"
Job being thus driven to his wit's end, turned and stood at bay. "Now I
will tell you, your honour, if you will but sit down for a moment, and
answer me one question."
"To be sure; why, Job, you brighten on us. There, I am down now for
your question."
"Now, sir," quoth Rumbletithump, imitating his tormentor's manner much
more cleverly than I expected, "what part of your honour's body touches
your chair?"
"How, sir!" said the man of words--"how dare you, sir, take such a
liberty, sir?" while a murmuring laugh hummed through the court.
"Now, sir, since you won't answer me, sir," said Job, elevated by his
victory, while his hoarse voice roughened into a loud growl, "I will
answer myself. I was seared, sir, where"--
"Silence!" quoth the crier at this instant drowning the mate's voice, so
that I could not catch the words he used.
"And there you have it, sir. Put me in jail, if you like, sir."
The murmur was bursting out into a guffaw, when the judge interfered.
But there was no longer any attempt at ill--timed jesting on the part of
the bar, which was but bad taste at the best on so solemn an occasion.
Job continued, "I was burnt into the very muscle until I told where the
gold was stowed away."
"Aha!" screamed the lawyer, forgetting his recent discomfiture in the
gladness of his success. "And all the rest were abetting, eh?"
"The rest of the fifteen were, sir."
But the prosecutor, a glutton in his way, had thought he had bagged the
whole forty--three.
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