Marvin pulled his arm free and appealed to the judge. "I am a witness for the defense, your Honor," he said. "Then you may remain where you are," replied Townsend, with a nod. He looked at Lightnin'. "Examine your witness," he directed. For a moment Lightnin' stood in front of the frowning man in the chair and silently inspected him with humorous interest, from the top of his sleek, pomaded head to the gleaming toes of his immaculate boots. "Looks kinder all polished up, don't he?" Bill remarked. The noise of the general laughter and the pounding of the sheriff's gavel seemed to distract Townsend's attention; anyway, he uttered no objection when Marvin slipped from his place among the witnesses and dropped into his former chair directly behind Bill. Looking up at Townsend, Lightnin' resumed: "The things Marvin asked him were all right, your Honor," he said. Then, with a terse but rather humorous shrug, he addressed Hammond, "Answer 'em!" "You mean the testimony he has already given will stand?" asked the judge. "I got a right to ask 'em again, 'ain't I?" questioned Bill. Townsend nodded. Hammond could much better stand the young and impatient manner of John Marvin than he could the wise humor of Bill. He grew red and shifted in his chair angrily, asking the judge: "Do I have to go all over that, your Honor?" "Would your replies be the same?" Townsend's eyes as well as his question begged Hammond for the answer and he was not comfortable. But there was nothing else for him to do, and after a moment's hesitation, in which he lowered his lids to avoid the judge's scrutiny, he replied: "Certainly." The cross-examination reinstated, Hammond for the fourth time started to leave the stand. Bill held up his hand and snapped in a determined tone, but with a smile playing among the wrinkles of his face: "Hold on! I got some more for you!" His victim threw himself back into the chair with a shrug and a sneer as he gave his head an irate shake. "Mr. Hammond," Bill went on, "when you went after Mr. Marvin with the sheriff, what was the charge against him?" Hammond answered, with a ready enthusiasm, "Trespassing on the property of the Pacific Railroad Company." Bill nodded his head and said: "Uh, ha." He assumed an air of wisdom and raised his voice to the pitch that it seldom knew, but to have the floor again after so many months was having its effect upon him and he was taking the task in the same way and with the same glee as if it were the opportunity for telling a good story. "If he was on their property," he began--then he seemed to forget what it was he was going to ask. He turned to Marvin in whispered conference. The unusual character of his procedure did not affect Lemuel Townsend, who was anxious to give the old man his full chance. His way evidently made clearer by Marvin's advice, Bill sauntered slowly back to Hammond. "If he was on the railroad's property, what did you have to do with it?" he asked.