, as known
deserters from the United States navy, were considered unworthy of the
judgment seat. Forged or suspected naturalization papers threw out
another five. This reduced the residuum to sixteen, whose names were
written on slips of paper, thrown into a pith helmet, and tumbled
together. The first four withdrawn constituted the assessor judges, who
were at once warned by messenger to be in attendance at the consulate at
ten the next morning, or be punished for contempt.

What a stir was made in the little town as the news went round!
Satterlee, the cherished, the entertained, the eagerly sought
after--Satterlee, had been discovered to be a pirate! The _Southern_
_Belle_ was no _Southern Belle_ at all, but the _James H. Peabody_! He
had shipped as supercargo, putting in a thousand dollars of his own to
lull Mr. Crawford's suspicions, and then had marooned the captain and
mate on Ebon Island, and levanted with the ship! Heavens! what cackle,
what excitement, what a furious flow of beer in every saloon along the
beach! It was rumored that the great bargain-day sales might be
canceled; that the goods might have to be returned; that not a penny of
compensation would be paid to the unlucky purchasers. Then what a
rubbing off of marks took place, what a breaking up of tell-tale cases,
what a soaking off of tags! The whole eighty tons disappeared like
magic, and you could not find a soul who would even confess to a packet
of pins!

The trial took place in the large office room of the consulate. The big
front doors stood open to the sea, where a mile away the breakers tossed
and tumbled on the barrier reef. The back door was kept shut, to keep
out the meaner noises of domesticity, but at intervals in the course of
the trial you could hear the deliberate grinding of the consular coffee;
the chasing of consular chickens; the counting of the consular wash;
shrill arguments over the price of fish--a grotesque juxtaposition that
seemed to make a mock of the whole proceedings.

The consul, in well-starched white clothes and pipe-clayed shoes, sat
on a dais beneath the crossed flags of his country, giving the effect of
an elegant and patriotic waxwork. Below him were the four assessors,
sunburned, commonish, seafaring men, with enormous hands that they did
not know what to do with, who moved uneasily in their chairs, and looked
about for places to spit--and then didn't dare to! One, whose brawny
arms far exceeded the shrunken s