the heaviest irons we’ve got. Come, make haste: let me see him in front of me!”
So Tom was led off, unresisting still, but scornfully silent now, between watchman and overseer; and the father stalked, and the son slouched, behind.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE COURT-HOUSE
The nearest magistrate was an Anglo-Indian of the name of Strachan, another employer of convict labour on a large scale, and a disciplinarian second only to Dr. Sullivan himself. The two were close friends, and indispensable to each other in certain ways. Both, in fact, were magistrates; but no magistrate was competent to deal judicially with his own offending convicts, and thus an interchange of mutual favours was kept up between the pair.
They would meet on Mondays at the courthouse situated midway between their respective strongholds, and at this courthouse Dr. Sullivan would oblige Mr. Strachan by sentencing any servant of the latter to as many lashes as his master liked, while Mr. Strachan was only too glad to do the same for Dr. Sullivan. So great was the mutual convenience, that either potentate was delighted to hold a special inquiry, in any exceptional case, to oblige the other; and one was held accordingly in the forenoon following Tom’s assault upon his master’s son.
A mounted messenger was despatched to Mr. Strachan, who sent back word that he would be at the court-house
