Suddenly a voice behind Polly interrupted the proceedings: “I object to that question until you have proved that the man took them!”
Every head turned to the owner of the new voice. The girls and Jack and Ray started in surprise to find Mr. Dalken had entered unseen and was watching this unusual trial.
“Order in this Court!” thundered the judge. Then to the sheriff, he said: “Eject that man who interrupts the proceeding of the Law.”
But Mr. Dalken now stepped down to the front and said: “I am the legal representative for this Al Colman. I object to the irregular questions asked of my client.”
Al Colman’s jaw dropped and his whole body slumped in the rickety chair. The judge was so startled that he brought the swivel chair to an upright position with such suddenness that the clutch broke and dropped out, but he never knew it. He stared at the new lawyer and scowled his unwelcome.
“Who are you and why didn’t you step up aforetime?”
“I just managed to reach the Court, your Honor, and now I offer my services to this undefended man on trial for stealing sweets.” Mr. Dalken’s manner was sugary and Jack hugged himself. He anticipated great fun with the renowned New York lawyer taking a part. Even the lieutenant smiled with delight at the turn in events. Only Al seemed overwhelmed and depressed by the aspect his case was taking.
The old woman who sold sweets on the street lifted bleary eyes to her lawyer and grumbled: “I’s is losin’ all de mawnin’ trade wid dis foolin’ bout dat stick of sugar cane! Lem’me go!”
“Order in the Court!” thundered the judge, banging the table. He could let out his spleen on the table and it could not object.
The case first advanced a step, then receded a step, until Mr. Dalken brought his legal experience to bear on his colleague’s legal understanding. Thus matters drifted and were halted over and over, when a suspicious sound from the magistrate in the broken swivel chair announced that he was snoring, while the two lawyers wrangled in front of his platform. Al Colman sat in stupefied wonderment at all he heard but he was not sure whether they were going to send him to the chair, or to jail for life. Every one in the room was tittering at the discomfiture of the lawyer for the old street peddler, when a new phase occurred.