One of the little Rumps has been left on the other side of the canal!
"Gentlemen of the jury, my feelings so overcome me that I can proceed no further, and must therefore submit the rights of my heathen client solely to your Christian mercy."
The effect produced by Tony Belton's speech was extraordinary. Shouts of laughter burst from the spectators and the jury. Indeed, some of the latter were so overcome with merriment that they rolled from their benches upon the grass; the tears streaming from their eyes, and their whole frames apparently convulsed with laughter.
"Where is Mr. Pate?" cried Simon Rump, when the tumult had, in some degree, subsided. "Mr. Pate! Mr. Pate! Where is Mr. Pate?"
"Yonder he goes!" said a boy. "Great golly! ain't he riding!"
"Go fetch him back! Go fetch him back!" cried Rump.
"It would take Flying Childers to catch that old white horse!" said one of Rump's neighbors. "Your lawyer has gone, and you will now have to make a speech yourself."
"My lawyer has run away! I am ruined! I am ruined!" exclaimed Rump.
"Mount my horse, and ride after your attorney," said the sheriff, his sides shaking with laughter. "Make haste, Mr. Rump! The jury are waiting to hear his argument in reply to Mr. Belton."
Simon Rump shook his head in despair. Rendered frantic by the ridicule of his merciless adversary, his attorney had rushed wildly from the scene of his discomfiture, mounted his horse, and galloped away, and poor Rump was left inops consilii.