s here,
everybody agrees the pistol was there. The dispute is how it got there.
Consider this: Why would they come out and begin to look for a pistol?
Who told them to? Who told them to look by the porch? How did they know
before they got there where to look first? You've seen this pistol
here--it's Joe Rainey's pistol--and here is something my astute friend
overlooked; one of the cartridges is out--the rest are there--one is
clear out, not shot, exploded, with the shell left, but clear out. How
did that happen? Do you believe Mitchie Miller did that? Are you going
to ascribe to him such devilish cunning as that? No, gentlemen, the hand
that placed that pistol by the porch slipped the cartridge out first.
The hand that placed that pistol there depended upon the story of three
shots being fired, and in the insanity of the moment, slipped out a
cartridge; and for a very good reason. It couldn't be fired at such a
time. There were only two shots, according to the fair weight of the
evidence; there were two bullets found in Joe Rainey's body; and those
two bullets were fired by the hand of Temple Scott."

As my pa said this, his voice rose up so you could hear him all over
town. John Armstrong said you could have heard him clear to Oakford. The
audience just shivered when pa said this.

"Let me go on," said pa. "Let us assume Joe Rainey comes in and runs
up-stairs for his pistol and goes out. Well, they pick him up on the
porch and no pistol is on him. Then they come out and look, but find no
pistol. What would they have done? There would have been talk so loud
about that missing pistol that even Major Abbott could have heard
it--clear over to Jerseyville. Why was nothing said? Because the hand
that put that pistol there, the woman that put it there was terrified.
She was afraid that some one had seen her put it there; she knew some
one picked it up that she didn't want to have pick it up--she was afraid
it would turn up against her in the wrong hands. And she and this
crowd--whoever they were--if there was one, were afraid to go on with
the evidence they had started to manufacture. And this testimony of
Mitchie Miller is every word true. You saw his face, you heard him, you
know he wouldn't lie--and as for having visions--if he dreamed this, he
would be fit for an asylum, and every one of you could see it--and he
would be in an asylum."

Than pa just lit into Temple Scott. He said he was a coward, and he said
when Joe R