by Kirk Munroe
CHAPTER VI
THE SHERIFF TAKES PROMPT MEASURES
Sheriff Hardy, of Hat County, was a fearlessly resolute man, possessedof great bodily strength and of a coolness in times of excitement thatadmirably fitted him for his difficult position, and he had constantneed to exercise all these qualities, for his was a manufacturingcounty, having a large population of recently Americanized foreigners,who held in scant respect laws not enforced by a military power alwaysin evidence.
On the evening of the trouble in Hatton, Constable Jones's messagefound the sheriff quietly smoking a cigar on the porch of his house atthe county seat, some miles from the place where his presence was sourgently required. Two minutes later he was on horseback and gallopingtowards the scene of disturbance. Reaching the Hatton parsonage withinhalf an hour, he entered it by a back door, and at once swore in asspecial deputies the gentlemen whom he found there assembled, andundecided, not having authority, as to how they should act in thepresent emergency. Then Sheriff Hardy stepped to the front porch, took asurvey of the situation, and for a minute listened to the significantinterchange of remarks between the owner of the shops and the leaders ofthe mob.
He was there when the crowd tore down the fence and made their rushtowards the house. Until this moment they had not suspected hispresence, but now, at the sound of his sharp "Halt!" their advance waschecked as effectually as though it had encountered a twenty-foot stonewall.
"Stand where you are!" he commanded. "Any man who advances so much as asingle step farther will be arrested. I am not going to ask what you aredoing here, nor the meaning of this cowardly demonstration against thepeace. I already have heard enough to fully understand the situation.You are proposing to injure and otherwise abuse a person who is legallyan inmate of this house."
"He's a heathen Chinee," muttered some one in the crowd.
"I don't care if he's a blue monkey," replied the sheriff, sharply,"so long as he is here with the sanction of the law, he is entitled tolegal protection, and he is going to have it, too, just so long as I amsheriff of Hat County. Some of you Dagoes seem to think there isn't anylaw in this country, but I'll teach you that there is plenty of law,with ample provision for enforcing it. Now I've wasted all the time Imean to on you, and school is dismissed; so, 'bout face, and clear outof here. You want to be spry, too, for in just one minute I am going tomarch down that street with a posse of armed deputies, sworn to obeyorders, and ordered to arrest any anarchist who attempts to obstructtheir passage. I may add that they can shoot, too; and, if necessary,will shoot. That's all."
As the mob, breaking into angry murmurs, still hesitated to move,Sheriff Hardy called out, so that all might hear:
"Posse, attention! Fall in! Come on!"
Then, as the tramp of many feet sounded on the porch, he leaped fromit, and his impatient followers sprang after him. The next minute theywere charging down the main street behind a panic-stricken mob in fullflight, and Hatton's short-lived reign of terror was ended.
After this, Mr. Hinckley, acting upon the sheriff's advice, whichcoincided with his own inclination, did not seek to secure Jo's safetyby sending him away from Hatton, but kept him there in attendance at theacademy, where the other fellows, under Rob's leadership, acted as abody-guard for his protection.
"It is too bad that I make so much bobble," said the Chinese lad to hisfriend one day. "Mebbe better if I go my own country."
"Oh, rot!" replied Rob, who at times found difficulty in expressing hisfeelings other than by the use of slang. "It would just be pie for themuckers to have you cut away, and they would claim game on the strengthof it. As for you making trouble, I call it fun, and so do the otherfellows. Why, I've never known so much life in the academy as has beenput into it by your coming. Same time, you can't say you aren't gettinggood by being here, for I never heard of anybody learning as fast asyou do. I'm not the only one that's on to it, either; for I heard oldPuff--excuse me, I mean Professor Puffer--say the same thing onlyyesterday. Besides, you couldn't go away till after our trial, anyhow,for we are under bonds to appear, and it would simply mean ruin to UncleWill if you didn't show up."
"That tlial," answered Jo, who had not yet fully conquered thedifficulty encountered by all Chinese who come into contact with theletter _r_, "makes for me much bitterness and plenty 'fraid. In mycountry we say, 'Better it is to die than go in law-suit.'"
"Oh, pshaw!" answered Rob. "It isn't that way in America. Everybody hereseems to get mixed up in some sort of a law-suit sooner or later, andnot worry much about it, either. As for ours, it'll come out all right;you see if it don't. I'm not fretting."
When, in the early winter, the eventful day set for the trial of the nowfamous case of State _vs._ Joseph Lee _et al._ arrived, it seemed asthough half Hatton was determined to be on hand. Court was held in thecity of S----, distant only an hour's ride by train, so that the Hattonspectators were able to go and return the same day.
