Cinder Path Tales

THE HOTXOW HAMMER 53 port me, for he was on the anxious seat as well as myself. To Duffy's demand I answered as calmly as possible, " I believe this hammer under weight, and ask for a reweighing," holding it behind me meanwhile. At this there was a " hurly-burly " at once, Duffy'sfriends sur­ rounding me, and had it not been for Mac- Nab'ssupportl should have been indifficulties. The oldman did not know what fear was ;no one dared lay a hand on him, because ofhis popularity with the crowd, and he drowned all other voices with his shrill pipings. He demanded a reweighing much more forcibly than I. " I winna gie it 'tell the weght i' weghted. I winna, na, I winna," he yelled again and again, like a broken-winded bagpipe for all the world. Mr. Eraser, the judge,and a very fair man, saw that he must dosomething, and silenced the uproar, although old Sandy kept up a muttering all the time. "You sawme weigh the hammer," saidhe, looking at me. " I called it seventeen pounds one ounce, and you made no protest." — "I do not cast any reflections on you," I answered, " but this hammer which has just been thrown is cer­ tainly not a sixteen-pound hammer. I can prove my statement, and ask that all throws with it be disallowed." Then MacNab, who