Badger looked into his hat as if he saw something there that might refresh his memory, and then, after coughing and casting his malignant eye up at the ceiling, he began:
"Wa'al, this is 'bout all I knows 'bout this case. You see, me and Tom Edwards had been ole pards, and so I knowed him as well as any man this side the Rockies. He wasn't a bad kind of a feller to them as knowed how to take him, and though he didn't have much book larnin'——"
Here Mr. Willett interrupted Badger to say:
"This evidence, your honor, is not to the point. We are not here to discuss the character of the dead man, but to find out if we can who murdered him."
"Reckon yer right," said the judge, and then he told Badger he must "stick to bottom facts."
Thus admonished Badger resumed:
"Me and Mr. Shirley got to Hurley's Gulch the night before Tom was did for so cruel bad, and we found he was on a spree, and complainin' to every one that Mr. Willett he was a-tryin' to euchre him out of fifteen hundred dollars, as he'd 'greed to pay for the claim over at Gold Cave Camp. Wa'al, the next mornin' 'bout an hour or so afore day me and Mr. Shirley was sleepin' together when we heard two pistol shots and a man a-hollerin' "murder." We hurried out and found poor Tom all shot to pieces. We carried him into this yar hotel, and with his dyin' last breath he told us that it was Mr. Willett and Hank Tims as did for him. Thar, that's all I knows 'bout the case."
My young readers will notice that there was no oath administered to Badger, nor would such a sacred proceeding have affected in any way the nature of his evidence.
"Now you've heard Badger's evidence," said the judge, with an angry glance at Mr. Willett and Hank. "Have you any questions to ax him?"
"I have a few," said Mr. Willett.