the way Alvin wanted it," she said. "I don't know why."
"And how long did you spend there behind the fat lady?"
"About five minutes."
Verily raised an eyebrow. "Why so hasty?" Then, before Webster could object, he plunged into his next question. "So Alvin escaped from the Hatrack County jail in broad daylight, journeyed all the way to Vigor Church on the far side of the state of Wobbish from here, in order to spend five minutes with you behind the fat lady?"
Webster spoke up again. "How can this young girl be expected to know the defendant's motivations for whatever bizarre acts he performs?"
"Was that an objection?" asked the judge.
"It doesn't matter," said Verily. "I'm through with her for now." And this time he let a little contempt into his voice. Let the jury see that he no longer had any regard for this girl. He hadn't destroyed her testimony, but he had laid the groundwork for doubt.
It was three in the afternoon. The judge adjourned them for the day.
Alvin and Verily had supper in his cell that night, conferring over what was likely to happen the next day, and what had to happen in order to acquit him. "They actually haven't proved anything about Makepeace," said Verily. "All they're doing is proving you're a liar in general, and then hoping the jury will think this removes all reasonable doubt about you and the plow. The worst thing is that every step of the way, Webster and Laws have played me like a harp. They set me up, I introduced an idea they were hoping I'd bring up in my cross-examifiation, and presto! There's the groundwork for the next irrelevant, character-damaging witness."
"So they know the legal tricks in American courts better than you do," said Alvin. "You know the law. You know how things fit together."
"Don't you see, Alvin? Webster doesn't care whether you're convicted or not - what he loves is the stories the newspapers are writing about this trial. Besmirching your reputation. You'll never recover from that."
"I don't know about never," said Alvin.
"Stories like this don't disappear. Even if we manage to find the man who impregnated her - "
"I know who it was," said Alvin.
"What? How could you - "
"Matt Thatcher. He's a couple of years younger than me, but all us boys knew him in Vigor. He was always a rapscallion of the first stripe, and when I was back there this past year he was always full of brag about how no girl could resist him. Every now and then some fellow'd have to beat him up cause of something he said about the fellow's sister. But after last year's county fair, he was talking about how he drove his tent spike into five different girls, in the freak show tent behind the fat lady."
"But that was more than a year ago."
"A boy like Matt Thatcher don't got much imagination, Verily. If he found himself a spot that worked once, he'll be back there. For what it's worth, though, he never did name any of the girls he supposedly got last year, so we all figured he just found the spot and wished he could get himself some girl to go with him there. I just figure that this year he finally succeeded."
Verily leaned back on his stool, sipping his mug of warm cider. "The thing that puzzles me is, Webster must have found Amy Sump when he visited in Vigor Church long before I got there. Before the county fair, too. She must not have been pregnant when he found her."
Alvin smiled and nodded. "I can just imagine him telling Amy's parents, 'Well it's a good thing she's not with child. Though if she were, I dare say Alvin's wandering days would be over.' And she listens and goes and gets herself pregnant with the most willing but stupid boy in the county."
Verily laughed. "You imitate his voice quite well, sir!"
"Oh, I'm nothing at imitations. I wish you could have heard Arthur Stuart back in the old days. Before..."
"Before?"
"Before I changed him so the Finders couldn't identify him."
"So you didn't just subvert their cachet. You changed the boy himself."
"I made him just a little bit less Arthur and a little bit more Alvin. I'm not glad of it. I miss the way he could make hisself sound like anybody. Even a redbird. He used to sing right back to the redbird."
"Can't you change him back? Now that he has the official court decision, he can