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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bb34a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54098 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54098) diff --git a/old/54098-0.txt b/old/54098-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 96baa26..0000000 --- a/old/54098-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3391 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Light that Lies, by George Barr McCutcheon - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Light that Lies - -Author: George Barr McCutcheon - -Release Date: February 3, 2017 [EBook #54098] -Last Updated: March 12, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT THAT LIES *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - -THE LIGHT THAT LIES - -By George Barr McCutcheon - -The McClure Publications. Inc. - -Copyright, 1916 - -The Dodd Mead And Company, Inc. - - - - -CHAPTER I - -Sampson had been uncommonly successful in evading jury service. By some -hook or crook he always had managed to “get off,” and he had begun -to regard his trips down to General or Special Sessions--coming with -monotonous regularity about three times a year--as interruptions instead -of annoyances. Wise men advised him to serve and get it over with for -the time being, but he had been so steadfastly resourceful in confining -his jury service to brief and uneventful “appearances,” and to -occasional examinations as to his fitness to serve as a juror, that he -preferred to trust to his smartness rather than to their wisdom. Others -suggested that he get on the “sheriff's jury,” a quaintly distinguished -method of serving the commonwealth in that the members perform their -duty as citizens in such a luxurious and expensive way that they -never appear in the newspapers as “twelve good men and true” but as -contributors to somewhat compulsory festivities in which justice is done -to the inner man alone. But Sampson, though rich, abhored the sheriff's -jury. He preferred to invent excuses rather than to have them thrust -upon him. - -Having escaped service on half-a-dozen murder trials by shrewd and -original responses to important questions by counsel for one side or the -other--(it really didn't matter to Sampson which side it was so long as -he saw the loophole)--he found himself at last in the awkward position -of having exhausted all reasonable excuses, and was obliged to confess -one day in court that he had reconsidered his views in regard to capital -punishment. This confession resulted, of course, in his name being -dropped from the “special panel,” for the jury commissioner did not want -any man in that august body who couldn't see his way clear to taking -the life of another. He “got off” once on the ground that he was quite -certain he could not convict on circumstantial evidence, despite the -assurance of learned experts that it is the _best_ evidence of all, and -he escaped another time because he did not consider insanity a defence -in homicidal cases. - -Then they drew him for Special Sessions and eventually for the -humiliating lower courts, the result being that his resourcefulness -was under a constant and ever increasing strain. Where once he had -experienced a rather pleasing interest in “getting off” in important -cases, he now found himself very hard put to escape service in the most -trifling of criminal trials. - -He began to complain bitterly of the injustice to himself, an honest, -upright citizen who was obliged to live in a constant state of -apprehension. He felt like a hunted animal. He was no sooner safely out -of one case when he was called for another. - -It was all wrong. Why should he be hounded like this when the city was -full of men eager to earn two dollars a day and who would not in -the least mind sitting cross-legged and idle all day long in a jury -box--snoozing perhaps--in order to do their duty as citizens? Moreover, -there were men who actually _needed_ the money, and there were lots -of them who were quite as honest as the prisoners on trial or even the -witnesses who testified. - -He was quite sure that if he ever was sworn in as a juror, his entire -sympathy would be with the prisoner at the bar, for he would have a -fellow feeling for the unhappy wretch who also was there because he -couldn't help it. The jury system was all wrong, claimed Sampson. For -example, said he, a man is supposed to be tried by twelve of his peers. -That being the case, a ruffian from the lower East Side should be tried -by his moral and mental equals and not by his superiors. By the same -argument, a brainy, intelligent bank or railway president, an editor, -or a college professor, should not be tried by twelve incompetent though -perfectly honest window-washers. Any way you looked at it, the jury -system was all wrong. The more Sampson thought about it the more fully -convinced was he that something ought to be done about it. - -He had been obliged to miss two weddings, a private-car jaunt to Aiken, -one of the Harvard-Yale football matches, the docking of the _Olympic_ -when she carried at least one precious passenger, the sailing of the -_Cedric_ when she carried an equally precious but more exacting object -of interest, a chance to meet the Princess Pat, and a lot of other -things that he wouldn't have missed for anything in the world -notwithstanding the fact that he couldn't remember, off hand, just what -they were. Suffice it to say, this miserable business of “getting off” - juries kept Sampson so occupied that he found it extremely difficult to -get on with anything else. - -He was above trying to “fix” any one. Other men, he knew, had some one -downtown who could get them off with a word to the proper person, and -others were of sufficient importance politically to make it impossible -for them to be in contempt of court. That's what he called “fixing -things.” - -Shortly after the holidays he was served with a notice to appear and be -examined as to his fitness to serve as juror in the case of the State -vs. James W. Hildebrand. Now, he had made all his arrangements for -a trip to California. In fact, he planned to leave New York on the -twenty-first of January, and here he was being called into court on the -twentieth. Something told him that the presiding justice was sure to be -one of those who had witnessed one or more of his escapes from service -on previous occasions, and that the honourable gentleman in the long -black gown would smile sadly and shake his head if he protested that -he was obliged to get off because he had to go to California for his -health. The stupidest judge on earth would know at a glance that Sampson -didn't have to go anywhere for his health. He really had more of it than -was good for him. - -If he hadn't been so healthy he might have relished an occasional -fortnight of indolence in a drowsy, stuffy, little court-room with -absolutely nothing to do but to look at the clock and wonder, with the -rest of the jurors, how on earth the judge contrived to wake up from a -sound sleep whenever a point came up for decision and always to settle -it so firmly, so confidently, so promptly that even the lawyers were -fooled into believing that he had been awake all the time. - -Sampson entered the little court-room at 9:50 o'clock on the morning of -the twentieth. - -He was never to forget the morning of the twentieth. - -Fifteen or twenty uneasy, sour-faced men, of all ages, sizes and -condition sat outside the railing, trying to look unconcerned. They -couldn't fool him. He knew what they were and he knew that in the -soul of each lurked the selfish, cruel prayer that twelve men would be -snatched