Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume IV (40 page)

But if they did acquit, then the paths that opened in their heartfire were like the paths of the witnesses: They would be with Alvin one day, building great towers of shimmering crystal rising into the sky, catching light and turning it into truth the way it had happened when Tenskwa-Tawa took Alvin up into the waterspout.

Should I tell Alvin that his fellow-Makers are here around him in this courtroom? Would it help his work or make him overconfident to know?

To tell or not to tell, the endless question that Peggy wrestled with. Next to that one, Hamlet’s little quandary was downright silly. Contemplations of suicide were always the Unmaker’s work. But truth-telling and truth-hiding—it could go either way. The consequences were unpredictable.

Of course, for ordinary people consequences were
always
unpredictable. Only torches like Peggy were burdened by having such a clear idea of the possibilities. And there weren’t many torches like Peggy.

Makepeace wasn’t a very good witness in his own cause. Surly and nervous—not a winning combination, Verily knew. But that was why Laws and Webster had put him on first, so that his negative impression would be forgotten after the testimony of more likable—and believable—witnesses.

The best thing Verily could do, in this case, was to let Makepeace have his say—as memorably as possible, as negatively as possible. So he made no objection when Makepeace peppered his account with slurs on Alvin’s character. “He was always the laziest prentice I ever had.” “I never could get the boy to do nothing without standing over him and yelling in his ear.” “He was a slow learner, everybody knowed that.” “He ate like
a pig even on days when he didn’t lift a finger.” The onslaught of slander was so relentless that everyone was getting uncomfortable with it—even Marty Laws, who was starting to glance at Verily to see why he wasn’t raising any objections. But why should Verily object, when the jurors were shifting in their seats and looking away from Makepeace with every new attack on Alvin? They all knew these were lies. There probably wasn’t a one of them that hadn’t come to the smithy hoping that Alvin rather than his master would do the work. Alvin’s skill was famous—Verily had learned that from overhearing casual conversation in the roadhouse at evening meals—so all Makepeace was doing was damaging his own credibility.

Poor Marty was trapped, however. He couldn’t very well cut short Makepeace Smith’s testimony, since it was the foundation of his whole case. So the questioning went on, and the answering, and the slander.

“He made a plow out of plain iron. I saw it, and so did Pauley Wiseman who was sheriff then, and Arthur Stuart, and the two dead Finders. It was setting on the workbench when they come by to get me to make manacles for the boy. But I wouldn’t make no manacles, no sir! That’s not decent work for a smith, to make the chains to take a free boy into slavery! So what do you know but Alvin himself, who
said
he was such a friend to Arthur Stuart,
he
up and says he’ll make the manacles. That’s the kind of boy he was and is today—no loyalty, no decency at all!”

Alvin leaned over to Verily and whispered in his ear. “I know it’s wicked of me, Verily, but I want so bad to give old Makepeace a bad case of rectal itch.”

Verily almost laughed out loud.

The judge shot him a glare, but it wasn’t about his near laughter. “Mr. Cooper, aren’t you going to object to any of these extraneous comments upon your client’s character?”

Verily rose slowly to his feet. “Your Honor, I am sure the jury will know
exactly
how seriously to take all of Mr. Makepeace
Smith’s testimony. I’m perfectly content for them to remember both his malice and his inaccuracy.”

“Well, maybe that’s how it’s done in England, but I will instruct the jury to
ignore
Mr. Smith’s malice, since there’s no way to know whether his malice came as a result of the events he has recounted, or predated them. Furthermore, I will instruct Mr. Smith to make no more aspersions on the defendant’s character, since those are matters of opinion and not of fact. Did you understand me, Makepeace?”

Makepeace looked confused. “I reckon so.”

“Continue, Mr. Laws.”

Marty sighed and went on. “So you saw the iron plow, and Alvin made the manacles. What then?”

“I told him to use the manacles as his journeyman piece. I thought it would be fitting for a traitorous scoundrel to go through his whole life knowing that the manacles he made for his friend were the—”

The judge interrupted, again glaring at Verily. “Makepeace, it’s words like ‘traitorous scoundrel’ that’s going to get you declared in contempt of court. Do you understand me now?”

