Turning to Tom the lawyer asked:
“Are you prepared to go security for Mr. Newton in this amount?”
“Yes, or twice the amount, if necessary,” Tom answered. “But I have only five thousand in cash here with me——”
There was a gasp of surprise from some spectators in court, and the judge and the prosecutor smiled at one another.
“But my father and I will sign a bail bond in any amount,” Tom went on eagerly.
“I fancy that will satisfy the court. And you too, Mr. Prosecutor, will it not?” asked the lawyer, nodding to the county prosecutor, to whose lot it would fall to try the case against Mr. Newton, if it went to trial.
“If the Swift firm signs a bond I’ll be satisfied,” said Mr. Nixon, the prosecutor.
“What about us?” burst out Mr. Fawn. “Don’t we have something to say in this matter? I don’t want that man to go free. He stole a lot of our Liberty Bonds.”
“Order! Order!” called the court constables, and the judge banged with his gavel.
“You have nothing to say in this matter,” said the judge to Mr. Fawn. “The amount of bail has been fixed sufficiently high, and if a bond is furnished this defendant will go free until his trial, no matter what you think about it.”