'That's contempt of Court,' said Bill, 'but we pass it by secure in the dignity of our high office. Is there any one who can testify on behalf of poor doomed Bertie before the verdict is announced?'
Not a soul volunteered.
'What! no witnesses ez to character?' asked Bill. 'Would the seafaring gentleman in the background, who threw some reflections on me just now by inquiring if the prisoner warn't to hev no defence, like to speak on behalf of Bertie?'
Bob Wadd shuffled uneasily. But Green egged him on.
'His old dad ain't a bad sort,' said Wadd at last, with all that trepidation which paralyses an Englishman in his first speech. 'His old dad——'
'So far the Court is with you,' said Arizona. 'But the evidence is what lawyers justly calls irreverent. His old dad has our sympathy, but the griefs of the prisoner's parent cayn't interfere with the course of justice. Have you anythin' else to allege on his behalf?'
'Well, the grub's good in this packet,' said Wadd desperately. 'And old Mr. Fortescue——'
'Oh, give us a rest,' said the judge. 'You tire me, my son, by your continued irreverence. The fact is you cayn't rake up the least thing in favour of this benighted burro, and you slide off on the matter of the chewing, just as if the old man's notions of hash could help the criminal I see before me. Gentlemen of the Jury, what is your verdict?'
'Guilty,' said Buckeye Joe, 'and we all say it, and you might as well have heard us first as last.'
'Do you all say "Guilty"?' demanded Bill, ignoring the foreman.