from among them and stuffed into the jury box to stay before -the clerk could draw his own dreaded name from the little box at his -elbow. - -Other men came in and shuffled into chairs. The deputy clerk of the -court emerged from somewhere and began fussing with the papers on his -desk. Every man there envied him. He had a nice job, and he looked as -though he rather liked being connected with an inhuman enterprise. He -was immune. He was like the man who already has had smallpox. Lazy court -attendants in well-worn uniforms ambled about freely. They too were -envied. They were thoroughly court-broken. A couple of blithe, alert -looking young men from the district attorney's office came and, with -their hands in their pockets, stared blandly at the waiting group, very -much as the judges at a live-stock show stare at the prize pigs, sheep -and cattle. They seemed to be appraising the supply on hand and, to -judge by their manner, they were not at all favourably impressed with -the material. Indeed, they looked unmistakably annoyed. It was bad -enough to have to select a jury in any event, but to have to select one -from _this_ collection of ignoramuses was--well, it was _too_ much! - -The hour hand on the clock said ten o'clock, but everybody was watching -the minute hand. It had to touch twelve before anything, could happen. -Then the judge would steal out of his lair and mount the bench, while -every one stood and listened to the unintelligible barking of the -attendant who began with something that sounded suspiciously like -“Oy-yoy!” notwithstanding the fact that he was an Irish and not a Jewish -comedian. - -Two uninteresting, anxious-eyed, middle-aged men, who looked a trifle -scared and uncertain as to their right to be there, appeared suddenly -inside the railing, and no one doubted for an instant that they were the -defendant's lawyers. Sampson always had wondered why the men from the -district attorney's office were so confident, so cocky, and so spruce -looking while their opponents invariably appeared to be a seedy, -harassed lot, somewhat furtive in their movements and usually labouring -under the strain of an inward shyness that caused a greasy polish of -perspiration to spread over their countenances. - -Sampson was to find that these timid, incompetent looking individuals -had every reason in the world to be perspiring even so early in the -proceedings. They turned out to be what is known in rhetorical circles -as “fire-eaters” The judge took his seat and the clerk at once called -the case of the State vs. James W. Hildebrand. Sampson speculated. What -had Hildebrand done to get himself into a mess of this sort? Was -it grand or petit larceny, or was it house-breaking, entering, -safe-cracking, or--Two burly attendants came up the side aisle and -between them walked a gaunt, grey, stooped old man, his smooth shaven -face blanched by weeks of sunless existence. - -Sampson had expected to see a sullen-faced, slouching young fellow, -shaved and brushed and combed into an unnatural state of comeliness for -the purpose of hoodwinking the jury into the belief that his life was as -clean as his cheek. He could not deny himself a stare of incredulity -on beholding this well-dressed, even ascetic looking man who strode -haltingly, almost timidly through the little gate and sank into the -chair designated by his counsel. Once seated, he barely glanced at his -lawyers, and then allowed his eyes to fall as if shame was the drawing -power. Somehow, in that instant, Sampson experienced the sudden -conviction that this man James W. Hildebrand was no ordinary person, for -it was borne in upon him that he despised the men who were employed to -defend him. It was as if he were more ashamed of being seen with them -than he was of being haled into a court of justice charged with crime. - -The assistant district attorney in charge of the case addressed the -waiting talesmen, briefly outlining the case against the defendant, and -for the first time in his experience Sampson listened with a show of -interest. - -James W. Hildebrand was charged with embezzlement. Judging by the -efforts of his counsel to have the case set over for at least ten -days and the Court's refusal to grant a delay, together with certain -significant observations as to the time that would probably be required -to produce and present the evidence--a week or more--Sampson realised -that this was a case of considerable magnitude. He racked his brain in -the futile effort to recall any mention of it in the newspapers. It was -his practice to read every line of the criminal news printed, for this -was the only means he had of justifying the declaration that he had -formed an opinion. Nothing escaped him--or at least he thought so--and -yet here was a case, evidently important, that had slipped through -without having made the slightest impression on him. It was most -disturbing. This should not have happened. - -His heart sank as he thought of the California reservations uptown. -He was expected to take up the transportation and Pullman that very -afternoon. - -The old man--he was seventy--was accused of having misappropriated -something like fifty thousand dollars of the funds belonging to a -real-estate and investment concern in which he was not only a partner -but also its secretary and treasurer. The alleged crime had been -committed some five years prior to the day on which he was brought to -trial. - -After having evaded capture for four years and a half by secluding -himself in Europe, he voluntarily had returned to the States, giving -himself up to the authorities. Sampson abused himself secretly for -having allowed such a theatric incident as this to get by without notice -on his part. Other prospective jurors sitting nearby appeared to -know all about the case, for he caught sundry whispered comments that -enlightened him considerably. He realised that he had been singularly -and criminally negligent. - -A protracted and confidential confab took place between the Court and -the counsel for both sides. Every juror there hoped that they were -discussing some secret and imperative reason for indefinitely postponing -the case after all--or, perhaps, better than that, the prisoner was -going to plead guilty and save all of them! - -Finally the little group before the bench broke up and one of the -attorneys for Hildebrand approached the rail and held open the gate. A -woman entered and took a seat beside the prisoner. Sampson, with scant -interest in the woman herself--except to note that she was slender and -quite smartly attired--was at once aware of a surprising politeness -and deference on the part of the transmogrified lawyers, both of whom -smirked and scraped and beamed with what they evidently intended to be -gallantry. - -The attorneys for the state regarded the lady with a very direct -interest, and smiled upon her, not condescendingly or derisively as is -their wont, but with unmistakable pleasure. A close observer would -have detected a somewhat significant attentiveness on the part of the -justice, a middle-aged gentleman whose business it was to look severe -and ungenial. He gave his iron-grey moustache a tender twist at each end -and placed an elbow on the desk in front of him, revealing by that act -that he was as human as any one else. - -I have neglected to state that Sampson was thirty, smooth-faced, -good-looking, a consistent member of an athletic club and a Harvard man -who had won two H's and a _cum laude_ with equal ease. You will discover -later on that he was unmarried. - -He was the seventeenth talesman called. Two jurors had been secured. The -other fourteen had been challenged for cause and, for