The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-04


was an angel full fedged. Whether the
mehter made love to Janki, Mrs. Bronck-
horst's ayah, is a question which con
Germs Strickland exclusively.
He came back at the end Of three
weeks, and said quietly: "You spoke
the truth, Bel. The whole business is
put up from beginning to end. Jovel
it almost astonishes me! That Bronck-
horst beast isn't fit to live"
There was uproar and shouting, and
Bel said: Glow are you going tx prove
it? You can't say that you've been tres
passing on Bronckhorst's compound in
disguiser'
mo-" said Strickland. "Tel your
lawyer fool, whoever he is, to get up
something strong about inherent i'm
probabilities and discrepancies of evi-
dence.' He won't have to speak, but it
will make him happy. I'm going to run
this business"
Bel held his tongue, and the other
men waited to see what would happen.
They trusted Strickland as men trust
quiet men. When the case came off the
court was crowded. Strickland hung
about in the veranda of the court till he
met the Mohammedan khitmatgar.
Then he murmured a faquir's blessing in
his ear, and asked him how his second
wife did. The man spun around, andas
he looked into the eyes of s'Estreeken
Sahib" his jaw dropped. You must re-
member that before Strickland was mar
ried he was, as I have told you already,
power among the natives. Strickland
whispered a rather coarse v~ernacular
proverb to the effect that he was abreast
of all that was going on, and went into
the court armed with a gut trainers
whip.
The Mohammedan was the first wit
ness, and Strickland beamed upon him
from the back of the court. The man
moistened his lips with his tongue, and
in his abjecI fear of "Estreeken Sahib,'
the faquir, went back on every detail of
his evidence-said he was a poor man
and God was his witness that he had for
gotten everything that Bronckho Sahib
had told him to say. Between his terror
Of Strickland, the judge and Bronck.
horst he collapsed, weeping.
Then began the panic anon the wit
nesses. Janki, the ayah, leering chastely
behind her veil, turned gray, and the
bearer left the court. He said that his
ann was dying, and that it was not
wholesome for any man to lie unthriftily
in the presence of 'Estreeken Sahib."
Bel said politely to Bronckhorst:
'sYour witnesses don't seem to work.
Haven't you any forged letters to pro-
duce." But Bronckhorst was swaying
to and fro in his chair, and there was a
dead pause after Bel had been called to
order.
Bronckhorst's counsel saw the look on
his clients face, and without more ado
pitched his papers on the little green
baize table, and mumbled something
about having been misinformed. The
whole court ~applauded wildly, like sol
diers at q theatre, and the judge began
to say what he thought.
Bel came out of the place and Strick-
land dropped a gut trainers whip on the
veranda. Ten minutes later Bell was
cutting Bronckhorst into ribbons behind
the old court cells, quietly and without
scandal. What was left of BroncAhorst
was sent home in a carriage, and his wife
wept over it and nursed it into a mar
again.
Later on, after Bel had managed to
hush up the counter charge against
Bronckhurst of fabricating false evi-
dence, Mrs. Bronckhurst, with her faint,
watery smile, said that there had been a
mistake, but it wasn't her Teddy's fault
altogether. She would wait till her
Teddy came back to her. Perhaps he
had grown tired of her or she had tried
his patience, and perhaps we wouldn't
cut her any more, and perhaps the
mothers would let their children play
with "little Teddy" again. He was so
lonely. Then the station invited Mrs.
Bronckhorst everywhere until Bronck-
horst was fit to appear in public, when
he went home and took his wife with
him. According to the latest advices
her Teddy did ''come back to her. and
they are moderately happy, though of
course he can never forgive her the
thrashing that she was the indirect
means of getting for him.
What Bel wants to know is: 'sWhy
didn't l press homo the charge against
the Bronckhorst brute and have him run
inY'
What Mrs. Strickland wants to know
is: How did my husband bring such a