erred
action, the beginning of our real fight was at hand.

Sampson pounded hard on the table to be heard. Mayor or not, he was
unable at once to quell the excitement.

Gradually, however, it subsided and from the last few utterances before
quiet was restored I gathered that Steele had intruded upon some kind of
a meeting in the hall.

"Steele, what'd you break in here for?" demanded Sampson.

"Isn't this court? Aren't you the mayor of Linrock?" interrogated
Steele. His voice was so clear and loud, almost piercing, that I saw at
once that he wanted all those outside to hear.

"Yes," replied Sampson. Like flint he seemed, yet I felt his intense
interest.

I had no doubt then that Steele intended to make him stand out before
this crowd as the real mayor of Linrock or as a man whose office was a
sham.

"I've arrested a criminal," said Steele. "Bud Snell. I charge him with
assault on Jim Hoden and attempted robbery--if not murder. Snell had a
shady past here, as the court will know if it keeps a record."

Then I saw Snell hunching down on a bench, a nerveless and shaken man
if there ever was one. He had been a hanger-on round the gambling dens,
the kind of sneak I never turned my back to.

Jim Hoden, the restaurant keeper, was present also, and on second glance
I saw that he was pale. There was blood on his face. I knew Jim, liked
him, had tried to make a friend of him.

I was not dead to the stinging interrogation in the concluding sentence
of Steele's speech. Then I felt sure I had correctly judged Steele's
motive. I began to warm to the situation.

"What's this I hear about you, Bud? Get up and speak for yourself," said
Sampson, gruffly.

Snell got up, not without a furtive glance at Steele, and he had
shuffled forward a few steps toward the mayor. He had an evil front,
but not the boldness even of a rustler.

"It ain't so, Sampson," he began loudly. "I went in Hoden's place fer
grub. Some feller I never seen before come in from the hall an' hit him
an' wrastled him on the floor. Then this big Ranger grabbed me an'
fetched me here. I didn't do nothin'. This Ranger's hankerin' to arrest
somebody. Thet's my hunch, Sampson."

"What have you to say about this, Hoden?" sharply queried Sampson. "I
call to your mind the fact that you once testified falsely in court, and
got punished for it."

Why did my sharpened and experienced wits interpret a hint of threat or
menace in Sampson's reminder? Hoden rose from