Beadle's Dime Library No. 412 — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘‘ When did you make his acquaintance?” Jim hesitated a moment, and then said: ‘¢T seen him first here, among the men, since the strike began. Mr. Skinner pointed him out tome. That’s the man, there.” “ Are you sure you never saw him before?” CHAPTER XXXVIITI. COMING TO THE POINT. TERROR JIM fidgeted in his chair more than he had done hitherto; for Larry had half-risen from his seat and was staring at the ex-tramp in a manner that made him feel decidedly un- comfortable. He had certain memories of Larry that were not pleasant, and he could not meet his eye without blenching. But he remembered his instructions from Van Slack, hardened his heart, and replied boldly: ‘¢ Never seen the man, till Mr. Skinner pointed | him out to me.” : ‘‘ And when was that?” ‘¢*Bout a week ago.” “That will do, Mr. Somers. You can step | down.” Terror Jim, with a great feeling of relief, stepped down from the chair, and Scriven nodded to Van Slack, saying: “Go on and prove your case, as soon as you please.” But Van Slack only answered: ‘We rest here. stepped down, That is our case.” “Then I move that it be dismissed,” said | Scriven to the judge, who shook his head with the observation: ‘‘T shall hold the prisoner, unless you can show something on the other side. The attempt to excite violence has been sworn to. If you can disprove it, go ahead and do it. But you may be sure that [ shall not strain a point to favor any of these strikers, who have brought our town into such distress and disrepute. Go on, sir.” Mr. Scriven bowed politely. ‘‘T have not asked your Honor to stretch any points in our favor,and [ shall not do so, [| only insist on our rights under the law, which is no respecter of persons. As [ understand your Honor, all we havo to do is to overthrow the testimony of the witness Somers, and Skinner.” The judge nodded, 4 “Certainly. That is as explicit as can be. Upset that, and P'll be glad to hear you on your motion; but till then, 1 shall hold the prisoner Locke on the charge.” And it was easy to see, from his tone and manner, that he meant to hold him, if there was a possibility of so doing, so intensely was he prejudiced against the strikers, in common with the authorities of the town, under the efforts of the Ironmasters’ Union, which represented so much capital. Scriven beckoned to Larry Locke to take the stand, and when the young man had been sworn, and had given his name and occupation, he extracted from him a short history of his movements since he had left Holesburg, three months before. By a few questions, to which Van Slack could not object, he extracted from him the nature of his acquaintance with Terror Jim, and the manner in which he had entered the mills years before after fighting Tom Trainor for his chance. | ‘And now, Mr. Locke,” said his counsel, ‘please tell the court what you know of this man, Somers, since you first made his acquaint- ance? I mean what have you seen of him, since the reduction in wages, to which Mr. Skinner has testified?” : “Well, sir, on the night that I was arrested for hitting Mr. Skinner, Terror Jim was put into the same cell with me in the station-house, and tried to pick a quarrel with me. Final] he hit me, and I had to lay him out in the cell, I guess I must have broken hig aose, for you see it’s all crooked now.” “Exactly. Can you tell us anything else about him, after that night? % mean, have you ever seen him since till to-day?” ‘“‘T saw him in Ohio, a few miles from the city of Cincinnati, when he a1 his pal, Snoopey, were asleep by the side of Tue road, sir. I was footing it to Cincinnati to get work, and found them there.” ** And what transpired then?” ‘‘ Well, I just waked them up, and asked them what they had done with my money. That's all, sir.” The judge interrupted angrily: ‘Tut, tut, tut! what money? What money are you talkin r of?" Larry look up at him. ‘““The money Snoopey stole from my house, sir. While I was in the cell, he went to my house and stole seven hundred dollars that my wife had hidden in a mattress to pay our mort- gage to Mr. Briggs. I taxed them both with it and they owned up and begged hard that 1 wouldn't kill them. I was mad enough to do it; but as all the money was gone I let them go, and never saw that Jim again till to-day.” The judge looked at Van Slack, as if he ex- pected an objection to all this; but the lawyer was whispering to Skinner, and did not say any- We have proved attempts at | malicious mischief by the witness who has just | '% Pees a , . r eee e a“ Larry Locke, the Man of Iron. 27 — Scriven continued his questions, and elicited | not treat with the Knights. from Larry the facts as to Jim’s trampship and thefts, and the relation that Snoopey held to- | pay for the damage done. ward him. to the tender mercies of the other lawyer, who proceeded in this wise: ‘* Ah! and so your name is Locke, is it?” “*That’s what I’ve allers been called, sir.” “ Have you any right to the name?” Larry stared and colored deeply. 