juror
had to go down. It took a good while to get our jury all together. Our
lawyer seemed very particular about the sort of jury he was satisfied
with; and when they did manage to get twelve at last they were not the
best-looking men in the court by a very long way.

The trial had to go on, and then the Crown Prosecutor made a speech, in
which he talked about the dishonesty which was creeping unchecked over
the land, and the atrocious villainy of criminals who took a thousand
head of cattle in one lot, and made out the country was sure to go to
destruction if we were not convicted. He said that unfortunately they
were not in a position to bring many of the cattle back that had been
taken to another colony; but one remarkable animal was as good for
purposes of evidence as a hundred. Such an animal he would produce,
and he would not trespass on the patience of jurors and gentlemen in
attendance any longer, but call his first witness.

John Dawson, sworn: Was head stockman and cattle manager at Momberah;
knew the back country, and in a general way the cattle running there;
was not out much in the winter; the ground was boggy, and the cattle
were hardly ever mustered till spring; when he did go, with some other
stock-riders, he saw at once that a large number of the Momberah cattle,
branded HOD and other brands, were missing; went to Adelaide a few
months after; saw a large number of cattle of the HOD brand, which he
was told had been sold by the prisoner now before the court, and known
as Starlight, and others, to certain farmers; he could swear that the
cattle he saw bore Mr. Hood's brand; could not swear that he recognised
them as having been at Momberah in his charge; believed so, but could
not swear it; he had seen a short-horn bull outside of the court this
morning; he last saw the said bull at the station of Messrs. Fordham
Brothers, near Adelaide; they made a communication to him concerning the
bull; he would and could swear to the identity of the animal with the
Fifteenth Duke of Cambridge, an imported short-horn bull, the property
of Mr. Hood; had seen him before that at Momberah; knew that Mr. Hood
had bought said bull in Sydney, and was at Momberah when he was sent up;
could not possibly be mistaken; when he saw the bull at Momberah, nine
months since, he had a small brand like H on the shoulder; Mr. Hood put
it on in witness's presence; it was a horse-brand, now it resembled J-E;
the brand had been 'faked' o