“I won’t guarantee him not to buck,” said Harry. “He’s been ridden a little, and he’s bridle-wise, but if I remember rightly, he’s plumb sudden about swoppin’ ends on yuh.”
“As long as he sabes a bit, I’ll take a chance; and thanks.”
“I’ll accept the thanks now, and not wait until he piles yuh off in the brush.”
Cultus enjoyed his supper, and told them some of his experiences down along the border. He and Jane talked over their experiences in Padre Canyon, wondering if they could find the beginning of the Lost Trail, and speculating on who it was that dynamited the cliffs behind them. Blaze Nolan’s name was not mentioned during supper.
It was after they had gone to the living-room that Harry told them of the bet he had made with Cultus. Jane watched Cultus anxiously when he insisted that he had all the best of the bet. He seemed so serious over it that Jim Kelton studied him over the smoke from his old pipe.
“I can’t believe that,” said Jim Kelton. “No, it’s not because of any prejudice that I say you’ll never clear Blaze Nolan. The evidence was too strong against him. And more has piled up since he came back.”
Cultus smiled back at the old man, as the cigarette smoke lazily curled from his nostrils.
“Evidence is a queer thing, Kelton,” he said slowly. “I never did believe in circumstantial evidence. I don’t believe the courts should accept it. Lotsa things I don’t believe in. I don’t believe the law has a right to kill a man. They have no right to take away a life. ‘Thou shaft not kill’ applies as much to the law as it does to an individual. The Bible probably means that there will be a punishment for a murderer in the hereafter.
“When twelve men sift the evidence, evidence as it is presented to them by schemin’ lawyers who are able to fill their minds with just what they want to fill ’em with, what chance has an innocent man? It all depends on the lawyer. He can twist the biggest lie into gospel truth, and never lay a hair. That’s what he’s for. A prosecutor don’t care whether yo’re innocent or guilty. Yo’re his trophy. If he can send yuh to prison or to the gallows, he counts coup on yore scalp and ties it to his belt. Personally he may be the finest man on earth, but the minute he starts pilin’ evidence against yuh, he’s worse than any damned Apache that ever roamed this country. He out for yore blood.
“The evidence built up by yore prosecutor sent Blaze Nolan to prison. He took the word of a drunken kid and made gospel truth out of it. The court appointed a lawyer for Blaze, and that lawyer was a close friend of the prosecutin’ attorney. Blaze never had a chance. A good criminal lawyer would have torn Alden Marsh’s testimony to shreds.