He looked immaculate.
Josiah looked like a rancher who had spent the previous night fighting fire.
Martha preferred Josiah.
The territorial judge began.
Montgomery’s attorney spoke first.
Debt valid.
Assignment valid.
Payment due.
No legal basis to interfere.
Allegations of freight irregularity unrelated to promissory note.
Josiah’s lawyer responded.
Fraud infected the underlying indebtedness.
Inflated billing formed part of default pressure.
Assignment made with Montgomery’s direct knowledge because he was the alleged perpetrator.
The judge frowned.
Then witnesses.
Bank manager.
Mine superintendent.
Hotel owner.
Scale records.
Different invoice copies.
Montgomery remained calm.
His lawyer had explanations.
Clerical duplication.
Employee misconduct.
Freight loss.
Accounting discrepancies.
Then Martha testified.
She walked to the witness chair slowly.
The room watched every step.
She sat.
The chair held.
Montgomery’s lawyer smiled.
“Miss Higgins, you are employed as a cook?”
Martha looked at him.
“I was hired for food preservation.”
“You have no formal training in banking?”
“No.”
“Law?”
“No.”
“Freight auditing?”
“No.”
“Accounting degree?”
“No.”
He turned toward the room as if finished already.
Martha continued:
“I ran a boarding house for ten years.”
He looked back.
“You balanced accounts?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Twenty-two rooms at full occupancy.”
“Food purchases.”
“Coal.”
“Wages.”
“Laundry.”
“Freight.”
“Tax.”
“Repairs.”
“Credit.”
“I also negotiated supply contracts with three mills and two meat distributors.”
The lawyer stopped smiling.
Martha added:
“And unlike Mr. Montgomery, I used one set of books.”
Laughter exploded.
The judge struck his gavel.
Montgomery’s face tightened.
The lawyer recovered.
“You personally saw my client alter an invoice?”
“No.”
“You personally saw him remove grain from a wagon?”
“No.”
“You personally saw him order cattle stolen?”
“No.”
“Then much of your testimony is assumption.”
Martha looked toward the judge.
“No.”
The lawyer frowned.
She continued.
“Assumption is saying what happened without measurement.”
“I measured.”
She pointed toward exhibits.
“Ordered weight.”
“Delivered weight.”
“Bank-reported weight.”
“Billed weight.”
“Repeated transactions.”
“Different customers.”
“Independent scales.”
“Same direction of discrepancy.”
The lawyer said:
“That does not identify the person responsible.”
“Correct.”
He smiled again.
Then Martha said:
“The invoice sequence does.”
The room quieted.
Montgomery looked at his attorney.
Martha explained the dual numbering system.
She had created a chart.
The prosecutor had compared it with seized mercantile records that morning after obtaining a warrant based on bank evidence.
That was new.
Montgomery did not know.
The county prosecutor stood.
He handed documents forward.
Two ledgers.
One official.
One hidden in a locked cabinet at Montgomery Mercantile.
The second recorded “adjustments.”
Not labeled theft.
Men like Montgomery preferred euphemism.
But numbers matched.
Additional weight billed to targeted debtors.
Credits internally recorded elsewhere.
Josiah’s name appeared repeatedly.
So did six other ranchers.