Men
born of women, the rudest of them, knew life well enough to be aware of
its significance,--a vulgar common happening, capable of but one
interpretation. Heads were wagged knowingly in the course of the
testimony, and whispered comments went the rounds.
Half a dozen witnesses followed in rapid succession, all of whom had
closely examined the scene of the crime and gone over the island
carefully, and all of whom were agreed that there was not the slightest
trace to be found of the two men mentioned by the prisoner in his
preliminary statement.
To Frona's surprise, Del Bishop went upon the stand. She knew he
disliked St. Vincent, but could not imagine any evidence he could
possess which would bear upon the case.
Being sworn, and age and nationality ascertained, Bill Brown asked him
his business.
"Pocket-miner," he challenged back, sweeping the assemblage with an
aggressive glance.
Now, it happens that a very small class of men follow pocketing, and
that a very large class of men, miners, too, disbelieve utterly in any
such method or obtaining gold.
"Pocket-miner!" sneered a red-shirted, patriarchal-looking man, a man
who had washed his first pan in the Californian diggings in the early
fifties.
"Yep," Del affirmed.
"Now, look here, young feller," his interlocutor continued, "d'ye mean
to tell me you ever struck it in such-fangled way?"
"Yep.
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