the life of him, -he couldn't see why. They all looked pretty satisfactory to him. He -garnered a little hope for himself in the profligate waste of good -material. If he could sustain his customary look of intelligence there -was a splendid chance that he too would be rejected. - -It seemed to him that the attendant in announcing his name and place -“of residence after the oath vociferated with unusual vehemence. Never -before had he heard his name uttered with such amazing gusto. - -“You have heard the statement concerning the charge against the -defendant, Mr. Sampson,” said the assistant district attorney, taking -his stand directly in front of him. “Before going any farther, I will -ask if you know of any reason why you cannot act as a juror in this -case?” - -Sampson had always been honest in his responses. He never had lied in -order to “get off.” Subterfuges and tricks, yes--but never deliberate -falsehood. - -“No,” he answered. - -“Have you heard of this case before?” - -“No,” admitted Sampson, distinctly mortified. - -“Then you have formed no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the -defendant?” - -“No.” - -“Are you acquainted with the defendant, James W. Hildebrand?” - -“No.” - -“Have you had any business dealings with either of his counsel, Mr. -Abrams or Mr. O'Brien?” - -“No.” - -“Are you acquainted with either of his former partners, the gentlemen -who are to appear as witnesses against him, Thomas Stevens and John L. -Drew?” - -Sampson's face brightened. “I know a John Drew,” he said. The lawyer -shook his head and smiled. “But he's not in the loan business,” he -added. - -“Do you know Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter of this -defendant? The lady sitting beside him?” - -[Illustration: 0029] - -For the first time, Sampson directed his attention to the woman. His -glance, instead of being casual and perfunctory, as he had expected -it would be, developed into a prolonged stare that left him shy and -confused. She was looking into his eyes, calmly, seriously, and, he -thought, a bit speculatively, as if she were estimating his mental -displacement. As a matter of fact, she was merely detaching him from the -others who had gone before. He had the strange, uncomfortable feeling -that he was being appraised by a most uncompromising judge. His stare -was not due to resentment on his part because of her cool inspection. It -was the result of suddenly being confronted by the loveliest girl he had -ever seen--unquestionably the loveliest. - -It seemed an affront to this beautiful, clear-eyed creature to say that -he did not know her. To say it to her face, too--with her eyes upon -him--why, it was incomprehensibly rude and ungallant. He ought to have -been spared this unnecessary humiliation, he thought. How would she -feel when he deliberately, coldly insulted her by uttering a bald, harsh -negative to the question that had been asked? - -“I--I am afraid not,” he managed to qualify, hoping for a slight smile -of acknowledgement. - -“Would you be inclined to favour the defendant because of his age, Mr. -Sampson?” - -Sampson hesitated. Here was his chance. He looked again at Miss -Alexandra Hildebrand. She was still regarding him coolly, impersonally. -After all, he was nothing to her but a juror--just an ordinary, -unwholesome specimen undergoing examination. If he was rejected, he -would pass out of her mind on the instant and never again would he be -permitted to enter. He felt very small and inconsequential. - -“Well, naturally, I suppose, I should be influenced to some extent by -his age,” he replied. - -“You would, however, keep your mind open to the evidence in the case and -render a verdict according to that evidence? You would not discharge him -solely because he is an old man?” - -“I don't know where my sympathy would carry me,” said Sampson evasively. - -“I see. Well, if you should be accepted by both sides as a juror to sit -in this case you would at least try to divide your sympathy as fairly as -possible between us, wouldn't you? You would not deny the long-suffering -State of New York a share of your sympathy, would you?” - -Miss Hildebrand, at that juncture, touched her grandfather on the arm -and whispered something in his ear. For the first time the old man -looked at the talesman in the chair. Sampson was acutely aware of a -sudden flash of interest in the prisoner's eyes. Moreover, the young -woman was regarding him rather less impersonally. - -Sampson assumed an air of extreme hauteur “If I am accepted by both -sides in this case, my sympathy will be, first of all, with myself, -I am not eager to serve. I shall, however, do my best to render an -intelligent, just verdict.” - -“According to the evidence and the law as laid down by the honourable -Court?” - -“According to the circumstances as I see them.” - -“That is not a direct answer to my question, Mr. Sampson.” - -“I am not willing to say that I will be governed entirely by the -evidence. I can only say, that I should render what I consider to be a -just and reasonable verdict, depending on circumstances.” - -“Ahem! You are quite sure that you could render a just and reasonable -verdict?” - -“Yes.” - -“And yet you admit that you cannot answer for your sympathies?” - -“Are you cross-examining me?” - -“Not at all, Mr. Sampson,” responded the other smoothly. “I am merely -trying to ascertain whether you are competent to serve as a juror in -this case.” - -Sampson was saying to himself: “Thank the Lord, he will never accept -me.” Aloud he said: “Pray, overlook my stupidity and proceed--” - -The Court leaned forward and tapped smartly on the desk with a lead -pencil. “We are wasting time, gentlemen. Please omit the persiflage.” - -“Have you ever served as a juror in a criminal case, Mr. Sampson?” - inquired the lawyer. Sampson had turned pink under the Court's mild -irony. - -“No,” he answered, and glanced at Miss Hildebrand, expecting to see a -gleam of amusement in her eyes. She was regarding him quite solemnly, -however. - -“You are a Harvard man, I believe, Mr. Sampson?” - -“Yes.” - -“If it should be shown that this defendant is also a Harvard graduate, -would that fact serve to prejudice you in his favour?” - -“Certainly not,” said Sampson, warmly. This was _too_ much! - -“What is your business, Mr. Sampson?” - -“I am connected with the Sampson Steamship and Navigation Company.” - -“In what capacity?” - -“I am its president.” - -“You are, I believe, the son of the late Peter Stuyvesant Sampson, -founder of the company?” - -“I am.” - -“The only son?” - -“And heir,” said Sampson curtly. “I inherited my job, if that's what you -are trying to get at. And it is more or less of an honorary position, if -that will help you any. I am president of the company because I happen -to own all but five shares of the capital stock, and not because I -really want to hold, or because I am in any sense competent to fill the -office. Now you know all that there is to know about my connection with -the company.” - -“Thanks,” said the assistant district attorney, drily. “And now, Mr. -Sampson, could you sit as a juror in this case and give, on your honour -as a man, despite a very natural sympathy that may be aroused for this -aged defendant, a verdict in favour of the State if it is proved to you -beyond all doubt that he is guilty as charged?” - -There was but one answer that Sampson could give. He felt exceedingly -sorry for himself. “Yes.” Then he made haste to qualify: “Provided, as I -said before, that there are no extenuating circumstances.” - -“But you would not deliberately discharge a guilty man just because you -happened to feel sorry for him, would you? We, as individuals, are all -sorry for