A Master Hand Part 13

"But I don't!" said Littell promptly. "I feel sure you are not guilty and that is why I am going to defend you."

The strong confident tones of Littell acted like a tonic on the man. He braced up and seemed to shake off much of his despondency.

"And you have read all about it too?" he asked.

"Yes," Littell said, "and I am here now to hear the truth about it from you, so tell me everything."

Winters then repeated carefully his whole story as he had told it to me.

It differed in no particular from the previous recital, and satisfied me more than ever of his innocence.

Littell listened closely and when he had finished asked him, in a conversational way, many questions about details; questions that seemed natural and innocent in themselves, and which were promptly and freely answered, but questions that, I felt, would have confounded and tripped up a guilty man or an untruthful one.

When the interview was concluded and we were on our way uptown, Littell said to me:

"That man is starving for hope and sympathy, for freedom and sunlight.

He is innocent, too, d.i.c.k! and we must save him."

I concurred heartily in his opinion; "And what further can I do to help you?" I asked.

"Nothing more just now, I think," he answered. "There is too little time left for you to take up any new lines of investigation. We will devote ourselves to thoroughly digesting and mastering the facts we have so that we may make the most of them at the trial."

I a.s.sented, and with my arm locked in his we walked the rest of our way engaged in earnest discussion of the defence.

CHAPTER X

THE TRIAL

It was the morning of the day of the trial and I sat at my desk getting through some routine duties in an entirely perfunctory way prior to attending the opening of the court.

It had been determined that I was not to partic.i.p.ate in the conduct of the case in any way: indeed, there was little alternative left the District Attorney in the matter after I had explained to him the course I had been pursuing and my views on the subject.

He had not appeared much surprised by my disclosures and was probably not unprepared for them, but he questioned me as to my opinions and I thought seemed not unimpressed. In any event he acquiesced in my request to be excused from partic.i.p.ation and even added the a.s.surance that Winters should have every opportunity of defence.

At this moment, however, I did not feel confident. Look at the facts as I would, they presented very little to encourage. Nothing had changed since Littell and I had paid our visit to the Tombs. Nothing new had been discovered: indeed we had made little attempt in that direction, recognizing the almost certain futility of any effort in the limited time available, and in the meanwhile public opinion and the expression of the press had been crystallizing into an abiding conviction of the prisoner's guilt.

I could not criticise the sentiment, for I recognized the strength of the State's case: and when I reviewed it, as I had done over and over again, it seemed all but conclusive even to me. The defence had absolutely nothing to present against an array of hard facts, but some ill-supported theories.

It was a quarter to ten o'clock, and I put away the work I had been affecting to attend to, and took my way to the court-house.

Only my official position gained me admission to the scene, and as it was, an officer had to make a pa.s.sage for me through the crowd that had collected in and about the building.

The Judge had not yet taken his place upon the bench, but the lawyers, clerks, bailiffs, and reporters were in their accustomed places within the rail which held back from the sacred precinct a throng of spectators so dense that it could not make room for one more.

If one had been disposed for it, a lesson in the nether nature of man might have been studied in the faces of those pressing eagerly about the railing, alert with morbid curiosity.

In the crowd were both men and women and others little more than children: many who had themselves figured in the prisoner's dock in that same court-room: many more who would be there, and all, or nearly all, of that waste cla.s.s that make the criminals and the crimes of a great community.

Littell sat at the table of the defence quietly observing the scene about him, very likely engaged with thoughts such as had suggested themselves to me: but his face wore a more serious expression than was habitual to it, and there was a look of self-reliance and determination in the brave eyes and about the firm mouth that inspired me again with some confidence.

Winters had an able jurist and a dominating personality to guide his fortunes and I felt there was a chance for him even against the odds.

At the table of the prosecution sat the District Attorney and the junior he had selected to a.s.sist him in my stead. They were good lawyers, and would handle their case well I knew, but the work they were to engage in was an old story to them,--a matter of almost daily routine,--and they would therefore lack the concentrated interest and the nervous force that attend upon the defence.

There also, seated within the rail among the witnesses, were Van Bult, Davis, Belle Stanton, Mrs. Bunce, Miles, and Benton, and all the others that had already figured in the case.

I felt a strong inclination to take my seat beside Littell, for that was where my sympathies led me, but with only a glance in his direction, I took the chair a bailiff pushed up for me to the table of the prosecution.