2 “st was always called by it since I remember, sir. ‘* Ah, yes. Where were you born?” Larry colored still more deeply. ‘*T don’t know, sir. I was brought up in the children’s asylum in the county of Bucks. That’s | all I know. The asylum people gave me my name, and I’ve never been ashamed of it.” ‘Ob, so you are an asylum boy, are you? Well, we won’t go any further into that ques- tion. You say that, when you met. the witness money ?” ‘*] never said no such thing. I said that Il tried to get him to give me back mine, sir.” ‘‘And what made you think he had your money ?” ‘* Because he owned up that Snoopey took it, | drunk,” Van Slack coughed, ing it? Did you see this Snoopey, you speak of, take the money?” ‘*No, sir. if [ had, he would never have got off alive. The ckunk waited till I got off, before he dared to come round the house.” | “Then what had Somers to do with it? say he was with you in the cell. He could not have robbed you.” ‘*He was Snoopey’s pal, and they divided on | it,” said Larry, firmly. “I know it, because they owned up to it before I let them go.” ‘*Are you sure that they did not own up to anything you wisked, just because they were afraid of you and yourclub? You hada club, I believe; didn’t you?” Larry admitted that such might have been the case, but added: “But I know that they robbed me, because no one else knew the money was hidden there. Snoopey told me that he saw my wife hiding some of it in the mattress, and that was why he hung round there after I was gone,” ‘** Ah, yes, so that is + Sip Mas you think, and ere Mb ce Snoopey told you? this Snoopey now Bs 3g smiled rather scornfully, as he re- plied: ‘You must ask some one else, I. don’t know.” ‘* Will you swear that you don’t know, on your oath?” “1 do, a.” The positive answer provoked Van Slack, who imagined that Larry must know all about Snoopey, and who was unaware of the fact that Scriven had taken charge of the interesting ings who was at that moment in charge of the old lawyer's clerks, ready to be produced. Van Slack, after several efforts to make Lar- ry admit that he knew where Sncopey was, be- gan to cross-examine him in a savage manner on the subject of the strike, eliciting bis opin- ions, which were, as he had suspected, very radical, as to the rights of workingmen. Larry did not pretend to deny that he had organized the strike, and that he had sustained it to the end, being helped by contributions from the Order in other places. In the hope of entrap- ping him into some indiscreet admissions, Van lack affected to share his sentiments, and tried to make him say that he believed in violence, if the men could not get their rights or higher way. But Larry, who was or cool throughout the examination, was not to be caught in any such way, till the lawyer asked him: ‘Now, Mr. Locke, I want you to answer this question. Supposing you were heading a strike, and you had, among the bosses on the other side, a timid man, who would yield to threats of violence, would you not feel justified in em- ploying them?’ ‘No, sir, I should not ; for the reason that a man who gives in fora scare is sure to cheat you when he gets the chance,” “Ah! then it is only for the sake of the fu- a that you refrain from violence? Is that i ‘"No such thing, sir, Besides that, when workingmen take to violence, the bosses are sure to send for the soldiers, and that has a bad effect on the strike, They have done it here, on pute to make the people think we wanted to estroy things, when ther all know that we put guards on Kelly & Barr's place to keep thieves from getting in, and gave up to Mr. Kelly’s men the moment they wanted to take charge of the place.” ‘*Then do you mean to say that there was no injury done to the shop of Kelly & Barr, the other day? I heard the place was gutted.” ‘* Tt was not any such thing, sir. There were a CO 0s ss ee ce a few windows broken at the first, when the bosses, after sending for us, told us they would ” a SS } | Somers in Ohio, you tried to rob him of his | _ it’s their own loss. | men, and that he and his pal had spent it all on a big | | ingmen before they began to organize? ‘* And that is all the reason you had for think- | But we OnPEE that at once, and the Knights have offered to. Kelly & Barr are Scriven then turned his witness