the person we are obliged to punish, Mr. Sampson. But the -law is never sorry. The mere fact that one man disregards the law is no -reason why the rest of us should do the same, is it?” - -“Of course not,” said Sampson, feeling himself in a trap. - -“The State asks no more of you than you would, as a citizen, ask of -the State, Mr. Sampson. The fact that this defendant, after five years, -voluntarily surrendered himself to the authorities--would that have any -effect on your feelings?” - -“Yes, it would. I should certainly take that into consideration. As a -citizen, I could not ask more of any man than that he surrender himself -to my State if it couldn't catch him.” - -The Court tapped with his pencil, and a raucous voice from somewhere -called for order. - -“Are you a married man, Mr. Sampson?” - -“I am not.” - -“The State is satisfied,” said the assistant district attorney, and sat -down. - -Sampson caught his breath. Satisfied? It meant that he was acceptable -to the State! After all he had said, he was acceptable to the State. He -could hardly believe his ears. Landed! Landed, that's what it meant. The -defence would take him like a shot. A cold perspiration burst out all -over him. And while he was still wondering how the district attorney -could have entrusted the case to such an incompetent subordinate, -counsel for the defence began to ply him with questions--perfunctory, -ponderous questions that might have been omitted, for any one with half -an eye could see that Sampson was doomed the instant the State said it -was satisfied. - -His spirit was gone. He recognised the inevitable; in a dazed sort of -way he answered the questions, usually in monosyllables and utterly -without spunk. Miss Hildebrand was no longer resting her elbows on -the table in front of her in an attitude of suspense. She was leaning -comfortably back in her chair, her head cocked a little to one side, -and she gazed serenely at the topmost pane of glass in the tall window -behind the jury box. She appeared to be completely satisfied. - -He saw the two lawyers lean across the table in consultation with the -prisoner and his granddaughter, their heads close together. They were -discussing him as if he were the criminal in the case. Miss Hildebrand -peered at him as she whispered something in her grandfather's ear, and -then he caught a fleeting, though friendly smile in her eyes. He -was reminded, in spite of his extreme discomfiture, that she was an -amazingly pretty girl. - -“No challenge,” said the defendant's attorney, and Sampson was told to -take seat No. 3 in the jury box. - -“Defendant, look upon the juror. Juror, look upon the defendant,” said -the clerk, and with his hand on the Bible Sampson took the oath to -render a true verdict according to the law and the evidence, all the -while looking straight into the eyes of the gaunt old man who stood and -looked at him wearily, drearily, as if from a distance that rendered his -vision useless. - -Then Sampson sank awkwardly into the third seat, and sighed so -profoundly that juror No. 2 chuckled. - -He certainly was in for it now. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -You needn't pack,” said Sampson to his valet that evening. “I'm stuck.” - -“Stuck, sir?” - -“Caught on the jury, Turple. Landed at last. But,” he sighed, “I've -given 'em a good run though, haven't I?” - -“You 'ave, sir. I dare say you will like it 'owever, now that you've -been stuck, as you say. My father, when he was alive, was very fond -of serving on the juries, sir. He was constantly being 'ad up in small -cases, and it was 'is greatest ham--ambition to get a whack at a good -'orrifying murder trial. I 'ope as 'ow you 'ave been stuck on a murder -case, sir. In England we--” - -“It isn't a murder case. Merely embezzlement. But I must not discuss the -case, Turple, not even with you.” - -“What a pity, sir. You usually consult me about any think that--” - -“Call up the New York Central office at Thirtieth Street and cancel my -reservations, and lay out a blue serge suit for to-morrow.” - -“Isn't it a bit coolish to be wearing a serge--” - -“Those court-rooms are frightfully close, Turple. A blue serge.'' - -“You look better in a blue serge than anythink you--” - -“It is comfort, not looks, that I'm after, Turple,” explained Sampson, -who perhaps lied. - -“Sets a man off as no other goods--I beg pardon, sir. I will call up the -booking office at once, sir. The blue serge, sir?” - -“The blue serge,” said Sampson, brightly. “Anythink else, sir?” - -Sampson grew facetious. “You might give me a shirt and a collar and a -necktie, Turple.” The man bowed gravely and retreated. His master, moved -by an increasing exhilaration, called after him: “I might also suggest a -pair of shoes and--well, you know what else I'm in the habit of wearing -in the daytime.” - -Turple, knowing his master's feelings about jury service, was very much -amazed later on to hear him whistling cheerily as he made preparations -for a dinner engagement. The mere thought of a jury, heretofore, had -created in his master a mood provocative of blasphemy, and here he -was--actually “landed,” as he had put it himself--whistling as gaily as -a meadow lark. Turple shook his head, completely puzzled, for he also -knew his master to be a most abstemious man. In all his three years -of association with his employer he had never known him to take a -nip during the daytime, and that is what Turple called being most -abstemious. - -The next morning Sampson, instead of hanging back aggrievedly as was -his wont, was in the court-room bright and early--(half an hour ahead of -time, in fact)--and he never looked fresher, handsomer or more full -of the joy of living. He passed the time of day with the attendants, -chatted agreeably with No. 2, who also came in early, and subsequently -listened politely to the worries of No. 5, a chubby-faced bachelor -who couldn't for the life of him understand why the deuce manicurers -persisted in cutting the cuticle after having been warned not to do so. - -He rather pitied No. 7, who appeared in a cutaway coat a trifle too -small for his person and a very high collar that attracted a great deal -of attention from its wearer if from no one else. No. 7, he recalled, -had been quite indifferently garbed the day before: a shiny, well-worn -sack coat, trousers that had not been pressed since the day they left -the department store, and a “turndown” collar that had been through the -“mangle” no less than a hundred times--and should have been in one at -that instant instead of around his neck. No. 7 was also minus a three -days' growth of beard. - -Everybody seemed bright and cheerful. There were still two more jurors -to be secured when court convened. Never in all his experience had -Sampson seen a judge on the bench who behaved so beautifully as this -one. He looked as though he never had had a grouch in his life, and as -if he really enjoyed listening to the same old questions over and over -again. Occasionally he interjected a question or an interpolation that -must have been witty, for he graciously permitted his hearers to -laugh with him; and at no time was he cross or domineering. His hair, -carefully brushed, was sleekly plastered into an enduring neatness, and -his moustache was never so smartly trimmed and twisted as it was on this -sprightly morning. One might have been led into believing that it was -not winter but early spring. - -The deputy clerk had taken too much pains in shaving himself that -morning, for in his desire to scrape closely in the laudable effort -to curb the sandy growth on his cheek and chin, he had managed to do -something that called for the application of a long strip