Horse of a Different Color by Ralph Moody

Author:Ralph Moody [Moody, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / General
ISBN: 9780803283404
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Published: 2013-10-09T17:42:03+00:00

15

Three Little Pigs

THE Banking Commission had two lawyers when my case came to trial on June 10. One was an Oberlin man, and the other a tricky Topeka attorney who did all the cross-examining. The first witness called was the cashier who came to the Cedar Bluffs bank when the new management took over. The Oberlin lawyer had him identify some of the bank’s books and records, and testify from them for half an hour. Among other things he testified that I had written nearly all the checks when Bob and I bought stock or feed, but that the amounts had often been charged equally to Bob’s loan account and mine. He also testified that proceeds of our sales had been credited to us in exactly equal amounts.

As his final witnesses, the lawyer called several farmers from whom we’d bought stock. I don’t believe any of them realized what the trial was about, and they all seemed embarrassed, but each one testified that he understood he was selling to a partnership and had heard Bob call me partner.

When the prosecution rested its case Mr. Noble told me there hadn’t been a shred of damaging evidence produced. He said that Bones’s testimony would nullify any implications by the cashier, and that it was customary in the West for one man to call another partner as a common term of address.

So that Bob could get away as early as possible, Mr. Noble called him as our first witness. He testified only a few minutes—just long enough to state under oath that he and I had never been partners, but that each had owned half the livestock and feed, which could have been separated at any time. Bob admitted that he’d called me partner, but said he’d called hundreds of other men by the same name. The Topeka lawyer didn’t even bother to cross-examine him, and we had only a chance to nod good-bye before he left for Junction City. The rest of the forenoon was taken up by neighbors and farmers from whom we’d bought, testifying that Bones, Bob, or I had told them we were not in partnership though we fed stock together.

Bones was our first witness in the afternoon, and a good one, talking more as though he were telling a story than testifying at a trial. He recited, almost word for word, the conversations he and I had in early December, 1919—my refusing to go into partnership with Bob but agreeing to feed stock with him if some way could be found for doing it as individuals. He explained the method we’d worked out, and testified that he’d told me, “If the chattels can be separated at any time, so that each man can stand alone with his property and obligations, I don’t see how there’d be a partnership. If you and Bob will team up that way I’ll make you separate loans and guarantee not to hold one of you responsible for a dollar of the other’s debts.”

Mr.

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