“Don’t you know that Callipers has been convicted of horse-stealing?”
“I don’t know’s I do.”
“And didn’t you know that this horse had been stolen?”
“If I had ’a’ knowed it, do you s’pose I’d ’a’ took ’im? Who says it was a stolen hoss, anyhow?” added Captain Bill, looking the crowd over savagely.
“I say so,” said a man who had just entered the room. “I saw Callipers arrested last night for stealing the horse he traded to Bill Rosencamp. The constable has the irons on him now, and the sheriff has gone across to Port Jervis to head off the horse.”
“Well, Rosencamp,” said the superintendent, “what have you to say to that?”
“If the hoss was stole,” said Rosencamp, “how was I to know it? Nobody told me it was stolen.”
“Yes, somebody did tell you!” exclaimed Joe. “I told you the horse was stolen, and the man you got him of stood right there an’ didn’t deny it, either! I said it was my father’s horse, an’ it is!”
The superintendent turned to Joe. “Who is your father?” he asked.