The pantomime was most convincing, and provoked roars of laughter that
completely drowned the shrill pipe of the policeman fiercely demanding
order; when the noise had subsided Gable, flushed with excitement and
with dancing eyes and jigging limbs, cried out 'Oh, crickey!' with such
gusto that the laughter broke loose again in defiance of all restraint,
and was maintained until the chairman of the bench, himself almost
apoplectic from his efforts to swallow his mirth, arose and talked of
clearing the court; then the crowd, fearful of missing the fun to come,
quietened in a few seconds and the case was resumed.
'You thrashed the young rip, Mrs. Cox,' said the lawyer. 'You did well. A
pity you did not serve them all alike and save us the folly of this most
ridiculous case.'
'I did grab another,' said the witness, 'an' I--' Mrs. Cox repeated her
eloquent pantomime.
'Oh, crickey!' cried Gable. 'Oh, I say, here's a lark!'
'Silence in court,' squealed the asthmatical policeman.
'Excellent,' said the lawyer. 'And so, madam, you drove off this
desperate and bloodthirsty gang by simply slapping them all round?'
'Yes, after I'd been assaulted with a goat,' cried the witness, flushing
with a recollection of her wrongs and shaking a formidable fist at the
prisoners. 'After I'd been assaulted with a goat sooled on by one o' the
bla'guards.
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