He had none. He spoke about dates, and new coins, he backed and filled, swelled importantly, and ended like a pricked bladder by recanting his identification.
“That is all I have to say for the present,” said Jenks.
“Don’t complicate the issue by attempting to prove too much, Mr. Rocklin,” said the judge.
Rocklin flushed, and called the next witness, whispering sulkily to me, “What can you expect if the court starts out against you?” But the court was by no means against him. The judge was merely disgusted over Rocklin’s cardinal folly of identifying coin under such loose conditions.
And now came the testimony of Sergeant Brown. He told so clear a story as to chill the enthusiasm of the room. He pointed to the man with the mustache, black curly, and yellow. “I saw them shooting from the right of the road,” he said. Jenks tried but little to shake him, and left him unshaken. He was followed by the other wounded soldier, whose story was nearly the same, except that he identified different prisoners.
“Who did you say shot you?” inquired Jenks. “Which of these two?”
“I didn’t say. I don’t know.”
“Don’t know a man when he shoots you in broad daylight?”
“Plenty was shooting at me,” said the soldier. And his testimony also remained unshaken.