SUMMARY JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 361 



ceedings. We were soon off, and overtook the poor 

 fellows, bound, and led between two horses. Curly was 

 very dejected; Brogan looked savage and desperate. 

 When we arrived at the rendezvous, we found a much 

 more numerous assembly than we had expected, there 

 being about sixty persons present. The jury was 

 chosen, witnesses were brought forward, sworn, and 

 questioned, and all the proceedings were carried on 

 according to the regular forms of a court of justice. It 

 came out that Brogan had been absent for some time 

 during the preceding year — that the two horses in 

 question had been seen in the neighborhood of these 

 two men, in a certain place where the forest was very 

 thick — and that Brogan was always hanging about 

 there. Later, Curly had made use of one of these horses, 

 and then sold him ; the proofs were convincing enough, 

 yet they both steadfastly denied all the facts. 



Two men now stripped Curly of his upper garments, 

 tied him up to a tree, and began to belabor his back 

 with hickory sticks. Curly had sense enough to see 

 that if his head remained obstinate, his back would 

 have to pay the score ; so he offered to confess. He 

 was instantly cast loose, and the register of his sins 

 was soon unfolded. He stated that he himself had 

 never stolen any horse, but had acted as receiver, or as 

 he said, had been good-natured towards the thieves. 

 When the last horse was to be stolen, four of them 

 had been present, and it was agreed that he was to be 

 carried off and sold. But as one of them must first 

 steal him, it was left to sportsman's luck to decide. 

 He, who by a certain day, had shot fewest deer, should 

 undertake the risk of stealing the horse. Curly had 

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