It Is Never Too Late to Mend Part 134

"I guess I was thyar," said a voice behind the judge, who s.h.i.+fted uneasily.

McLaughlan went into the jury-box with a meaning look at Robinson, but without another audible word.

"Mercy! mercy!" cried Walker.

"You must not interrupt the proceedings," said Judge Lynch.

"Haud your whist, ye gowk. Ye are no fand guilty yet," remonstrated a juror.

The jury being formed, the judge called the plaintiff.

"The man sold me a claim for thirty pound. I gave him the blunt because I saw the stuff was glittery. Well, I worked it, and I found it work rather easy, that is a fact."

"Haw! haw! haw!" roared the crowd, but with a horrible laughter, no placability in it.

"Well, I found lots of dust, and I took it to the merchant, and he says it is none of it gold. That is my tale."

"Have you any witnesses?"

"I don't know. Yes, the n.i.g.g.e.r; he saw it. Here, Jacky, come and tell them."

Jacky was thrust forward, but was interrupted by McLaughlan as soon as he opened his mouth. The Scottish juror declined to receive evidence but upon oath. The judge allowed the objection.

"Swear him in, then," cried a hundred voices.

"Swear?" inquired Jacky, innocently.

Another brutal roar of laughter followed.

Jacky was offended.

"What for you laugh, you stupid fellows? I not a common black fellow.

I been to Sydney and learn all the white man knows. Jacky will swear,"

added he.

"Left your hond," cried McLaughlan. "It is no swearing if you dinna left your hond."

"Dat so stupid," said Jacky, lifting his hand peevishly. This done, he delivered his evidence thus: "Damme I saw dis fellow sell dirt to dis fellow, and damme I saw dis fellow find a good deal gold, and damme I heard him say dis is a dam good job, and den damme he put down his spade and go to sell, and directly he come back and say damme I am done!"

"Aweel," said McLaughlan; "we jaast refuse yon lad's evidence, the deevelich heathen."

A threatening murmur.

"Silence! Hear the defendant."

Walker, trembling like an aspen, owned to having sold the claim, but denied that the dust was false. "This is what I dug out of it," said he; and he produced a small pinch of dust.

"Hand it to me," said the judge. "It seems genuine."

"Put it to the test. Call the merchant for a witness," cried another.

A party ran instantly for Levi. He refused to come. They dragged him with fearful menaces.

"A test, old man; a test of gold!"

The old Jew cast his eyes around, took in the whole scene, and with a courage few of the younger ones would have shown, defied that wild mob.

"I will give you no test. I wash my hands of your mad pa.s.sions, and your mockeries of justice, men of Belial!"

A moment's silence and wonder, a yell of rage, and a dozen knives in the air.

The judge rose hastily, and in a terrible voice that governed the tumult for an instant said: "Down knives! I hang the first man that uses one in my court." And during the momentary pause that followed this he cried out: "He has given me a test. Run and fetch me the bottle of acid on his table."

"Hurrah! Judge Lynch forever!" was now the cry, and in a minute the bottle was thrust into the judge's hand.

"Young man," said Isaac solemnly, "do not pour, lest Heaven bring your soul to as keen a test one day. Who are you that judge your brother?"

Judge Lynch trembled visibly as the reverend man rebuked him thus, but, fearing Isaac would go farther and pay the forfeit of his boldness, he said calmly: "Friends, remove the old man from the court, but use respect. He is an aged man."

Isaac was removed. The judge took the bottle and poured a drop on that small pinch of dust the man had last given him.

No effect followed.

"I p.r.o.nounce this to be gold."

"There," put in McLaughlan, "ye see the lad was no deceiving ye; is it his fault if a' the gowd is no the same?"

"No!" whimpered Walker, eagerly, and the crowd began to whisper and allow he might be innocent.

The man standing behind the judge said, with a cold sneer: "That is the stuff he did not sell--now pour on the stuff he sold."

These words brought back the prejudice against the prisoner, and a hundred voices shouted, "Pour!" while their eyes gleamed with a terrible curiosity.

Judge Lynch, awestruck by this terrible roar, now felt what it is to be a judge; he trembled and hesitated.

"Pour!" roared the crowd, still louder and more fiercely.

McLaughlan read the judge's feeling, and whimpered out, "Let it fa', lad--let it fa'!"

"If he does our knives fall on him and you. Pour!"

Robinson poured. All their fierce eyes were fixed on the experiment. He meant to pour a drop or two, but the man behind him jogged his arm, and half the acid in the bottle fell upon Walker's dust.

A quant.i.ty of smoke rose from it, and the particles fizzed and bubbled under the terrible test.

"Tras.h.!.+ a rope--no! dig a hole and bury him--no! fling him off the rock into the water."

"Silence!" roared Robinson, "I am the judge, and it is for me to p.r.o.nounce the verdict."