lk, me. Ah'll tol' you dat was mean
treek for play on poor mans."

And Pete sought sympathy from the faces about him.

"That was too bad, certainly," said Paige. "Now about those wounds
of yours. I have Doctor Brigham here, ready to make an examination.
I'll call him now," and the state's attorney started toward the door
of the witness-room.

Pete jumped.

"_Hein!_" he exclaimed.

"You don't object to having an excellent doctor like Doctor Brigham
look at your wounds, do you?" asked Paige.

Now Lamoury had no wounds to show. The smiling, well-dressed Paige,
standing there and looking at him with amused comprehension, was
more than he could bear. Pete suddenly lost his temper, never too
secure. Out of his wheeled chair he jumped, and shaking his fist in
Paige's face, he shouted:--

"T'ink you be smart, very smart mans! Well, Ah'll tol' you you
ain't. Ah'll tol' you you be a great beeg peeg! Ah'll tol' you dat
Edwards boy, he shoot at me. I see heem. 'T ain't my fault of it if
he not hit me, _hein_? You be peeg! You be all peegs--every one!"
and Pete, making a wide, inclusive gesture, shouted, "I care not
more as one cent for de whole keet and caboodle of it! Peeg, peeg,
peeg!"

And turning on his heel, the wrathful Frenchman left the room. He
left also a convulsed jury and a wheeled chair, for the hire of
which Hibbard found himself later obliged to pay.

Mr. Peaslee, the thermometer of whose spirits had been rising
steadily, joined in the laughter which followed the exit of the
discomfited Pete.

"Terrible smart feller, Paige, ain't he?" said he to Albion Small.
"Did him up real slick, didn't he?" The delighted Solomon had quite
forgotten his dislike for the citified Paige.

Of course the grand jury promptly abandoned the inquiry. The fact
was now obvious that the vengeful Lamoury, aided by the unscrupulous
Hibbard, had merely hoped to be bought off by Mr. Edwards, and had
been disappointed.

"The case," said Paige, "would never have come to trial. If Edwards
had persisted, and let his boy go to court, they'd have had to stop.
They must have been a good deal disappointed when he refused bail;
they probably thought he'd never let the boy pass a night in Hotel
Calkins."

* * * * *

Mr. Peaslee walked home sobered but relieved. The loss of public
esteem which had come to him through his foolish adventure, the
serious wrong which he had inflicted upon Jim Edwards, the disg