Part 24 (2/2)
”I beg your pardon, Comrade Judges,” he apologized. ”This coyote I put on a mowing-machine yesterday. He said he knew how to run it. He broke it on a smooth piece of ground the first hour. I gave him another and he wrecked it before noon. It will take the labour of five men two days to repair the damage he has done. I don't want him at any price.”
”What have you to say?” Norman asked the accused.
”It wasn't my fault. The thing broke itself.”
”But how did it happen twice the same day, sonny?” Tom asked.
”I dunno. Hit jist happened,” was the dogged answer.
”I've another scoundrel----”
”You must not use such language,” Barbara broke in.
”Again begging the pardon of Comrade Judges,” the foreman continued: ”This dog”--he kicked another slovenly looking lout before the judges--”tore to pieces the shoulders of two pairs of horses with careless harnessing before I found him and kicked him out of the stables. Those four horses can't work for a month. We'll have to pay at least $500 for two teams right away to take their places, or lose a crop of hay.”
Tom glared at the culprit.
”What did ye ruin them horses' shoulders fer?”
”I didn't know it,” was the sulking answer.
”He's a liar!” cried the foreman. ”He put the same collars on their galled necks three days in succession and beat them unmercifully when they couldn't pull the load.”
”What do you say, Tom?” Norman asked.
The old miner glared at the last culprit and his grim mouth tightened:
”Wall, you kin do as ye please, but any man that'll abuse a hoss will commit murder. I'd put the fust one in the cow lot to shovellin'
compost. This one I'd quietly lynch--no public rumpus about it--jest take 'im down by the beach, hang 'im to one of them posts on the pier, shoot 'im full of holes, and drop 'im into the sea to be sure he don't come back to life.”
Norman conferred with Barbara a moment and rendered the decision:
”Mr. Foreman, the first man is transferred from the field machinery to the compost-heap in the barnyard. The second man who disabled the horses will a.s.sist in cleaning the sewers. Their wages will remain the same as before.”
A round of applause greeted this decision.
The Bard renewed his attack with unusual zeal. Standing before the court and shaking his long hair he cried:
”At last the climax of tyranny! Two comrades condemned without a jury and without defense! I congratulate you. In one day you have established an aristocracy of filth and created a penal colony without a hearing or appeal. We are making progress.”
The old miner grunted, Barbara smiled tenderly at Norman, and the court adjourned.
CHAPTER XIX
SOME TROUBLES IN HEAVEN
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