"It's a hell of a world and be damned to it!" he muttered hoarsely under his breath.
"You must make it clearer to me than this!" said the judge impatiently.
Montgomery seemed to undergo a brief but intense mental struggle, then he blurted out:
"Boss, I lied when I said it was North I seen come over old man McBride's shed that night!"
"Do you mean to tell me that you perjured yourself in the North case?" asked the judge sternly.
"Sure, I lied!" said the handy-man. "But Andy Gilmore was back of that lie; it was him told me what I was to say, and it's him that kept houndin' me, puttin' me up to say more than I ever agreed to!" He slouched nearer the judge. "Boss, I chuck up the whole business; do you understand? I want to take back all I said; I'm willin' to tell the God A'mighty's truth!"
He paused abruptly. In his excitement he had forgotten what the truth meant, what it would mean to the man before him. He was vaguely aware that in abler hands than his own, this knowledge which he possessed would have been molded into a terrible weapon, but he was impotent to use it; with every advantage his, he felt only the desperate pass in which he had placed himself. If Gilmore and Marshall Langham could juggle with John North's life, what of his own life when the judge should have become their ally!
"Me and you'll have to fix up what I got to say, boss!" he added with a cunning grin.
"Do you mean you wish to make a statement to me?" asked the judge.
The handy-man nodded. The judge hesitated.