The party having arrived at the camp, the chief leaned against a tree, and balancing on one foot, drew off a rubber boot. From this boot he emptied about a quart of snow. He squeezed his stocking, which had a hole from which protruded a lobster-red toe. He resumed his boot. "Bring up the prisoner," said he. They did it. "Guilty or not guilty?" he asked. "Huh?" said the Phelps boy. "Guilty or not guilty?" demanded the chief, peremptorily. "Guilty or not guilty? Don't you understand?" Homer Phelps looked profoundly puzzled. "Guilty or not guilty?" he asked, slowly and weakly. The chief made a swift gesture, and turned in despair to the others. "Oh, he don't do it right! He does it all wrong!" He again faced the prisoner with an air of making a last attempt, "Now look-a-here, Homer, when I say, 'Guilty or not guilty?' you want to up an' say, 'Not Guilty.' Don't you see?" "Not guilty," said Homer, at once. "No, no, no. Wait till I ask you. Now wait." He called out, pompously, "Pards, if this prisoner before us is guilty, what shall be his fate?" All those well-trained little infants with one voice sung out, "_Death!_" "Prisoner," continued the chief, "are you guilty or not guilty?" "But look-a-here," argued Homer, "you said it wouldn't be nothin' that would hurt. I--" "Thunder an' lightnin'!" roared the wretched chief. "Keep your mouth shut, can't ye? What in the mischief--" But there was an interruption from Jimmie Trescott, who shouldered a twin aside and stepped to the front. "Here," he said, very contemptuously, "let me be the prisoner. I'll show 'im how to do it." "All right, Jim," cried the chief, delighted; "you be the prisoner, then. Now all you fellers with guns stand there in a row! Get out of the way, Homer!" He cleared his throat, and addressed Jimmie. "Prisoner, are you guilty or not guilty?" "Not guilty," answered Jimmie, firmly. Standing there before his judge--unarmed, slim, quiet, modest--he was ideal. The chief beamed upon him, and looked aside to cast a triumphant and withering glance upon Homer Phelps. He said: "There! That's the way to do it." The twins and Dan Earl also much admired Jimmie. "That's all right so far, anyhow," said the satisfied chief. "An' now we'll--now we'll--we'll perceed with the execution." "That ain't right," said the new prisoner, suddenly. "That ain't the next thing. You've got to have a trial first. You've got to fetch up a lot of people first who'll say I done it." "That's so," said the chief. "I didn't think. Here, Reeves, you be first witness. Did the prisoner do it?" The twin gulped for a moment in his anxiety to make the proper reply. He was at the point where the roads forked. Finally he hazarded, "Yes." "There," said the chief, "that's one of 'em. Now, Dan, you be a witness. Did he do it?" Dan Earl, having before him the twin's example, did not hesitate. "Yes," he said. "Well, then, pards, what shall be his fate?" Again came the ringing answer, "_Death_!"