"You're right, Solomon; I'd forgotten the dogs," and he groaned
again.
Mahaffy closed and fastened the shutter, then he and Hannibal
stole across the clearing and entered the woods. The judge flung
off his clothes and went to bed, determined to sleep away as many
hours as possible. He was only aroused by the arrival of his
breakfast, which the sheriff brought about eight o'clock.
"Well, if I was in your boots I couldn't sleep like you!"
remarked that official admiringly. "But I reckon, sir, this
ain't the first time the penitentiary has stared you in the
face."
"Then you reckon wrong," said the judge sententiously, as he
hauled on his trousers.
"No?--you needn't hurry none. I'll get them dishes when I fetch
your dinner," he added, as he took his leave.
A little later the blacksmith appeared and fitted three iron bars
to the window.
"I reckon that'll hold you, old feller!" he observed pleasantly.
He was disposed to linger, since he was interested in the
mechanical means employed in the making of counterfeit money and
thirsted for knowledge at first hand. Also, he had in his
possession a one-dollar bill which had come to him in the way of
trade and which local experts had declared to be a spurious
production. He passed it in between the bars and demanded the
judge's opinion of it as though he were the first authority in
the land. But he went no wiser than he came.
It was nearing the noon hour when the judge's solitude was again
invaded.
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