None of his capacity to make himself understood had the boy lost by the
craft of the moonshiners in placing him where he would never hear an
English word and was likely to forget the language. A very coherent story
he told still later when he was brought into the criminal court at
Shaftesville, being the capital of the county in Tennessee where the deed
was perpetrated, and confronted by Copenny. One of the moonshiners,
arrested on suspicion of complicity with the murder, had turned State's
evidence and had given testimony as to the details of the plot to ambush
the revenue officer, and the delegation of Phineas Copenny and two others
to execute it. Another testified that he had afterward heard of the
murderous plan and of the mistake in the identity of the victim; but as
neither of these parties was present at the catastrophe, the story of the
child was relied on as an eye-witness to corroborate this proof. The
admission of his testimony was hotly contested because of his tender
years, despite the wide inclusiveness of the statute, and its inadequacy
would possibly have resulted in a reversal of the case had an appeal been
taken.
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