“I been calling a spade a spade all my life, Your Honor!” Makepeace declared.

“At this moment you’re digging a very deep hole with it,” said the judge, “and I’m the man to bury you if you don’t watch your tongue!”

Cowed, Makepeace put on a very solemn look and faced forward. “I apologize, Your Honor, for daring to live up to my oath to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the—”

The gavel came down.

“Nor will I allow sarcasm directed at this bench, Mr. Smith. Continue, Mr. Laws.”

And so it went, till Makepeace had finished with his tale. It truly was a weak and whining little complaint. First there was an iron plow, made of the very iron Makepeace had provided for the journeyman piece. Then there was a plow made of solid gold. Makepeace could only think of two possibilities. First,
that Alvin had somehow used some sort of hexery to change the iron into gold, in which case it was made from the iron Makepeace had given him and, according to time-honored tradition and the terms of Alvin’s prentice papers, the plow belonged to Makepeace. Or it was a different plow, not made from Makepeace’s iron, in which case where did Alvin get such gold? The only time Alvin had ever done enough digging to bring up buried treasure like that was when he was digging a well for Makepeace, which he dug in the wrong place. Makepeace was betting Alvin had dug in the right place first, found the gold, and then hid it by digging in another spot for the actual well. And if the gold was found on Makepeace’s land, well, it was Makepeace’s gold that way, too.

Verily’s cross-examination was brief. It consisted of two questions.

“Did you see Alvin take gold or anything like gold out of the ground?”

Angry, Makepeace started to make excuses, but Verily waited until the judge had directed him to answer the question yes or no.

“No.”

“Did you see the iron plow transformed into a golden plow?”

“Well so what if I didn’t, the fact is there
ain’t
no iron plow so where
is
it then?”

Again, the judge told him to answer the question yes or no.

“No,” said Makepeace.

“No more questions for this witness,” said Verily.

As Makepeace got up and left the witness box, Verily turned to the judge. “Your Honor, the defense moves for immediate dismissal of all charges, inasmuch as the testimony of this witness is not sufficient to establish probable cause.”

The judge rolled his eyes. “I hope I’m not going to have to listen to motions like that after
every
witness.”

“Just the pathetic ones. Your Honor,” said Verily.

“Your point is made. Your motion is denied. Mr. Laws, your next witness?”

“I would like to have called Makepeace’s wife, Gertie, but she passed away more than a year ago. Instead, with the court’s permission, I will call the woman who was doing kitchen help for her the day the golden plow was first. . . evidenced. Anga Berry.”

The judge looked at Verily. “This will make her testimony hearsay, after a fashion. Do you have any objection, Mr. Cooper?”

Alvin had already assured Verily that nothing Anga could say would do him any possible harm. “No objection, Your Honor.”

Alvin listened as Anga Berry testified. She didn’t really witness to anything except that Gertie told her about Makepeace’s accusations the very next morning, so the charge wasn’t one he dreamed up later. On cross-examination, Verily was kind to her, only asking her whether Gertie Smith had said anything to lead Anga to believe she thought Alvin was as bad a boy as Makepeace said.

Marty rose to his feet. “Hearsay, Your Honor.”

Impatiently the judge replied, “Well, Marty, we
know
it’s hearsay. It was for hearsay that
you
called her in the first place!”

Abashed, Marty Laws sat back down.

“She never said nothing about his smithery or nothing,” said Anga. “But I know Gertie set quite a store by the boy. Always helped her out, toted water for her whenever she asked—that’s the
worst
job—and he was good with the children and just. . . always helping. She never said a bad word about him, and I reckon she had a high opinion of his goodness.”

“Did Gertie ever tell you he was a liar or deceiver?” asked Verily.

“Oh, no, unless you count hiding some job he was doing till it was done, so as to surprise her. If
that’s
deception, then he done that a couple of times.”

