"My sentence is that the prisoner be tied up forthwith to your buckeye and receive five lashes well laid on."
It was done and the crowd dispersed. The trial had occupied scarcely five minutes and every one was satisfied except the culprit.
[CHAPTER VI.]
"There's even-handed justice for ye, stranger?"
A stalwart backwoodsman in hunting garb of dressed skins was the speaker, and the words were addressed to Kenneth, near to whom he had stood during the brief trial of Bill Slack.
Dale had walked away in company with a brother lawyer, and Kenneth was turning from the unpleasant scene with a thought of pity for the weakness and wickedness of the unhappy criminal.
"Yes," he answered, "Squire Smith is a man of discriminating mind and judgment, very impartial in his decisions, and prompt in seeing them carried out. But what a happy world this might be if all were honest and upright!"
"That's true; but we've got to take it as it is.
"Got quite a town here," pursued the hunter, moving along by Kenneth's side as he walked up the street. "Last time I was round here in these parts, there wasn't so much as an Injun wigwam to be seen; nothin' but the thickest kind o' thick woods."