True Grit - Charles Portis [16]
MR. COGBURN: That is right.
MR. GOUDY: You were backing away?
MR. COGBURN: Yes sir. He had that ax raised.
MR. GOUDY: Which direction were you going?
MR. COGBURN: I always go backwards when I am backing up.
MR. GOUDY: I appreciate the humor of that remark. Aaron Wharton was standing by the wash pot when you arrived?
MR. COGBURN: It was more like squatting. He was stoking up the fire under the pot.
MR. GOUDY: And where was the ax?
MR. COGBURN: Right there at his hand.
MR. GOUDY: Now you say you had a cocked revolver clearly visible in your hand and yet he picked up that ax and advanced upon you, somewhat in the manner of Dub Wharton with that nail or rolled-up paper or whatever it was in his hand?
MR. COGBURN: Yes sir. Commenced to cussing and laying about with threats.
MR. GOUDY: And you were backing away? You were moving away from the direction of the wash pot?
MR. COGBURN: Yes sir.
MR. GOUDY: How far did you back up before the shooting started?
MR. COGBURN: About seven or eight steps.
MR. GOUDY: Meaning Aaron Wharton advanced on you about the same distance, some seven or eight steps?
MR. COGBURN: Something like that.
MR. GOUDY: What would that be? About sixteen feet?
MR. COGBURN: Something like that.
MR. GOUDY: Will you explain to the jury why his body was found immediately by the wash pot with one arm in the fire, his sleeve and hand smoldering?
MR. COGBURN: I don’t think that is where he was.
MR. GOUDY: Did you move the body after you had shot him?
MR. COGBURN: No sir.
MR. GOUDY: You did not drag his body back to the fire?
MR. COGBURN: No sir. I don’t think that is where he was.
MR. GOUDY: Two witnesses who arrived on the scene moments after the shooting will testify to the location of the body. You don’t remember moving the body?
MR. COGBURN: If that is where he was I might have moved him. I don’t remember it.
MR. GOUDY: Why did you place the upper part of his body in the fire?
MR. COGBURN: Well, I didn’t do it.
MR. GOUDY: Then you did not move him and he was not advancing upon you at all. Or you did move him and throw his body in the flames. Which? Make up your mind.
MR. COGBURN: Them hogs that was rooting around there might have moved him.
MR. GOUDY: Hogs indeed.
JUDGE PARKER: Mr. Goudy, darkness is upon us. Do you think you can finish with this witness in the next few minutes?
MR. GOUDY: I will need more time, your honor.
JUDGE PARKER: Very well. You may resume at eight-thirty o’clock tomorrow morning. Mr. Cogburn, you will return to the witness stand at that time. The jury with not talk to others or converse amongst themselves about this case. The defendant is remanded to custody.
The judge rapped his gavel and I jumped, not looking for that noise. The crowd broke up to leave. I had not been able to get a good look at that Odus Wharton but now I did when he stood up with an officer on each side of him. Even though he had one arm in a sling they kept his wrists cuffed in court. That was how dangerous he was. If there ever was a man with black murder in his countenance it was Odus Wharton. He was a half-breed with eyes that were mean and close-set and that stayed open all the time like snake eyes. It was a face hardened in sin. Creeks are good Indians, they say, but a Creek-white like him or a Creek-Negro is something else again.
When the officers were taking Wharton out he passed by Rooster Cogburn and said something to him, some ugly insult or threat, you could tell. Rooster just looked at him. The people pushed me on through the door and outside. I waited on the porch.
Rooster was one of the last ones out. He had a paper in one hand and a sack of tobacco in the other and he was trying to roll a cigarette. His hands were shaking and he was spilling tobacco.
I approached him and said, “Mr. Rooster Cogburn?”
He said, “What is it?” His mind was on something else.
I said, “I would like to talk with you a minute.”
He looked