"This is no place for senseless stories told by boys," said "his honor." "If you have any reasonable excuse to offer for your folly, Dix Lewis, you will have plenty of opportunity to give it in the higher court. You have admitted enough to condemn you to prison for the rest of your days, and I can do no different than to place you under indictment on at least three charges, which I now do."
"Sheriff Brady, you will please take the prisoner to a safe place, until you are called upon to deliver him up by a higher authority."
By this time great confusion was reigning in the room.
Mrs. Lewis was weeping and wringing her hands in wild abandon of grief, while Little Snap was trying to speak an encouraging word.
"They shan't take my boy off to jail! He has done nothing wrong!"
In vain Justice Claverton called for order, until the voice of Mr. Rimmon silenced the babel of sounds.
"Your honor, you cannot ignore the rights of the prisoner thus. He has certain privileges you cannot and shall not deny him. He is at least entitled to bail, as no capital charge has been made against him."
"Yes, I might do it as a matter of form, but it would make no difference in the result, for who is there would go on his bonds?"
"Fix the sum."
"Five thousand dollars."