Slocum 421 by Jake Logan

transfer to Leavenworth Prison.”
    â€œYour Honor, if these men’s testimony show you cause that I am innocent, then will you delay my being moved until that is taken?”
    â€œYou have forty-eight hours to get them to testify. I will begin to accept them after lunch.”
    â€œMay I send a message to my employer, Stowe?”
    Someone whispered to the judge. “I understand he was denied admittance on the grounds that he would disrupt this hearing.”
    â€œI object,” the lawyer for the prosecutor’s office demanded. “This man is a murderer and a rebel leader who needs to be held under the strictest confinement for this country’s safety.”
    â€œObjection overruled. Bring Mr. Stowe in here. Attorney Tennison, any man is innocent until he is proven guilty.”
    The deputy U.S. marshal had a quick conversation with the attorney, and the two men scowled over Stowe’s appearance in the court.
    â€œMr. Stowe, state your name and your business,” the judge said when Stowe appeared. “Take the oath. I want to hear your side of the case against Mr. Slocum.”
    They swore him in, and he gave his name and address and described his business as that of “a buffalo hunter who hires other men to hunt them.”
    â€œOn the evening of October 28, when this murder occurred, where were you?”
    â€œIn Sally Jane’s whorehouse sir, immediately across the street from the Oxbow. At the first shot I looked out the window of room four and saw this Hampton on his horse pointing his gun at Slocum, who then shot him in self-defense. Margie, the lady in the room with me, saw it too. I can get fifty men to say the shooting was in self-defense that night. Hampton had already shot another man, who died from his bullet wound.”
    â€œYour Honor?” The attorney rose. “This man may well be another agent of this insurgency to overthrow the government of the United States, as Mr. Slocum is, sir.”
    â€œAre you an agent of this conspiracy?” the judge asked Stowe.
    â€œNo, sir, and neither is Slocum. He is my foreman, of a crew of men who would also testify he never had anything to do with this treason. He has been out there killing buffalo for hides with these men.”
    â€œI object, Your Honor. There is a widespread movement in this region to fight the U.S. government. Miles Hampton, a federal officer, was in the process of arresting a man, who resisted him, and Mr. Slocum shot him during that arrest.”
    â€œWho did this man work for?” Stowe asked the attorney. “He had no badge that evening that anyone saw. I’d bet a hundred dollars the funeral director found no badge on him. I will have him testify, Your Honor.”
    â€œI can prove Hampton was a federal officer on duty at the time of his death,” the attorney said.
    â€œMr. Tennison, my clerk will record the testimony of Mr. Stowe and others in lieu of Mr. Slocum not having an attorney here yet.”
    â€œYour Honor, this prisoner must be removed at once. There is a threat by the Washington Revolutionary Army to break him out of jail.”
    â€œI doubt they would attack a fort full of soldiers to get this man out.”
    â€œYour Honor, they are conspiring to overthrow the entire government of the United States.”
    â€œMr. Tennison, I am sorry, but I think the testimony of Mr. Stowe and others in this case is important for Mr. Slocum to receive a fair trial. We will hold this hearing again on Friday. Until then he is to be held in the fort jail here.” He rapped the gavel and dismissed them.
    Tennison approached the bench, but the judge refused to hear any more.
    Stowe said to Slocum, “Don’t worry. We will have that testimony.”
    The two soldiers took Slocum back to the jail. Light flecks of late snow were swirling in the air when they crossed the fort grounds. Late snows could be deep. It looked to Slocum like it had set in to really