And that was it. Alvin was relieved to know that Gertie hadn’t been unkind to him behind his back, that even after her
death she was a friend to him. What surprised Alvin was how glum Verily was when he sat down at the table next to him. Marty was busy calling his next witness, a fellow named Hank Dowser whose tale Alvin could easily guess—this was a man who
did
have malice and it wouldn’t be pleasant to hear him. Still, he hadn’t seen anything either, and in fact the well-digging had nothing to do with the plow so what did it matter? Why did Verily look so unhappy?

Alvin asked him.

“Because there was no reason for Laws to call that woman. She worked against his case and he had to know that in advance.”

“So why did he call her?”

“Because he wanted to lay the groundwork for something. And since she didn’t say anything new during his examination of her, it must have been during the cross-examination that the new groundwork was laid.”

“All you asked Anga was whether Gertie had the same low opinion of me that her husband had.”

Verily thought for a moment. “No. I also asked her if you had ever deceived Gertie. Oh, I’m such a fool. If only I could recall those words from my lips!”

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Alvin.

“He must have some witness that calls you a deceiver, a witness who is otherwise irrelevant to this case.”

In the meantime, the dowser, in a state of high dudgeon, was speaking of how uppity Makepeace’s prentice was, how he dared to tell a dowser how to dowse. “He’s got no respect for any man’s knack but his own!”

Verily spoke up. “Your Honor, I object. The witness is not competent to testify concerning my client’s respect or lack of it toward other people’s knacks in general.”

The objection was sustained. Hank Dowser was a quicker learner than Makepeace; there was no more problem with him. He quickly established that the prentice had obviously dug the
well in a different place from the place where Hank had declared water could be found.

Verily had only one question for him. “Was there water in the place where he dug the well?”

“That’s not the question!” declared Hank Dowser.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you, Mr. Dowser, that I am the one authorized by this court to ask questions at this time, and I tell you that it
is
the question that I would like you to answer. At this time.”

“What was the question?”

“Did my client’s well reach water?”

“It reached a
kind
of water. But compared to the pure water
I
found, I’m sure that what he got was a sludgy, scummy, foul-tasting brew.”

“Do I take it that your answer is yes?”

“Yes.”

And that was that.

For his next witness, Marty called a name that sent a shiver down Alvin’s spine. “Amy Sump.”

A very attractive girl arose from the back of the courtroom and walked down the aisle.

“Who is
she?
” asked Verily.

“A girl from Vigor with a
very
active imagination.”

“About what?”

“About how she and I did what a man has no business doing with a girl so young.”

“Did you?”

Alvin was annoyed by the question. “Never. She just started telling stories and it grew from there.”

“Grew?”

“That’s why I took off from Vigor Church, to give her lies a chance to settle down and die out.”

“So she started telling stories about you and you
fled
?”

“What does it have to do with the plow and Makepeace Smith?”

Verily grimaced. “A certain matter of whether you deceive people or not. Marty Laws roped me in.”

Marty was explaining to the judge that, because he had had no chance to talk with this witness himself beforehand, his illustrious co-counsel would conduct the examination. “The girl is young and fragile, and they have established a rapport.”

Verily thought that the idea of Webster and Amy having rapport wasn’t very promising when it came to getting honest testimony from her, but he had to tread carefully. She was a child, and a girlchild at that. He couldn’t seem to be hostile or fearful of her before she spoke, and in cross-examination he’d have to proceed delicately lest he seem to be a bully.

Unlike Makepeace Smith and Hank Dowser, who were obviously angry and malicious, Amy Sump was absolutely believable. She spoke shyly and reluctantly. “I don’t want to get Alvin in no trouble, sir,” she said.

“And why not?” asked Daniel Webster.

Her answer came in a whisper. “Because I still love him.”

“You . . . you still love him?” Oh, Webster was a fine actor, worthy of the boards in Drury Lane. “But how can you—why do you still love him?”

“Because I am with child,” she whispered.

A buzzing arose through the courtroom.

Again, Webster feigned grieved surprise. “You are with . . . Are you married, Miss Sump?”

She shook her head. Glistening tears flew from her eyes onto her lap.

“Yet you are with child. The child of some man who didn’t even have the decency to make an honest woman of you.
Whose
child, Miss Sump?”