of pale pink -court-plaster immediately in front of his left ear. He was particular -about turning the other cheek, however, so that unless you walked -completely around him you wouldn't have noticed the court-plaster. The -attendants, noted for their untidiness, were perceptibly spruced up. If -any one of them was chewing tobacco, he managed to disguise the fact. - -The only person in the court-room, aside from the prisoner himself, -who had not changed for the better over night, was Miss Alexandra -Hildebrand. She could not have changed for the better if she had tried. -When she took her seat beside her grandfather, she was attired as on the -day before. Her cool, appraising eyes swept the jury box. More than -one occupant of that despised pen felt conscious of his sartorial -rehabilitation. A faint smile appeared at the corners of her adorable -mouth. Even Sampson, the proud and elegant Sampson, wondered what there -was for her to smile at. - -Being utterly disinterested in the composition of the jury of which he -was an integral part, Sampson paid not the slightest attention to the -process of rounding out the even dozen. While counsel struggled over the -selection of talesmen to fill the two vacant places, he devoted himself -to the study of Miss Hildebrand. This study was necessarily of a -surreptitious character, and was interrupted from time to time by the -divergence of the young lady's attention from the men who were being -examined to those already accepted. At such times, Sampson shifted his -gaze quickly. In two instances he was not quite swift enough, and she -caught him at it. He was very much annoyed with himself. Of course, she -would put him in a class with the other members of the jury, and that -was a distinction not to be coveted. They were very honest, reliable -fellows, no doubt, but Heaven knows they were not well-bred. No -well-bred man would stare at Miss Hildebrand as No. 4 was staring, and -certainly No. 7 was the most unmannerly person he bad ever seen. The -fellow sat with his mouth open half the time, his lips hanging limp in -a fixed fatuous smile, bis gaze never wavering. Sampson took the trouble -to dissect No. 7's visage--in some exasperation, it may be said. He -found that he had a receding chin and prominent upper teeth. Just the -sort of a fellow, thought Sampson, who was sure to consider himself -attractive to women. - -Miss Hildebrand was twenty-four or -five, he concluded. She was neither -tall nor short, nor was she what one would describe as fashionably -emaciated. Indeed, she was singularly without angles of any description. -Her hair was brown and naturally wavy--at least, so said Sampson, poor -simpleton--and it grew about her neck and temples in a most alluring -manner. Her eyes were clear and dark and amazingly intelligent. Sampson -repented at once of the word intelligent, but he couldn't think of a -satisfactory synonym. Intelligent, he reflected, is a word applied only -to the optics of dumb brutes--such as dogs, foxes, raccoons and the -like--and to homely young women with brains. Understanding--that was the -word he meant to use--she had understanding eyes, and they were shaded -by very long and beautiful lashes. - -Her chin was firm and delicate, her mouth--well, it was a mouth that -would bear watching, it had so many imperilling charms. - -Her nose? Sampson hadn't the faintest idea how to describe a nose. -Noses, he maintained, are industrial or economic devices provided by -nature for the sole purpose of harbouring colds, and are either lovely -or horrid. There is no intermediate class in noses. You either have -a nose that is fearfully noticeable or you have one that isn't. A -noticeable nose is one that completely and adequately describes itself, -sparing you the effort, while the other kind of a nose--such as Miss -Hildebrand's--is one that you wouldn't see at all unless you made an -especial business of it. That sort of a nose is simply a part of one's -face. There are faces, on the other hand, as you know, that are merely a -part of one's nose. - -His rather hasty analysis of yesterday was supported by the more -deliberate observations of to-day. She was a cool-headed, discerning -young woman, and not offensively clever as so many of her sex prove -to be when it is revealed to them that they possess the power to -concentrate the attention of men. Her interest in the proceedings was -keen and extremely one-sided. She was not at all interested in the men -who failed to come up to her notion of what a juror ought to be. It was -always she who put the final stamp of approval on the jurors selected. -Two or three times she unmistakably overcame the contentions of her -grandfather's counsel, and men got into the box who, without her -support, would have been challenged--and rightly, too, thought Sampson. -No. 7 for instance. He certainly was not an ideal juror for the -defendant, thought Sampson. And the fat little bachelor--why, he -actually had admitted under oath that he knew the district attorney -and a number of his assistants, and was a graduate of Yale. But Miss -Hildebrand picked him as a satisfactory juror. - -Sampson's reflections--or perhaps his ruminations--were brought to an -end by the completion of the jury. The last man accepted was a callow -young chap with eye-glasses, who confessed to being an automobile -salesman. - -They were sworn immediately and then the senior counsel for the State -arose and announced that he had no desire to keep the jury confined -during the course of the trial; the State was satisfied to allow the -members to go to their own homes over night if the defence had no -objections. Promptly the attorneys for the defendant, evidently scenting -something unusual, put their heads together and whispered. A moment -later one of them got up and said that the defence would take the -unusual course of asking that the jury be put in charge of bailiffs. He -did not get very far in his remarks, however. Miss Hildebrand's eyes had -swept the jury box from end to end. She observed the look of dismay that -leaped into the faces of the entire dozen. Sampson had a queer notion -that she looked at him longer than at the others, and that her gaze was -rather penetrating. An instant later she was whispering in the ear of -the second lawyer, and--well, they were all in conference again. After -a period of uncertainty for the victims, the first lawyer, smiling -benignly now, withdrew his motion to confine the jury, and graciously -signified that the defence was ready to proceed. - -The first witness for the State was a Mr. Stevens. Sampson was sure from -the beginning that he wasn't going to like Mr. Stevens. He was a prim, -rather precious gentleman of forty-five, with a fond look in his eye -and a way of putting the tips of his four fingers and two thumbs together -that greatly enhanced the value of the aforesaid look. In addition to -these mild charms of person, he had what Sampson always described as -a “prissy” manner of speaking. No. 4 made a friend of Sampson by -whispering--against the rules, and behind his hand, of course--that he'd -like to “slap the witness on the wrist.” Sampson whispered back that -he'd probably break his watch if he did. - -Anyhow, Mr. Stevens was recognised at once as the principal witness -for the State. He was the head of the company that had suffered by the -alleged peculations of Mr. Hildebrand. Ably assisted by the district -attorney, the witness revealed the whole history of the Cornwallis -Realty and Investment Company. - -James Hildebrand was its founder, some thirty years prior to his -surreptitious retirement, and for the first twenty years of its -existence he was its president. At