Viola Gwyn Part 50

"I beg your honour's pardon."

Kenneth arose. "We will admit that Jasper Suggs came to his death at the hands of the defendant."

"In that case," said his gentlemanly adversary, "the State rests."

"Judge" Billings was heard audibly to remark: "Give 'em an inch and they take a mile."

"Order in the court! Call your first witness, Mr. Gwynne."

"Take this chair, if you please, Miss Hawk. Hold up your right hand and be sworn. Now, be good enough to answer the questions I put to you, clearly and distinctly, so that the jury may hear."

After a few preliminary questions he said: "Now tell the Court and the jury exactly what happened, beginning with the return of your father and Jasper Suggs from a trip to town. Don't be afraid, Miss--er--Moll. Tell the jury, in your own words, just what took place between the time you first heard Suggs and your father talking in the cabin and the arrival of the sheriff and his men."

It lacked just three minutes of ten o'clock when she finished her story. It had been delivered haltingly and with visible signs of embarra.s.sment at times, but it was a straightforward, honest recital of facts.

"Any questions, Mr. Prosecutor?"

"None, your honour. The State does not desire to present argument.

It is content to submit its case to the jury without argument, asking only that a verdict be rendered fairly and squarely upon the evidence as introduced. All we ask is justice."

"Any argument, Mr. Gwynne?"

"None, your honour. The defence is satisfied to leave its case entirely in the hands of the jury."

"Gentlemen of the jury," said the Court, glancing at the clock, "the Court will omit its instructions to you, merely advising you that if you find the prisoner guilty as charged your verdict must be murder in the first degree, the penalty for which is death."

"Judge" Billings leaned over and picked up his hat from the floor.

Then he arose and announced:

"We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty."

"Prisoner discharged," said the Court, arising. "The Court desires to thank the jurors for the close attention you have paid to the evidence in this case and for the prompt and just verdict you have returned. Court stands adjourned."

Later on Moll Hawk walked up the hill with Mrs. Gwyn and Viola.

Very few words had pa.s.sed between them since they left the curious but friendly crowd in the public square. Finally Moll's dubious thoughts found expression in words, breaking in upon the detached reflections of her two companions.

"I don't see why they let me off like that, Mis' Gwyn. I killed him, didn't I?"

"Yes, Moll,--but the law does not convict a person who kills in self-defence. Didn't you understand that?" "But supposin' I wuz starvin' to death an' I stole a ham like Bud Gridley did last fall when his pa an' ma wuz sick, wouldn't that be self-defence? They put him in jail fer two months, jest fer stealin' a ham when he hadn't had nothin' to eat fer three days,--bein' crippled an' couldn't work. Wuz that fair?"

"Don't forget, Moll," said Rachel ironically, "that Henry b.u.t.ts valued his ham at seventy-five cents."

"Anyhow, hit don't seem right an' fair," said Moll. "I didn't have to kill Jasper to save my life. I could ha' saved it without killin' him."

"You did perfectly right in killing him, Moll," broke in Viola warmly. "I would have done the same thing if I had been in your place."

Moll thought over this for a few seconds. "Well, maybe you might have had to do it, Miss Violy, if them fellers had got away with you as they wuz plannin' to do," she said.

Silence fell between them again, broken after a while by Moll.

"They'll never ketch Pap," she said. "I guess I'll never lay eyes on him ag'in. I wuz jest wonderin' what's goin' to become of his dogs. Do you suppose anybody'll take the trouble to feed 'em?"

Toby Moxler, Jack Trentman's dealer, accosted Kenneth Gwynne at the conclusion of the first drill.

"Jack found this here letter down at the shanty this morning, Mr.

Gwynne. It's addressed to you, so he asked me to hand it to you when I saw you."

Kenneth knew at once who the letter was from. He stuck it into his coat pocket, unopened.

"Tell Jack that I am very much obliged to him," he said, and walked away.

When he was safely out of hearing distance, Toby turned to the man at his side and remarked:

"If what Barry Lapelle told me and Jack Trentman yesterday morning is true, there'll be the doggonedest scandal this town ever heard of."

