“Shore.”

“What did he do?”

“Well, he acted plumb loco.  He gets down an’ hollers. ’Madre de Dios!’ he hollers.  I ’low he wuz plenty scared.”

“Did he look scared?”

“I object,” cried Franklin.

“S’tained,” said the judge.

“’Ception,” said the prosecuting attorney.

“Well, what did the prisoner say or do?”

“Why, he crawls aroun’ an’ hollers.  So we roped him, then.  But say—­”

“Never mind.”

“Well, I was—­”

“Never mind.  Did you—­”

“Shore!  I foun’ the end o’ the lariat tied to a tree.”

“But did you—­”

“Yes, I tole you!  I foun’ it tied.  End just fits the broke end o’ the lariat onto the saddle, when the hoss come back.  Them hide ropes ain’t no good.”

“Never mind—­”

“If ever they onct got rotten—­”

“Never mind.  Was that Greathouse’s rope?”

“Maybe so.  Now, them hide ropes—­”

“Never mind about the hide ropes.  I want to know what the prisoner did.”

“Well, when we roped him he didn’t make no kick.”

“Never mind.  He saw the figure in the ashes?”

“What do you know about it?—­you wasn’t there.”

“No, but I’m going to make you tell what was there.”

“You are, huh?  Well, you crack yer whip.  I like to see any feller make me tell anything I don’t want to tell.”

“That’s right, Curly,” said some one back in the crowd.  “No bluff goes.”

“Not in a hundred!” said Curly.

“Now, now, now!” began the judge drowsily.  The prosecuting attorney counselled of craftiness, at this juncture, foreseeing trouble if he insisted.  “Take the witness,” he said abruptly.

“Cross-’xamine, d’fence,” said the judge, settling back.

“Now, Curly,” said Franklin, as he took up the questioning again, “please tell us what Juan did after he saw this supposed figure in the ashes.”

“Why, now, Cap, you know that just as well as I do.”

“Yes, but I want you to tell these other folks about it.”

“Well, of course, Juan acted plenty loco—­you know that.”

“Very well.  Now what, if anything, did you do to this alleged body in the ashes?”

“’Bject!  Not cross-examination,” cried the State’s attorney.

“M’ answer,” said the judge.

“What did I do to it?” said Curly.  “Why, I poked it with a stick.”

“What happened?”

“Why, it fell plumb to pieces.”

“Did it disappear?”

“Shore it did.  Wasn’t a thing left.”

“Did it look like a man’s body, then?”

“No, it just looked like a pile o’ ashes.”

“Bore no trace or resemblance to a man, then?”

“None whatever.”

“You wouldn’t have taken it for a body, then?”

“Nope.  Course not.”