the end of that period in the history -of the thriving and honourable business, Mr. Stevens became an active -and important member of the firm through the death of his father, who -had long been associated with Mr. Hildebrand as a partner. The other -partners were John L. Drew, Joseph Schoolcraft, Henry R. Kauffman and -James Hildebrand, Jr., the son of the president. The business, according -to Mr. Stevens, was then being conducted along “back number” lines. It -became necessary and expedient to introduce fresh, vigorous, up-to-date -methods in order to compete successfully with younger and more -enterprising concerns. (On cross-examination, Mr. Stevens admitted -that the company was not making money fast enough.) The defendant, it -appears, was a conservative. He held out stubbornly for the old, obsolete -methods, and, the concern being incorporated, it was the wisdom of -the other members (Hildebrand, Jr., dissenting) that a complete -reorganisation be perfected. The witness was made president, Mr. Drew -vice-president, and Mr. Hildebrand secretary and treasurer, without bond. -His son withdrew from the company altogether, repairing to Colorado for -residence, dying there three years later. - -The defendant, individually and apart from his holdings in the company, -owned considerable real-estate on Manhattan Island. His income, aside -from his salary and his share of profits in the business, was derived -from rentals and leaseholds on these several pieces of property. Values -in certain districts of New York fell off materially when business -shifted from old established centres and wended its fickle way -northward. Mr. Hildebrand was hard hit by the exodus. His investments -became a burden instead of a help and ultimately he was obliged to make -serious sacrifices. He sold his downtown property. The depreciation was -deplorable, Mr. Stevens admitted. - -The former president of the company soon found himself in straitened -circumstances. He was no longer well-to-do and prosperous; instead, he -was confronted by conditions which made it extremely difficult for him -to retain his considerable interest in the business. The company at this -stage in the affairs of their secretary and treasurer, proffered help -to him in what Mr. Stevens considered an extremely liberal way. It was -proposed that Mr. Hildebrand sell out his interest in the company to the -witness and his brother-in-law, Mr. Drew, they agreeing to take all of -his stock at a figure little short of par, notwithstanding it was a very -bad year--1907, to be precise. - -The defendant refused to sell. Subsequently he reconsidered, and they -took over his stock, excepting five shares which he retained for obvious -reasons, and he was paid in cash forty-four thousand dollars for the -remaining forty shares. Mr. Stevens already had purchased, at a much -higher price, the fifteen shares belonging to James Hildebrand, Jr. The -defendant was to retain the position of secretary and treasurer at a -fixed salary of six thousand dollars a year. - -In brief--although the district attorney was a long time in getting it -all out of Mr. Stevens--it was not until 1908 that the bomb burst and -the company awoke to the fact that its treasury was being, or to put -it exactly, had been systematically robbed of a great many thousands -of dollars. Experts were secretly put to work on the books and after -several weeks they reported that at one time the total shortage had -reached a figure in excess of ninety-five thousand dollars, but that -this amount had been reduced by the restoration of approximately fifty -thousand dollars during a period covering the eleven months immediately -preceding the investigation. It was established beyond all question that -the clerks and bookkeepers in the office were absolutely guiltless, and, -to the profound distress of the directors, the detectives employed on -the case declared in no uncertain terms that there was but one man who -could explain the shortage. That man was the former president of this -old and reliable concern, James W. Hildebrand. - -To avoid a scandal and also to spare if possible the man they all loved -and respected, Mr. Stevens was authorised by the other directors to -effect a compromise of some sort whereby the company might regain -at least a portion of the funds on the promise not to prosecute. The -defendant, however, had got wind of the discovery, and, to the utter -dismay of his friends, fled like a thief in the night. Mr. Stevens did -not have the chance to see him. - -The defalcation was not made public for several weeks. An effort was -made to get in touch with the fugitive, in the hope that he could be -induced to return without being subjected to open disgrace, but he had -vanished so completely that at first it was feared he had made way with -himself. He was at the time a widower, his wife having died many years -before. His son James was the only child of that marriage, and he was -living--or rather dying, in Colorado. Private detectives watched the -home and the movements of the son for some weeks, hoping to obtain a -clue to the old man's whereabouts. - -Then, out of a clear sky, as it were, came letters to each of the -stockholders, posted in Paris and written by the fugitive. In these -letters he made the most unfair charges against the witness and against -Mr. Drew. Without in any way attempting to explain, confess or express -regret for his own defection, he horrified both Mr. Stevens and Mr. Drew -with the staggering accusation that they had tricked him into selling -certain downtown property at an outrageously low figure, when they knew -at the time of the transaction that an insurance company had its eye on -the property with the view to erecting two mammoth office buildings -on the ground. Subsequent events, declared the writer, bore out his -contention, for it was on record that his two partners did sell to the -insurance company for nearly ten times the amount they had paid him for -the property; and, moreover, at that very moment two large buildings -were standing on the ground that had once been occupied by his ancient -and insignificant six story structures. - -In so many words, this old defaulter (to use Mr. Stevens' surprisingly -acid words) deliberately sought to discredit them in the eyes of their -fellow-directors and stockholders. He accused them of foul methods and -actually had the effrontery to warn all those interested in the business -with them to be on their guard or they would be tricked as he had been. -(Note: One of these letters, now five years old, was introduced in -evidence as Exhibit A.) - -Sampson afterwards found himself marvelling over the assistant district -attorney's stupidity in introducing this particular bit of evidence. It -was the cross-examination that opened his eyes to the atrocious mistake -the State had made in volunteering the evidence touching upon the -real-estate transaction. - -This extraordinary behaviour on the part of the defendant quite -naturally irritated--(Mr. Stevens would not say infuriated, although Mr. -O'Brien, on cross-examination, tried his level best to make him use the -word)--both the witness and Mr. Drew, who felt that their honour -had been vilely attacked. They had no difficulty in convincing their -partners and other interested persons that the charge was ridiculous and -made solely for the purpose of enlisting their sympathy in behalf of one -they were now forced to describe as a cowardly criminal and no longer as -a misguided unfortunate. - -It was then, and then only, that the witness and Mr. Drew took the -matter before the Grand Jury and obtained the indictment against the -defendant. - -Having covered the