"What did he tell you?" inquired his neighbour eagerly.

"It's against my principles to talk about women," snapped Toby, glaring at the man as if deeply insulted. Seeing the disappointment in the other's face, he softened a little: "'Specially about widders,"

he went so far as to explain. "You keep your shirt on, Elmer, and wait. And when it _does_ come out, you'll be the most surprised man in town."

Kenneth did not open Barry's letter until he reached his office.

His face darkened as he read but cleared almost instantly. He even smiled disdainfully as he tore the sheet into small pieces and stuffed them into his pocket against the time when he could consign them to the fire in his kitchen stove.

"Kenneth Gwynne, Esquire.

"Sir: Upon receipt of your discurtious and cowardly reply to my challenge I realized the futility of expecting on your part an honourable and gentlemanly settlement of our difficulties. My natural inclination was to seek you out and force you to fight but advice of friends prevailed. I have decided to make it my business to verify the story which has come to my ears regarding the Gwynne and Carter families. In pursuit of this intention I am starting immediately for your old home town in Kentucky where I am convinced there still remain a number of people who will be able to give me all the facts. If I was misled into making statements that were untrue in my last meeting with your sister I shall most humbly apologize to her. If on the contrary I find that what I said to her was true I will make it my business to bring all the facts to the notice of the people of Lafayette and let them decide what to do in the matter. In any case I shall return in about a month or six weeks at which time I shall renew my challenge to you with the sincere hope that you may accept it and that I may have the belated pleasure of putting a bullet through your cowardly heart. I must however in the meantime refuse to sign myself

"Yours respectfully

"BARRY LAPELLE."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE TRYSTING PLACE OF THOUGHTS

The turmoil and excitement over the Indian outbreak increased during the day. A constant stream of refugees, mostly old men, women and children, poured into Lafayette from regions west of the Wabash.

By nightfall fully three hundred of them were being cared for by the people of the town, and more were coming. Shortly after noon a mounted scout rode in from Warren County with the word that the militia of his county was preparing to start off at once to meet the advancing hordes; he brought in the report that farther north the frontier was being abandoned by the settlers and that ma.s.sacres already had occurred. There was also a well-supported rumour that a portion of the Illinois militia, some two hundred and fifty men in all, had been routed on Hickory Creek by Black Hawk's invincible warriors, with appalling losses to the whites. He bore a stirring message from his commanding officer, urging the men of Tippecanoe to rouse themselves and join Warren County troops in an immediate movement to repel or at least to check the Sacs and Miamis and Pottawattomies who were swarming over the prairies like locusts.

The appearance of this messenger, worn and spent after his long ride, created a profound sensation. Here at last was official verification of the stories brought in by the panic-stricken refugees; here was something that caused the whole town suddenly to awake to the fact that a real menace existed, and that it was not, after all, another of those rattle-brained "scares" which were constantly cropping up.

For months there had been talk of old Black Hawk and his Sacs going on the warpath over the occupation of their lands in Northern Illinois by the swift-advancing, ruthless whites. The old Sac, or Sauk, chieftain had long threatened to resist by force of arms this violation of the treaty. He had been so long, however, in even making a start to carry out his threat that the more enlightened pioneers had ceased to take any stock in his spoutings.

The Free Press, Lafayette's only newspaper, had from time to time printed news seeping out of the Northwest by means of carrier or voyageur; their tales bore out the reports furnished by Federal and State authorities on the more or less unsettled conditions. There was, for example, the extremely disquieting story that Black Hawk, on his return from a hunting trip west of the Mississippi, had travelled far eastward across Northern Indiana to seek the advice of the British commander in Canada. Not only was the story of this pilgrimage true, but the fact was afterward definitely established that the British official advised the chief to make war on the white settlers,--this being late in 1831, nearly twenty years after the close of the War of 1812. Many of Black Hawk's warriors had served under Tec.u.mseh in the last war with England, and they still were rabid British sympathizers.

Amidst the greatest enthusiasm and excitement, the men of Lafayette organized the "Guards," a company some three hundred strong. After several days of intensive and, for a time, ludicrous "drilling,"