Owing to the dragging length of the preceding case on the calendar,that of our lads was not called on the first day of their appearance,and they were forced to spend the night in a hotel, guarded by adeputy. In this same hotel stayed the father of the young tough whohad incidentally been thrown to the ground with Jo during the long-agofracas that began all this trouble. When our lads, accompanied by theirguard, went down to supper, this man, together with another, sat wherehe could see them, and, pointing to Jo, he said, viciously, but in a lowtone:
"That's him, and we'll make it worth your while to fix him."
"That well-dressed young fellow?" questioned the other, in a tone ofsurprise. "He don't look any more like a Chinee than he does like aDago, and if you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have suspected it."
"No, they've trimmed him up to look almost civilized; but I wisht you'dseen him when the fuss took place. He sure was a savage-appearingheathen then."
"Um," said the other, meditatively; "changed his description, have they?Well, if you can make it worth while, I'll see what can be done."
To the dismay of our lads and their friends, the trial, which occupiedthe whole of the following day, was, in spite of the efforts of theirlawyer, but a repetition of the first one. Much additional testimony waspresented by the State, but nothing new had been forth-coming in theirbehalf. So late in the day was the case closed that the judge withheldhis decision until the next morning; but no one had a doubt as to itsnature, and the muckers of Hatton held another jubilation that nightwith bonfires and much noise.
Full accounts of the trial appeared in the morning papers, and ourfriends read these with heavy hearts.
"Looks as though we stood a good chance of going to prison," remarkedRob, gloomily. "It'll either be that or a whopping big fine that, I'mafraid, Uncle Will can't raise. Maybe it'll be both."
"If my father were only here," said Jo, "he would make things all rightquick enough, by giving that mandarin judge much money."
"Oh, would he?" replied Rob. "That's all you know about American judges.Such a scheme might work in China, but if your father should try it onhere he would be pretty apt to land himself in prison, alongside ofhis son, and that son's 'accomplice,' as the papers now call me. WeAmericans are a pretty tough lot, I'll admit, and our laws don't seem tohave much to do with justice, but I don't believe we've yet come to thepoint of bribing our judges--that is, not to any great extent."
"But, Rob, my friend, it is for you that my heart is aching. For meit makes no difference. When I am again free I will go back to my owncountry as a hero, whose bad treatment here will only make my peoplehate foreigners more than ever. But for you it will mean shame and muchsorrow, all caused by me."
"Now, don't you fret a little bit about that, old man," replied Rob,stoutly. "There is no danger of me being disgraced by going to prison ina good cause, in the eyes of any one whose opinion is worth anything.I tell you, honestly, that, so long as you are in this scrape, I'm gladto be in it with you; for it will show that if Americans are sometimesunjust, it is not only to foreigners, but to
their own people as well."
So greatly was interest in the case stimulated by the published reportsthat, on the second day of the trial, the court-room was crowded withspectators. Most of these were hostile in sentiment to our lads andwere anxious to hear sentence pronounced, not only upon the Chinese,who had dared assault an American, but upon the white lad who hadproved a traitor to his own people by assisting in the outrage. Anotherattraction in the court-room that morning was a Chinese gentleman,richly clad in his national costume, who entered with the judge, andwas accorded the honor of a seat on the bench. He was secretary tothe Chinese legation at Washington, hurriedly sent on by his chief toinquire into this case and do everything possible for the relief ofhis young countryman. Even after entering the court-room he continuedto speak to the judge; but the face of the latter remained sternlyimpassive, as though, having made up his mind, nothing could change it.
When our lads were led to their seats they could nowhere see the lawyerwho was defending them, and they wondered at his absence; but heappeared and took his place with other members of the bar just as courtwas opening. He had no opportunity for communicating with them at thatmoment, but he beamed upon them with a smiling countenance, for whichthey could not account.
"Looks like a man grinning at his own funeral," whispered Rob to hisfriend, who wondered how such a thing might be possible.
In another moment, however, his attention was drawn from this puzzle bythe opening of court, and by seeing their counsel rise to his feet.
"Your honor," said this gentleman, addressing the judge, "I beg leave topetition that the case of State _vs._ Joseph Lee _et al._, concluded inthis court yesterday, be reopened for the admission of new and importanttestimony in behalf of the defence. Only this morning has a witness beendiscovered whose story will, I believe, completely reverse all previousimpressions gained during this momentous trial. In view of that factwe earnestly pray that you will permit us to place this person on thestand."
After listening to a demur from the district attorney, the court grantedthis petition and reopened the case, whereupon the counsel for thedefence summoned to the witness-stand Miss Annabel Lorimer.