Then a door opened and closed at one side of the room, and the crier in a brisk tone ordered "Hats off!"

A moment later, as the Judge took his seat on the bench, the same voice intoned: "Oyez! Oyez! The court is now in session!" and then the bustle of business took possession of the scene.

The Judge adjusted his collar and tried the points of some new pens; the lawyers sent the bailiffs hurrying for "authorities"; the clerks rustled the pages of their dockets, and the reporters sprawled over their table and scribbled copy.

Next a whispered conversation took place between the District Attorney and the Judge, and a moment later, by the order of the clerk, the prisoner was brought out.

All faces were turned in his direction: the crowd of spectators swaying as each one struggled for a pa.s.sing glance.

I looked at Winters as he was led in between two wardens. Fear was depicted in his face, and he shrank from the hostile and angry looks that met him on all sides as with lowered head and eyes he made his way to a place by his counsel.

It was hard to conceive how the appearance of that broken man could fail to excite pity and there must have been some among the crowd who pitied him, even though they condemned: but the majority saw only a murderer and hated him.

It was the manifestation of that unreasoning brute instinct to torture and kill dominant in the lower order of men, and which when encouraged by numbers and incited by the chance of a helpless victim, finds its active expression in a lynching.

When Winters had taken his place, the clerk read the indictment on arraignment and then put the usual question: "Are you guilty or not guilty?" to which the answer, in a low voice, was, "Not guilty!"

Next followed the selection of a jury. This task proved less difficult than usual in such cases, mainly because Littell showed no disposition to captious challenges, seeming only desirous of securing the services of intelligent men.

In a little more than two hours therefore, the twelve men were in their places and had been sworn, and as I looked over the jury, I felt that Littell had obtained his object, for its personnel was above the average.

The opening address of the junior for the State, which followed after a recess, was a clear and a concise statement of the facts, free from argument and dispa.s.sionate as it should be.

Upon its conclusion the State proceeded to offer its testimony. Witness after witness was called in rapid succession. First the technical requirements of the case were established: the death of the deceased, the character of the wound, the nature of the instrument used, and then other similar formal details; and thus in categorical questions and answers that were uninteresting, but essential, the first day's proceedings drew to a close.

During each examination Littell had been an attentive listener, but had portrayed no special concern and had rarely interrupted. He was too good a lawyer to lessen his prestige with the jury by indulging in aimless cross-questions of witnesses who had simply told the truth about undisputed facts. When he did cross-examine at all in such cases it was but briefly and with no attempt to break down the witness, but rather to develop more fully the facts and possibilities of the case, and the result of his questions in each instance had been to throw additional light upon the subject and to help the jury to its better understanding.

After adjournment I stood with others an interested observer of a short conversation the lawyer was holding with his client. Whatever the substance of it might have been, it was such as to bring a smile to the face of the prisoner as he turned away with his guards to go back to his prison.

Littell looked after him thoughtfully for a moment before he gathered together his papers and himself prepared to leave. As he did so I joined him, antic.i.p.ating that we should have an evening in each other's society; but it was not to be, for I found him in a mood stern and taciturn and disinclined to talk about the case, and so after several ineffectual attempts at conversation I left him.

My evening--spent alone therefore--was a dull one and the night long, and I was glad to find myself again at the trial table on the following morning. Here, all about me, the surroundings were unchanged in any way and it was hard to realize that there had been an interval of emptiness and silence within those walls.

As soon as court opened the State called Benton to the stand, and then the real battle of the trial began. He presented a different subject for the handling of the defence, for he not only testified to important matters, but he was the first witness to show any bias, and Littell gave more marked attention to his testimony. Under lengthy examination the witness told his story to the smallest particular, including the tales he had brought to me about the visits of the defendant to White's house, his demands upon him for money, and his a.s.sertions of his right to the money left by his father, and he also threw out some hints of threats and quarrels--all tending as much by insinuation as fact to cast suspicion upon the prisoner.

After the State had extracted all it could from him, he was turned over to Littell, and then the wisdom of that lawyer's previous course was demonstrated, for when, instead of waiving the witness from the stand or asking a few indifferent questions as he had done on other occasions, he turned and faced him preparatory to full cross-examination, both Judge and jury showed a newly awakened interest.