Barney's heart was in a great tumult. It seemed bursting. There was a hot rush of blood to his head. He was dizzy—and he could not understand!
State's evidence,—what was that? and what would that do to him?
CHAPTER V
Barney observed that these words produced a marked sensation. The crowd began to press more closely around the deputy-sheriff's foaming horse.
"Who hev done turned State's evidence?" asked Jim Dow.
"Little Jeff Carew,—you've seen that puny little man a-many a time—haven't you, Jim? He'd go into your pocket."
"He would, I know, powerful quick, ef he thunk I hed ennything in it," said Jim, with a gruff laugh.
"I didn't mean that, though it's true enough. I only went ter say that he's small enough to go into any ordinary-sized fellow's pocket. Some of the rest of them wanted to turn State's evidence, but they weren't allowed. They were harder customers even than Jeff Carew,—regular old jail-birds."
Barney began to vaguely understand that when a prisoner confesses the crime he has committed, and gives testimony which will convict his partners in it, this is called turning "State's evidence."