over | going to open their mill to-morrow, and they have given in to the old scale, so that the strike is almost over.” Van Slack, thus repulsed, went on a new tack, saying: ‘‘ And this old scale you speak of, to whom will it be given?” “LO any man that chooses to work under it, sir. ‘* You mean, to any man that belongs to your” Order?” “T mean, to any man that goes to work there.” “Then have you made no stipulation as to the employment of Knightsof Labor? I thought. that your Order always frowned on any mam that did not choose to belong to it.” Larry smiled scornfully. ‘If they don’t choose to belong to the order, We fight for all working- If a man chooses to fight ws, we fight him. just as your bosses do. But if be just attends: to his own business, we leave him alone. He | gets the benefit of other men’s work; but we are quite willing for him to do that, if be does not call on us to help him. Where were the work— The bosses had them where they wanted them, to work for whatever they chose to give them. Where are they now? They are beginning to be | their own masters, and the time will come when they know their power, that they will rule this | land.” You | Van Slack listened to him, smiling and rub- bing bis hands as he answered him slowly, look- ing at the judge meanwhile: oF j “Very pretty sentiments, on my word! So it seems you are a socialist? Very ikely you be- lieve in dynamite, to blow up the bosses, if they don’t give you the wages you want?’ ! Larry smiled still more scornfully. a “Dynamite indeed! Where would we beif — we blew up the mills? Where would we get * , ™). 435 work to do to keep our families? No, sir; as. c long as you let the workingmen organize you = can find no safer members of society. I can tell you that. We make things, we don’t destroy them. But it seems to me that your’re getting. into things that don’t belong to this case.’ ‘** Have bes just found that out?” inquired the: s voice of old Scriven,in hisdriest tones. ‘‘Now, © your Honor, Dp have given my learned brother all the latitude he can possibly ask for in his cross-examination, and I would like tosuggest' that, hereafter, you hold him down tothe case. Mr. Locke’s private opinions have nothing to do with the accusation that he has injured Mr. fe. Skinner’s business.” ** Oh, well, you can let him stand down,” said | ha Van Slack, shrugging his shoulders. “DPve got all I want out of him. He’sevidentlyareg- ular demagogue. You can get down, Locke.” at And Larry stood down, feeling insome vague way that he had injured his own cause unwit- tingly, and that he had been a fool to measure wits with a lawyer, who was practiced at ened sort of thing ee, = » ~~ Then Van Slack looked at Scriven sarcastic-- ~ a ally, asking him: ¥ nf Well, have you any more witnesses that erm sen would like to examine, or do you stillwishto ~~ dismiss this complaint?” ae ‘* Just to oblige you T’llcall Thomas Bradley,” said Scriven in the same sour tone asthatused = by his opponent. ‘‘Mr. Van Beaver, will you be kind enough to send for him?” * Paul rose and went out, while Van Slack and me e his partner held a hurried consultation as to- what would be best to do with Snoopey when he came to give his testimony. Finally the lawyer concluded to let him be examined, and break him down on the cross-examination, when | he should have told his story. It was was the _ only hope of the prosecution. Bee Paul soon returned with Snoopey, who had been taken to a barber while the other witnesses were being examined, and rigged up in anew of suit of cheap clothes, in which be presented as. different a figure from his old self, as Somers — had shown after his transformation by similar means, The effect of new clothes and a good meal, on the courage of the formerly craven Snoopey, had been favorable; and he had been as trad that he would be preserved from harm inany event, if he told the full truth, Though he © avoided the eye of his old tyrant, TerrorJim, he seemed to have no special fears of eny one else; and looked up at the judge and then at a.” - > " Van Slack, as if he rather enjoyed the pros- ct of being examined. The fact wes that noopey, like many men who are physically timid, was disposed to be exceedingly impu- dent when he felt that his bones were safe. The only way to govern such natures as his, _ lies through physical fear: and this truth had been fy Biggee ieee by Terror Jim, whohad brought his parasite down to a condition of abject obedience, through the aid of many a@ ~~ As soon as Snoopey crepfinto court, the © other tramp tried his best to catch hiseye, for — the purpose of overawing him; but Snooper Cj comicbooks.com “oe 2 < try to. 9% ‘