a smashed nose, a-standin' thar, I sart'inly never did see
them afore that identickle moment. Why, I didn't even know their names
'til you spoke 'em out."

Again some of the crowd laughed in a grim sort of a way; and again Ugger
and Quinley scowled and glared wrathfully at the frank-spoken witness.

"I am done," the alcalde said quietly, turning to the jury. "Do you,
gentlemen of the jury, wish to ask the witness any questions?"

"No," replied the foreman, after a glance into the faces of his fellow
jurymen. "Your questions have brought out the only points we wished to
inquire about."

"Do the prisoners wish to ask the witness any questions?" and the
alcalde turned to Thure and Bud.

For a moment neither boy spoke, neither boy moved. The testimony of this
witness, so different from what they had expected, had dumfounded them.
They felt that he had knocked the last prop out from under their safety;
and all the horrors of their situation had dropped down on their spirits
with crushing, numbing force. Their minds, their nerves, their very
muscles were paralyzed, for the moment, by the sudden and awful
realization that now they must hang, must hang for a crime committed by
others!

But a boy at eighteen can never be long absolutely without hope. Surely,
surely the jury, the alcalde must see that this witness had lied, that
all the witnesses against them had lied! They could not, they could not
bring in a verdict of guilty! They could not sentence them, Thure
Conroyal and Bud Randolph, to be hanged! Hanged! The thought stung them
into life; and Thure turned wildly to the alcalde.

"It's a lie! a lie!" he cried. "It is all a lie! They know it is a lie!
You surely must believe us! We did not kill the miner! We tried to save
him! In spite of all their lies, you must believe us! We are only two
boys, two boys without a friend to help us! We can not fight against
their cunning! It is our word against their word! Look at us! Look into
our faces! Do we look like boys who would kill a man? Look into the
faces of our accusers! Think, we have fathers, mothers, brothers,
sisters! Oh, you can not hang us, you can not hang us! You must believe
us!"

"My boy," there was a solemn sternness in the voice of the alcalde as he
spoke, "if you are guiltless of the crime charged against you, then, may
God have mercy on us and on you! But I, the jury, the men gathered here
can only judge of your guilt or innocence by the evidence present