“We will,” said the opposite counsel; “and I request the court to take it all down, together with the prisoner’s exclamations of _traitor_, etc., which involves, indirectly, an admission that I shall remark on in the argument. Yes, let all this be noted carefully. It is important. It goes to show the previous design, which, coupled with the identified furs, is, I trust the court will see, sufficient to fix the crime on the respondent, beyond all doubt or question.” “We will soon show you how much you will make out of your identified furs,” rejoined the other lawyer, with a confident and defiant air. “Have you witnesses to introduce on the part of the defence?” asked the court. “Yes, your honor; but our most important one has not yet arrived. We are expecting him every minute.” At that moment, a shout of surprise and laughter, together with an unusual commotion in the yard, arrested the attention of all in the court-room; and they mostly rushed to the door or windows to ascertain the cause, when they were amused to behold the young Indian, Tomah, driving into the yard, with his moose harnessed to a pung or sledge, of his own rigging up, on which--with reins and whip in hand--he sat as jauntily as a coachman, and almost with the same ease, apparently, brought his strange steed to a stand before the door. “Our witness has come!” exclaimed Gaut’s lawyer, exultingly. “Mr. Sheriff, send out and bring him in. We will now dispose of this miserable prosecution, in short metre.” In a few minutes Tomah entered the room, and, readily comprehending,--from a knowledge of the usages of courts he had obtained during his residence in the villages of the whites,--what was expected of him, now demurely advanced in front of the magistrate, raised his hand, and received the oath of a witness. He was then shown the lot of furs that had been identified by the hunters present, his attention directed to the peculiar marks by which part of them had been distinguished, and he was asked if he had ever seen these furs, and noticed the marks on them, before. “Yes, think so,” replied Tomah, quietly, as he rapidly handled every large skin, and each parcel of the smaller ones, keenly noting the palpable marks shown him on the former, and every tie confining together the latter. “Yes; here bullet-holes on otter; slit on this beaver; cropt ear on that; little fat back of fore-legs on rest of beaver; wickape strings on that bunch sable; elm-bark tie on that; and beech twigs on that. Yes, seen ’em all.” “Where? And how do you know the furs? Tell the court all about it,” said Gaut’s lawyer, as an exultant smile played over his sardonic features.