t and most persistent onslaughts
known to Plains history. Moreover, he was one of those who had
volunteered to break through at night, braving certain death, and almost
certain death by torture, in order to make his way to Fort Wallace, and
bring relief to the besieged handful of scouts. Was this the man to
commit such a foul and sordid murder for the sake of a few dollars? Was
this man, who had fought so bravely to defend their frontier, to be
sacrificed to such a preposterous suspicion, to be allowed to suffer for
the crime almost certainly committed by representatives of that savage
enemy, to withstand whom he had so often and so freely risked his life?
With the battle of the Arickaree Fork fresh in their memories, not one
who heard him could be of any two minds as to the sort of verdict he
would be given.

This clever drawing of a red herring across the trail of the main issue
answered. Lawyer Schofield's eloquence had its reward. He obtained his
verdict, and his client was acquitted.

But it was not a spontaneous verdict, not a triumphant acquittal. Long
and earnestly did the jury debate, and when at last the accused walked
forth a free man, he was received with a silence that was ominous. The
lawyer, of course, was quite right to do his best for his client, and
his strong appeal to sentiment was specious, if successful. But nobody
believed overmuch in the theory he had sprung. If the Sioux had killed
John Denton, they would have run off all his possessions, probably have
fired the slab hut, instead of relieving him of his cash alone. Nor
would they have left him his scalp. No. To the frontier community that
Indian theory would not wash. Justice had been defeated, and Roden
Musgrave had few, if any, friends. But when there sallied forth
stealthily that night a band of dissatisfied and justice loving
citizens, well-armed, and bearing in its midst an ominous coil of rope,
the man who had been acquitted that day was not to be found. Nor, in
fact, were they destined ever to set eyes upon him again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This, set forth in a voluminous report extending over many columns, was
the substance of what Lambert read, and, as he grasped all the details,
he realised that, although powerless to effect material ruin, there was
still that about the equivocal nature of the acquittal which would be
sufficient to damage his rival irreparably from a