He was two miles away at the time it started.
And then Miss Rosemary Allen took the witness stand and told about the man on the hilltop and the bit of mirror that had flashed sun-signals toward the west.
H.J.Owens crimpled down visibly in his chair.

Imagine for yourself the trouble he would have in convincing men of his innocence after that.
Just to satisfy your curiosity, at the trial a month later he failed absolutely to convince the jury that he was anything but what he was--a criminal without the strength to stand by his own friends.

He was sentenced to ten years in Deer Lodge, and the judge informed him that he had been dealt with leniently at that, because after all he was only a tool in the hands of the real instigator of the crime.

That real instigator, by the way, was never apprehended.
The other man--he who had set fire to the prairie--got six years, and cursed the judge and threatened the whole Happy Family with death when the sentence was passed upon him--as so many guilty men do.
To go back to that preliminary, trial: The Happy Family, when H.J.
Owens was committed safely to the county jail, along with the fire-bug, took the next train to Great Falls with witnesses and the Honorable Blake.

They filed their answers to the contests two days before the time-limit had expired.