But even within this inner fortress of the law the long arm of
the Freemen was able to extend. Late at night there came a
jailer with a straw bundle for their bedding, out of which he
extracted two bottles of whisky, some glasses, and a pack of
cards. They spent a hilarious night, without an anxious thought
as to the ordeal of the morning.
Nor had they cause, as the result was to show. The magistrate
could not possibly, on the evidence, have held them for a higher
court. On the one hand the compositors and pressmen were forced
to admit that the light was uncertain, that they were themselves
much perturbed, and that it was difficult for them to swear to
the identity of the assailants; although they believed that the
accused were among them. Cross examined by the clever attorney
who had been engaged by McGinty, they were even more nebulous in
their evidence.
The injured man had already deposed that he was so taken by
surprise by the suddenness of the attack that he could state
nothing beyond the fact that the first man who struck him wore a
moustache. He added that he knew them to be Scowrers, since no
one else in the community could possibly have any enmity to him,
and he had long been threatened on account of his outspoken
editorials.
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