“No, sir, I never did pack a gun.”
“But you said you’d kill old Isom up there in the loft that morning, and you said it in a way that made him think you meant it. That’s what you wanted him to understand, wasn’t it?” 284
“I talked rough, but I didn’t mean it–not as bad as that anyhow.”
“No, that was just a little neighborly joke, I suppose,” said the prosecutor sneeringly. He was playing for a laugh and he got it.
Captain Taylor almost skinned his knuckles rapping them down that time, although the mirth was neither general nor boisterous. Joe did not add to Lucas’s comment, and he went on:
“Well, what were you doing when Isom Chase opened the door and came into the kitchen that night when he came home from serving on the jury?”
“I was standing by the table,” said Joe.
“With your hat in your hand, or on your head, or where?”
“My hat was on the table. I usually left it there at night, so it would be handy when I came down in the morning. I threw it there when I went in, before I lit the lamp.”
“And you say that Isom opened the door, came in and said, ‘I’ll kill you!’ Now, what did he say before that?”