Mona rises next day before the cows have begun to call, and as soon as her work in the dairy is done she hurries off to Peel. The court-house is as crowded as before with guards and townspeople. With difficulty she crushes her way into the last place by the door.
The proceedings have begun and the prisoners are standing in the dock with their backs to her—five unkempt heads of common-looking sailors and Oskar’s erect figure, with his fair hair, at the end of them. The Governor is on the bench, and he has the High Bailiff and the Commandant on either side of him. The captain of the guard, with a bandage across his forehead, is in the witness-box. He is answering the questions of the advocate for the Crown.
“And now, Captain, tell us your own story.”
Humbly saluting the court, with many “sirs” and “worships” and “excellencies,” the captain tells his tale. It was yesterday about this time. He had hardly entered the Second Compound in the ordinary discharge of his duty when he was set upon, without the slightest warning or provocation, by a gang of the prisoners. There must have been two hundred of them, but the six men in the dock had been the ring-leaders. Five of the six belonged to the Second Compound, but the sixth came from the Third, and he was the worst of the lot. Being a camp captain he was allowed to move about anywhere, and he had often abused his liberty to undermine the captain’s authority.
“How do you know that?” asks the High Bailiff.
“My guard have told me what he has said, your Worship, but I heard him myself in this case.”
“What did you hear?”
“I was behind the baron’s bungalow in the First Compound, your Worship, when I heard him telling the men of the second to lynch and murder me.”
The Governor leans forward and says: