To this Sheriff Steele replied, "Court will convene at one o'clock, which will be only a few minutes now, and I've been ordered by the Judge to bring Wess into court at that time. If you will go up and sit in the courtroom, Uncle John, you will have a good chance to see him when I take him in."
Uncle John was a man more than seventy years of age, was a good citizen and had lived in the backwoods in Jefferson county all his life. He knew everybody in the county. His home was on a small farm about eighteen miles from Brookville. He was a strong, hale man for his age, and had a full, heavy, white beard. He was an inveterate tobacco chewer and a typical backwoods farmer.
At the close of his conversation with the sheriff, Uncle John walked to the door leading into the hall, but, just before reaching the door, he suddenly turned and said, "Bill, I see in the paper that Wess Watts was captured down in Egypt by one man, and that man brought him back here all alone. The paper said that man would be at the trial here today. I'd like very much to see him, too."
The sheriff (pointing to me) said, "Uncle John, here's the man who captured Wess Watts and brought him back here."
Whereupon, Uncle John quietly walked across the room to where I was sitting, keeping his eye upon me all the time, till within a few feet of me, when he said, "Young man, I wish you would stand up, I want to look at you."
I stood up, and the old man walked about half way around me, eyeing me from head to foot. He then turned without saying a word and started for the door. Before leaving, he said, stroking his long beard with his left hand and pointing his right at me, "Bill, by jove, it didn't take much of a man, either."
"Bill, by jove, it didn't take much of a man either!"
Then he left the room.