Again Judge Wiggin’s knuckles smote the desk. “Apparently,� he said, “my observation regarding the expense of unnecessary talk in this court failed to sink in, or even to make a dent. No excuse of private necessity condones infractions of the law. Your careless remark, as well as the suspicious nature of the names you have given, leads me to believe that you are pirooting around the country under false colors, and makes it rather probable that you are old offenders trying in that way to dodge the extreme penalty the court might see fit to administer if your real identities was known. I shall bear this in mind in passing sentence.�
The grinning spectators tittered guardedly. The older man reached out and placed a hand on his companion’s knee.
“You can see that you are simply making matters worse,� he whispered. “Anything you may say will be used against us. Plead guilty at once.�
Squirming and rebellions, Hitchens complied. However, instead of passing sentence without delay, the judge squared away on his chair, locked the fingers of his hands before him, and proceeded to read the culprits a lengthy lecture anent the rights of the common people upon the highways and the outrageous and criminal manner in which these rights were disregarded by automobilists in general.
During this scathing harangue he scarcely looked at either of the impatient and suffering victims, but kept his gaze fixed, for the most part, on the rafters above their heads. He was the possessor of a fluent flow of language, and a somewhat homely native wit that was keen and stinging; and certain it was that his vituperation was in no degree delicately barbed. Even the self-restraint of the elder man was tested to the limit.
And presently, when the fine of twenty-five dollars and costs—twenty-eight dollars and thirty cents, all told—had been inflicted and paid over, the owner of the motor car released the safety valve.
“Judge Wiggin,� he said, “I’m compelled to tell you that it has never been my misfortune to witness a greater farce or a more ridiculous travesty of justice. You made it absolutely evident that, from the very beginning, your mind was made up and that you would impose a fine, regardless of extenuating circumstances. You practically warned us that any attempt at defense would merely increase the sum of money you were determined to get out of us. Such narrow-minded bigotry stamps you as a man unfit to represent this district in the legislature.�
Nathan Wiggin bent a grim and steady eye upon him. “And them few remarks,� he returned placidly, “constitute a clear case of contempt, for which I shall have to tuck on another twenty-five dollars, to preserve the dignity of the court. However, considering the fact that the last time I heard you speak from the stump you shot off a whole lot of balderdash, for all of which the so-called intelligent voters of this State saw fit to elect you governor, I’ll remit the fine. And discretion being the better part of valor, let me suggest that you bottle up further seething criticism until we both get outside, where, as man to man, we can tell each other jest what we think, without mincin’ words.�
CHAPTER VI
A DEMONSTRATION POSTPONED.
A bombshell, exploding in that room, could hardly have created a greater sensation. The governor! The governor of the State, arrested for speeding in the little town of Greenbush, had been fined by Judge Wiggin, who, as a would-be candidate for the legislature, required the support and votes in his district of the governor’s own party!