Counsel for the Defense Part 55

"When he is guilty!"

"You know he is not."

"He's guilty--he's guilty, I tell you! Besides," he added, wildly, "don't you see that if I proclaim him innocent I proclaim myself a perjured witness?"

She leaned a little farther across the desk.

"Is not that exactly what you are, Doctor Sherman?"

He shrank back as though struck. One hand went tremulously to his chin and he stared at her.

"No! No!" he burst out spasmodically. "It's not so! I shall not admit it! Would you have me ruin myself for all time? Would you have me ruin Elsie's future! Would you have me kill her love for me?"

"Then you will not confess?"

"I tell you there is nothing to confess!"

She gazed at him steadily a moment. Then she turned back to the door, softly unlocked and opened it. He started to rush through, but she raised a hand and stopped him.

"Just look," she commanded in a whisper.

He stared through the open door. They could see Elsie's white face upon the pillow, with the two dark braids beside it; and could see Doctor West hovering over her. He had not heard them, but Miss Sherman had, and she directed at Katherine a pale and hostile glance.

The young husband twisted his hands in agony.

"Oh, Elsie! Elsie!" he moaned.

Katherine closed the door, and turned again to Doctor Sherman.

"You have seen your work," she said. "Do you still persist in your innocence?"

He drew a deep, shivering breath and shrank away behind his desk, but did not answer.

Katherine followed him.

"Do you know how sick your wife is?"

"I heard your father say."

"She is swinging over eternity by a mere thread." Katherine leaned across the desk and her eyes gazed with an even greater fixity into his. "If the thread snaps, do you know who will have broken it?"

"Don't! Don't!" he begged.

"Her own husband," Katherine went on relentlessly.

A cry of agony escaped him.

"You saw that old man in there bending over her," she pursued, "trying with all his skill, with all his love, to save her--to save her from the peril you have plunged her into--and with never a bitter feeling against you in his heart. If she lives, it will be because of him. And yet that old man is ruined and has a blackened reputation. I ask you, do you know who ruined him?"

"Don't! Don't!" he cried, and he sank a crumpled figure at his desk, and buried his face in his arms.

"Look up!" cried Katherine sternly.

"Wait!" he moaned. "Wait!"

She pa.s.sed around the desk and firmly raised his shoulders.

"Look me in the eyes!"

He lifted a face that worked convulsively.

She stood accusingly before him. "Out with the truth!" she commanded in a rising voice. "In the presence of your wife, perhaps dying, and dying as the result of your act--in the presence of that old man, whom you have ruined with your word--do you still dare to maintain your innocence? Out with the truth, I say!"

He sprang to his feet.

"I can stand it no longer!" he gasped in an agony that went to Katherine's heart. "It's killing me! It's been tearing me apart for months! What I have suffered--oh, what I have suffered! I'll tell you all--all! Oh, let me get it off my soul!"

The desperation of his outburst, the sight of his fine face convulsed with uttermost agony and repentance, worked a sudden revulsion in Katherine's heart. All her bitterness, her momentary sternness, rushed out of her, and there she was, quivering all over, hot tears in her eyes, gripping the hands of Elsie's husband.

"I'm so glad--not only for father's sake--but for your sake," she cried chokingly.

"Let me tell you at once! Let me get it out of myself!"

"First sit down," and she gently pressed him back into his chair and drew one up to face him. "And wait for a moment or two, till you feel a little calmer."

He bowed his head into his hands, and for a s.p.a.ce breathed deeply and tremulously. Katherine stood waiting. Through the night sounded the bra.s.sy strains of "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Back at the Court House Blake's party was opening its great ma.s.s-meeting.

"I'm a coward--a coward!" Doctor Sherman groaned at length into his hands. And in a voice of utmost contrition he went on and told how, to gain money for the proper care of Elsie, he had been drawn into gambling in stocks; how he had made use of church funds to save himself in a falling market, and how this church money had, like his own, been swallowed down by Wall Street; how Blake had discovered the embezzlement, for the time had saved him, but later by threat of exposure had driven him to play the part he had against Doctor West.

"You must make this statement public, instantly!" Katherine exclaimed when he had finished.

He shrank back before that supreme humiliation. "Let me do it later--please, please!" he besought her.

"A day's delay will be----" She caught his arm. "Listen!" she commanded.

Both held their breath. Through the night came the stirring music of "The Star Spangled Banner."

"What is that?" he asked.

"The great rally of Mr. Blake's party at the Court House." Her next words drove in. "To-morrow Mr. Blake is going to capture the city, and be in position to rob it. And all because of your act, Doctor Sherman!"

"You are right, you are right!" he breathed.

She held out a pen to him.

"You must write your statement at once."

"Yes, yes," he cried, "only let it be short now. I'll make it in full later."