Odds, writs and warrants! I'll complain directly.
(With apologies to Sheridan.) And the pair went off to make their complaint.
Suppose each had been given then and there the sixty cents he afterwards received and duly receipted for, would it have saved time and trouble?
Who knows?
but the diversion of the afternoon would have been lost.
In a few moments an officer quite courteously--refreshing contrast--notified me that complaint was in process of making.
I found the chief of police with a copy of the city ordinance trying to draw some sort of a complaint that would fit the extraordinary case, for the charge was not the usual one, that the machine was going at an unlawful speed, but that a lawyer had been frightened; to find the punishment that would fit that crime was no easy task.
The ordinance is liberal,--ten miles an hour; and the young man and his mentor had not said the speed of the automobile was greater than the law allowed, hence the dilemma of the chief; but we discussed a clause which provided that vehicles should not be driven through the streets in a manner so as to endanger public travel, and he thought the complaint would rest on that provision.
However lacking the bar of Pittsfield may be in the amenities of life, the bench is courtesy itself.

There was no court until next day; but calling at the judge's very delightful home, which happens to be on one of the interesting old streets of the town, he said he would come down and hear the matter at two o'clock, so I could get away that afternoon.
The first and wisest impulse of the automobilist is to pay whatever fine is imposed and go on, but frightening a lawyer is not an every-day occurrence.

I once frightened a pair of army mules; but a lawyer,--the experience was too novel to let pass lightly.

The game promised to be worth the candle.
The scene shifts to a dingy little room in the basement of the court-house; present, Straw Hat and Sandy Beard, with populace.
To corroborate--wise precaution on the part of a lawyer in his own court--their story, they bring along a volunteer witness in over-alls,--the three making a trio hard to beat.
Straw Hat takes the stand and testifies he is an unusually timid man, and was most frightened to death.
Sandy Beard's testimony is both graphic and corroborative.
The witness in over-alls, with some embellishments of his own, supports Sandy Beard.
The row of bricks is complete.
The court removes a prop by remarking that the ordinance speed has not been exceeded.
The bricks totter.
Whereupon, Sandy Beard now takes the matter into his own hands, and, ignoring the professional acquirements of his principal, addresses the court and urges the imposition of a fine,--a fine being the only satisfaction, and source of immediate revenue, conceivable to Sandy Beard.
Meanwhile Straw Hat is silent; the witness in over-alls is perturbed.
The court considers the matter, and says "the embarrassing feature of the case is that it has yet to be shown that the defendant was going at a rate exceeding ten miles an hour, and upon this point the witnesses did not agree.

There was evidence tending to prove the machine was going ten miles an hour, but that would not lead to conviction under the first clause of the ordinance; but there is another clause which says that a machine must not be run in such a manner as to endanger or inconvenience public travel.