audibly observed a stranger, an Englishmanover to invest in lands for stocking a horse ranch. "Strange how theyalways wear the imprint on their faces. No escaping it. I fancy that iswhat the Scriptures meant by the mark of Cain."

  The remark was addressed to no one in particular, but it reached theears of Jim Munson, who was standing near.

  "Good Lord, man!" he said, with a grin, "that's the plumb smartestcriminal lawyer in the hull county. That's a fac'. Lord, Lord! Him JesseBlack?"

  His risibilities continued to thus get the better of his gravity atfrequent intervals during the day. He never failed to snort aloud inpure delight whenever he thought of it. What a tale for the boys when hecould get to them!

  "These cattle men!" This time the tenderfoot communicated withhimself--he had a square chin and a direct eye; there were possibilitiesin him. "Their perverted sense of the ridiculous is diabolical."

  There were others who did not know the little man. He hailed from thesouthern part of the State. But Gordon knew him. He knew he was pittedagainst one of the sharpest, shrewdest men of his day.

  "Gentlemen, I think we are ready," said the Judge, and the game was onagain.

  The State called Paul Langford, its principal witness in default ofWilliston.

  "Your name, place of residence, and business?" asked the counsel for theState.

  "Paul Langford. I reside in Kemah County, and I own and operate a cattleranch."

  After Langford had clearly described and identified the animal inquestion, Gordon continued:

  "Mr. Langford, when did you first miss this steer?"

  "On the fifteenth day of July last."

  "How did you happen to miss this steer?"

  "My attention was called to the fact that an animal answering thisdescription and bearing my brand had been seen under suspiciousdetention."

  "Prior to information thus received, you were not aware this creaturehad either strayed away or been stolen?"

  "I was not."

  "Who gave you this information, Mr. Langford?"

  "George Williston of the Lazy S."

  "Now you may tell the jury in what words Williston told you about thesteer he saw."

  This, of course, was objected to and the objection was sustained by thecourt, as Gordon knew it would be. He only wanted the jury to rememberthat Williston could have told a damaging story had he been here, andalso to remember how mysteriously this same Williston had disappeared.He could not have Williston or Williston's story, but he might keep animpression ever before these twelve men that there was a story--he knewit and they knew it,--a story of which some crotchet of the law forbadethe telling.

  "What did you do after your attention had been called to the suspiciouscircumstances of the steer's detention?"

  "I informed my boys of what I had heard, and sent them out to look forthe steer."

  "That same day?"

  "Yes."

  "Were they successful?"

  "No."

  "Did this steer have a particular stamping ground?"

  "He did."

  "Where was that?"

  "He always ranged with a bunch on what we call the home range."

  "Near the ranch house?"

  "Within half a mile."

  "Did you look for him yourself?"

  "I did."

  "He was not on this home grazing ground?"

  "He was not."

  "Did you look elsewhere for him?"

  "We did."

  "Where?"

  "We rode the free ranges for several days--wherever any of my cattle heldout."

  "How many days did you say you rode?"

  "Why, we continued to look sharp until my boy, Munson, found him the daybefore the preliminary at the Velpen stock-yards, on the point of beingshipped to Sioux City."

  "You went to Velpen to identify this steer?"

  "I did."

  "It was your steer?"

  "Yes."

  "The same for which you had been searching so long?"

  "The very same."

  "It was wearing your brand?"

  "It was not."

  "What brand was it wearing?"

  "J R."

  "Where was it?"

  "On the right hip."

  "Where do you usually put your brand, Mr. Langford?"

  "On the right hip."

  "Do you always brand your cattle there?"

  "Always."

  "Do you know any J R outfit?"

  "I do not."

  Gordon nodded to Small. His examination had been straightforward and tothe point. He had drawn alert and confident answers from his witness.Involuntarily, he glanced at Louise, who had not seemed to be working atall during this clean-cut dialogue. She flashed a fleeting smile at him.He knew he was out of sympathy with the great majority of the peopledown there in front. He did not seem to care so much now. A greatmedicine is a womanly and an understanding smile. It flushed his face abit, too.

  Langford was most unsatisfactory under cross-examination. He nevercontradicted himself, and was a trifle contemptuous of any effort totangle him up in threads of his own weaving. The little man touchedSmall on the arm and whispered to him.

  "Mr. Langford," said Small, in a weighty voice, "you travel a greatdeal, I believe?"

/>   "I do."

  "For pleasure, maybe?" with a mysterious inflection.

  "Partly."

  "Business as well?"

  "Business as well."

  "Just prior to the arrest of the defendant," insinuatingly, "you wereaway?"

  "How long prior do you mean?"

  "Say a week."

  "No."

  "Two weeks?"

  "Yes."

  "You had been away some time?"

  "The better part of a year," confessed Langford, with engaging candor.

  "Yes. Now, Mr. Langford, I should like you to tell me about how manycattle you range--in round numbers."

  "About five thousand head."

  "Yes. Now, Mr. Langford, you who count your cattle by the thousands, onyour own sworn word you have been out of the country a year. Don't youthink you are asking this jury to swallow a pretty big mouthful when youask them to believe that you could so unmistakably distinguish this onepoor ornery steer, who has so little to distinguish him from thousandsof others?"

  "I have owned that spotted steer for years," said Langford, composedly."I have never sold him because he was rather an odd creature and socantankerous that we dubbed him the Three Bars mascot."

