“Yes, to-day.”
“But, Dannie, how—how—?”
“I had to, Gran’pap. I had to tell you. I had to make it right as near as I could, as quick as I could.”
Again the old man, leaning far out over the rail, drew the boy up to his breast.
For the moment Marshall was at a loss how to act. He did not quite know what was coming next. Then his long experience and his native shrewdness came to his rescue, and he rose to the situation.
“That will do, Mr. Pickett,” he said. “Dannie, you may take the witness stand.”
The next minute Dannie was in the place vacated by his grandfather, and the old man, refusing to go far away, had dropped into a chair by the defendant’s table, inside the bar.
Marshall began his questions with gentle emphasis.
“Your name is Dannie Pickett?”