  Gordon called Jim Munson.

  "What is your name?"

  "Gosh!"

  The question was unexpected. Was there any one in the county who did notknow Jim Munson? And Dick Gordon of all people! Then he remembered thatthe Boss had been asked the same question, so it must be all right. Butthe ways of the court were surely mysterious and ofttimes foolish.

  "Jim Munson. Jim Munson's my name--yep."

  Gordon smiled.

  "You needn't insist on it, Mr. Munson," he advised. "We know it now.Where do you live?"

  "Hellity damn! I live at the Three Bars ranch."

  "In Kemah County?"

  "It sure is."

  "What is your business, Mr. Munson?"

  "Jim's shorter, Dick. Well, I work for the Boss, Mr. Paul Langford."

  "In what capacity?"

  "If you mean what do I do, why, I ride the range, I punch cows, I alwaysgo on the round-up, I'm a fair bronco-breaker and I make up bunks andclean lamp chimblies between times," he recited, glibly, bound to beterse yet explicit, by advice of the Boss.

  There was a gale of laughter in the bar. Even the Court smiled.

  "Oh, Jim! Jim! You have perjured yourself already!" murmured the Boss."Clean lamp chimneys--ye gods!"

  "Well, grin away!" exploded Jim, his quick ire rising. He had forgottenthat Judge Dale's court was not like Justice McAllister's. His fingersfairly itched to draw a pistol and make the scoffers laugh and dance toa little music of his own. But something in Gordon's steady thoughseemingly careless gaze brought him back to the seriousness of the scenethey were playing--without guns.

  The examination proceeded. The air was getting stifling. Windows werethrown open. Damp-looking clouds had arisen from nowhere seemingly andspread over the little prairie town, over the river and the hills. Itwas very warm. Weather-seasoned inhabitants would have predicted stormhad they not been otherwise engaged. There was no breath of airstirring. Mrs. Higgins had said it was a sorry day for the cattle whenthe river was running in December. Others had said so and so believed,but people were not thinking of the cattle now. One big-boned,long-horned steer held the stage alone.

  The State proceeded to Munson's identification of the steer in question.After many and searching questions, Gordon asked the witness:

  "Jim, would you be willing to swear that the steer you had held over atthe stock-yards was the very same steer that was the mascot of the ThreeBars ranch?"

  This was Jim's big opportunity.

  "Know Mag? Swear to Mag? Dick, I would know Mag ef I met him on thegolden streets of the eternal city or ef my eyes was full o' soundin'cataracts! Yep."

  "I am not asking such an impossible feat, Mr. Munson," cut in Gordon,nettled by the digressions of one of his most important witnesses."Answer briefly, please. Would you be willing to swear?"

  Jim was jerked back to the beaten track by the sharp incision ofGordon's rebuke. No, this was indeed not Jimmie Mac's court.

  "Yep," he answered, shortly.

  Billy Brown was called. After the preliminary questions, Gordon said tohim:

  "Now, Mr. Brown, please tell the jury how you came into possession ofthe steer."

  "Well, I was shippin' a couple o' car loads to Sioux City, and I wasdrivin' the bunch myself with a couple o' hands when I meets up withJesse Black here. He was herdin' a likely little bunch o' a half dozenor so--among 'em this spotted feller. He said he wasn't shippin' any thisFall, but these were for sale--part of a lot he had bought from YellowWolf. So the upshot of the matter was, I took 'em off his hands. I wasjust lackin' 'bout that many to make a good, clean, two cars full."

  "You took a bill-of-sale for them, of course, Mr. Brown?"

  "I sure did. I'm too old a hand to buy without a bill-o'-sale."

  The document was produced, marked as an exhibit, and offered inevidence.

  The hearing of testimony for the State went on all through that day. Itwas late when the State rested its case--so late that the defence wouldnot be taken up until the following day. It was all in--for weal or forwoe. In some way, all of the State's witnesses--with the possibleexception of Munson, who would argue with the angel Gabriel at the lastday and offer to give him lessons in trumpet blowing--had been imbuedwith the earnest, honest, straightforward policy of the State's counsel.Gordon's friends were hopeful. Langford was jubilant, and he believed inthe tolerable integrity of Gordon's hard-won jury. Gordon's presentationof the case thus far had made him friends; fickle friends maybe, whowould turn when the wind turned--to-morrow,--but true it was that whencourt adjourned late in the afternoon, many who had jeered at him as avisionary or an unwelcome meddler acknowledged to themselves that theymight have erred in their judgment.

  As on the previous night, Gordon was tired. He walked aimlessly to awindow within the bar and leaned against it, looking at the still,oppressive, cloudy dampness outside, with the early December darknesscoming on apace. Lights were already twinkling in kitchens wherehousewives were busy with the evening meal.

  "Well, Dick," said Langford, coming up cheery and confident.

  "Well, Paul, it's all in."

  "And well in, old man."

  "I--don't know, Paul. I hope so. That quiet little man from down countryhas not been much heard from, you know. I am afraid, a moral upliftisn't my stunt. I'm tired! I feel like a rag."

  Langford was called away for a moment. When he returned, Gordon wasgone. He was not at supper.

  "He went away on his horse," explained Louise, in answer to Langford'sunspoken question. "I saw him ride into the country."

  When the party separated for the night, Gordon had not yet returned.