preliminary stages of the case pretty thoroughly, -Mr. Stevens was required to tell all that he knew about the actual -misappropriation of the funds. This he did with exceeding clarity and -sorrow. However, despite his mildness, he did not leave a shred of Mr. -Hildebrand's honour untouched; he had it in tatters by mid-afternoon and -at four o'clock, when court adjourned, there wasn't anything left of it -at all. - -Sampson was gloomy that night. He did not go to sleep until long after -two, although he went to bed at eleven--an unspeakably early hour for -him. Things certainly looked black for the old man. If Stevens was to -be believed, James Hildebrand was a most stupendous rascal. And yet, -to look at him--to study his fine, gentle old face, his tired but -unwavering eyes, his singularly unrepentant mien--one could hardly -be blamed for doubting the man's capacity for doing the evil and -reprehensible deed that was laid at his door. Sampson hated to think of -him as guilty. More than that, he hated to have Miss Hildebrand think -that he thought of him as guilty. - -He laid awake for three mortal hours trying to think what Miss -Hildebrand meant by looking at him as she did from time to time. Not -once but a score of times her gaze met bis--usually after a damaging -reply by Mr. Stevens, or some objectionable question by the district -attorney--and always she appeared to be intent on divining, if possible, -just what its effect would be on him. - -Her clear, soft eyes looked straight into his for an instant, and he saw -something in them that he took for anxiety. That was all: just anxiety. -It couldn't, of course, be anything else--and, why shouldn't she be -anxious? Anybody would be under the circumstances. As a matter of fact, -he was a little anxious himself, and certainly he was not as vitally -interested as she in the welfare of James W. Hildebrand. But after -thinking it all over again, he wasn't so sure that it was anxiety. He -was forced to believe that she looked confident, almost serene--as -if there was not the slightest doubt in her mind that her grandfather -couldn't possibly have done a single one of the things that Mr. Stevens -accused him of doing. - -Sampson was perturbed. He couldn't divest himself of the suspicion that -she expected him to also disbelieve every word that the witness uttered. -It was most upsetting. He made up his mind that he would not look at her -at all on the following day. But even that resolution didn't put him to -sleep. Not at all. The more he thought of it, the wider awake he became. - -True, she had looked at the other jurors from time to time--especially -at the rehabilitated No. 7, the rubicund bachelor and the spectacled No. -12. But he was sure that she did not look at them in the same way that -she looked at him, nor as often, nor as long. It seemed to him that even -when she looked at the others, she always allowed her glance to return -to him for an instant after its somewhat indifferent tour of inspection. -He remembered indulging in a rather close and critical inspection of -the countenances of his fellow jurors at one time, during a lull in the -proceedings, and that calculating but not unkind scrutiny convinced him -of one thing: they certainly were not much to look at. - -The more he thought about it, the more it was revealed to him that the -expression in her eyes was of a questioning, inquiring nature, as -one who might be saying to herself: are these men--or this one, in -particular--entirely devoid of intelligence? - -He was four minutes late in court the next morning, and it was all -the fault of the too indulgent Turple. Turple, being a sagacious and -faithful menial, respectfully neglected to disturb his master's slumber -until after nine o'clock, and as a result Sampson had to go without -his breakfast and almost without his shave in order to get down to the -court-room in time. Turple received emphatic orders to rout him out of -bed at seven o'clock every morning after that, no matter how bitterly he -was abused for doing so. - -He was out of breath when he dropped into his chair in the jury box, -expecting and dreading a rebuke from the Court for his tardiness. -He glanced at Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, almost apologetically. It -certainly was not relief that he felt on discovering that she was paying -no attention whatever to him. She was engaged in consultation with the -two lawyers and did not even so much as glance in his direction when he -popped into his seat. - -The justice was still on his good behaviour. He bowed politely to -Sampson and then looked at the clock. - -The cross-examination of Mr. Stevens began. Sampson was agreeably -surprised by the astuteness, the suavity, the unexpected resourcefulness -of Mr. O'Brien, who questioned the witness. - -“You say, Mr. Stevens, that James Hildebrand, Jr., retired from the -company about two years prior to the retirement of his father, the -defendant. Why did the younger Hildebrand retire?” - -“He was not satisfied with the reorganisation.” - -“Isn't it true that you and he were not on friendly terms and that he -refused to serve with you--” - -“We object!” interrupted the district attorney. “The question is not--” - -“Objection overruled,” said the Court testily. “Finish your question, -Mr. O'Brien, and then answer it, Mr. Witness.” - -“We were not on friendly terms,” admitted Mr. Stevens, who looked -vaguely surprised on being addressed as “Mr. Witness.” - -“And he preferred to get out of the company rather than to serve on the -board with you? Isn't that true?” - -“I cannot answer that question. I can only say that he disposed of his -interests and retired.” - -“Who purchased his stock?” - -“Mr. Schoolcraft, one of the directors.” - -“Who owns that stock to-day?” - -“I do.” - -“When did you purchase it of Mr. Schoolcraft?” - -“I do not remember.” - -“Was it a week, a month or a year after the original sale?” - -“A couple of months, I suppose.” - -“Do you know what Mr. Schoolcraft paid for that stock?” - -“I do not.” - -“You do know what you paid him for it, however?” - -“I paid ninety-five and a fraction for it.” - -“Didn't you buy twenty shares of Mr. Schoolcraft's stock at the same -time?” - -“I did.” - -“Did you pay ninety-five and a fraction for the Schoolcraft stock?” - -“I think I paid a little more than that.” - -“Didn't you pay one-twenty-seven for the Schoolcraft stock, Mr. -Stevens?” - -“I may have paid that much. Mr. Schoolcraft was not eager to sell. He -held out for a stiff price.” - -“He owned the Hildebrand stock, didn't he? Why should he sell fifteen -shares at ninety-five and a fraction when he might just as well have had -one-twenty-seven?” - -“We object,” said the district attorney mildly. - -“State your objection,” said the Court. “Incompetent and irrevelant and -having no possible bearing on the subject--” - -“Withdraw the question,” said Mr. O'Brien suavely. “Did you not offer -James Hildebrand, Jr., one-ten for his stock, Mr. Stevens, through his -father? I say 'through his father' because you were not on speaking -terms with the son?” - -“I think I did.” - -“And didn't young Hildebrand send word that he wouldn't sell to you at -any price?” - -“Something of the sort. He was unreasonable.” - -“You were, therefore, very much surprised and gratified to get it at -ninety-five and a fraction from Mr. Schoolcraft later on, were you not?” - -“I was not surprised,” confessed Mr. Stevens, separating his finger tips -for the first time, and shifting his position so that he could fold his -arms comfortably. “Mr. Schoolcraft bought the stock for me. There was no -secret about it. Hildebrand must have known that Schoolcraft was acting -for me. I was fair enough to offer him one-ten. It is not my fault that -he was eventually forced to sell fifteen points lower. I was not to -blame because he was hard-pressed or pinched for ready money.” - -“He was a sick man, wasn't he?” - -“His health was poor.” - -“He was ordered to Colorado by his physicians, wasn't he?” - -“I believe so.” - -“And wasn't that the real reason why he was forced to sell out, and not -because he objected to the reorganisation?” - -“We object,” said the Stated attorney. “Objection sustained.” - -Sampson looked at Miss Hildebrand. Her gaze shifted from the Court to -him almost in the same instant, and it seemed to express astonishment, -even incredulity--as if she were saying (although he was sure she would -not have expressed herself so vulgarly): “Well, can you beat that!” - -“And now, Mr. Stevens,” went on Mr. O'Brien, after taking the usual -exception, “you testified in direct examination that you and Mr. Drew -purchased the defendant's Manhattan property. Did you buy it for -the Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, or for yourselves as -individuals?” - -“We bought it for ourselves, as individuals.” - -“The company was not interested in the transaction?” - -“No.” - -“Did you first give the company an opportunity to buy, or did you--” - -“I said it was a private transaction. We have interests outside of -the company, sir--just as you have interests outside of your legal -business,” said the witness tartly. - -“I see. Well, Mr. Hildebrand was pressed for money at the time of the -transaction, I believe you have said. This was some time before the -alleged defalcation took place, I understand.” - -“A year and a half prior to our discovery of the theft,” corrected Mr. -Stevens. - -“And you have testified that the so-called theft dated back even beyond -that, at its beginning.” - -“So the expert accountants informed us. I have no means of knowing for -myself.'' - -“And it was your conclusion that he sold his property in the effort to -rehabilitate himself before his misfortune was discovered?” - -“I did not allude to it as a misfortune, sir.” - -“Well, then, his crime.” - -“I have said that such was my conclusion.” - -“Will you again, state just what you paid for the property in question?” - -“We paid two hundred thousand dollars for the two pieces.” - -“Cash?” - -“Part in cash and part in an exchange for property in the Bronx. Sixty -thousand in cash. The Bronx property is in the shape of building lots, -valued at more than two hundred thousand dollars.” - -“Then or now?” - -“Then _and_ now, sir.” - -“State, if you know, does Mr. Hildebrand still own this Bronx property?” - -“I believe it is in his name.” - -“And it is still worth two hundred thousand dollars?” - -“It is worth a great deal more, sir.” - -“I see. Now, Mr. Stevens, you have testified that this defendant wrote -letters to the several members of your corporation, advising them that -you and Mr. Drew had sold this downtown property to an insurance -company for ten times as much as you paid him for it. Was Mr. Hildebrand -uttering the truth when he made that assertion?” - -“Am I obliged to answer that question, your Honour?” - -“Yes. It is a very simple question,” said the Court drily, giving his -moustache a gentle twist. - -“We received one million eight hundred thousand for the property,” said -Mr. Stevens, defiantly. - -“Cash?” - -“Yes.” - -“You didn't take any Bronx property in exchange?” - -“Certainly not.” - -“How long was this after the time you purchased the property?” - -“About two years.” - -“Isn't it true that you were offered a million dollars for the property -two weeks after you bought it?” - -“What has all this got to do with the case?” - -“You can say yes or no, can't you, Mr. Stevens?” - -“I shall say no, then. We were approached by persons representing the -insurance company, but they made no bona fide offer.” - -“They asked you if a million would tempt you, though, didn't they?” - -“I don't remember.” - -“In any event, you told them that you held the property at two millions, -didn't you? That was your price?” - -“It was our price, yes.” - -“And you held off selling until they finally came to your terms--or -nearly up to them--and then you sold?” - -“We sold when we were ready, Mr. O'Brien.” - -“I see. Did you know before purchasing Mr. Hildebrand's property that -this insurance company was desirous of buying it for building purposes?” - -“Object!” interposed the district attorney. “Objection sustained,” said -the Court. - -Again Sampson, who was enjoying Mr. Stevens' discomfiture, looked at -Miss Hildebrand. Simultaneously eleven other gentlemen sitting in two -parallel rows, looked at her. She may have found it too difficult to -look at all of them at once, so she confined her gaze to Sampson, who -felt in duty hound--as a juror sworn to be fair and impartial--to look -the other way as quickly as possible. He was sorry that he was obliged -to do this, for there was something in her eyes that warranted quite a -little time for analysis. - -The cross-examination proceeded. Sampson, resolutely directed his gaze -out of its natural channel and devoted a great deal more attention to -the witness than he felt that the witness deserved. He could not help -feeling, however, that he was treating Miss Hildebrand with unnecessary -boorishness. No doubt she looked at him from time to time, and she -must have felt a little bit hurt, not to say offended--by his somewhat -conspicuous indifference. - -Suddenly he pricked up his ears. Mr. O'Brien had put to the witness a -question that had something of a personal interest in it. - -“James Hildebrand, Jr., lost his wife in 1906, did he not, Mr. Stevens?” - -“I don't remember the year.” - -“You remember when he was married, however, do you not?” - -“I can't say. I think it was in 1888.” The witness had turned a rather -sickly green. He spoke with an effort. - -“The year after you and he graduated from college, wasn't it?” - -“We were in the class of '87.” - -“You are still unmarried, I believe, Mr. Stevens?” - -“I am unmarried, sir,” said the witness, sitting up a little straighter -in the chair. - -“Did you know Miss Katherine Alexander before she was married to James -Hildebrand?” - -“I did,” said Stevens, his face set. - -Sampson ventured a swift look at Alexandra Hildebrand. She was looking -down at the table, her face half averted. It struck him as exceedingly -brutal of Mr. O'Brien to drag this poor girl's dead mother into the -public light of--But the lawyer asked another question. - -“You and young Mr. Hildebrand remained friends for a number of years -after his marriage, did you not?” - -“I always thought so.” - -“You never bore him any ill will?” - -“What do you mean?” - -“I withdraw the question. When was it that you and James Hildebrand, -Jr., ceased to be friends?” - -“I--I don't know. I cannot go into that matter, Mr. O'Brien. I--” Mr. -Stevens was visibly distressed. - -“Wasn't it in 1895 that you and he ceased to be friends?” persisted the -lawyer. - -“There was a terrible misunderstanding, I--that is, I should say--” - -“In 1895, wasn't it?” - -“I think so.” Mr. Stevens was perspiring. He looked beseechingly at the -district attorney, who happened to be gazing pensively out of the window -at the time. - -“You were a frequent and welcome visitor at young Hildebrand's home up -to 1895, weren't you?” - -“It was through no fault of mine that the friendship was broken off. Mr. -Hildebrand behaved in a most outrageous manner toward me.” - -“Isn't it true, Mr. Stevens, that Mr. Hildebrand ordered you out of his -house and told you that you were not to enter it again?” - -“Mr. Hildebrand grievously misunderstood my--” - -“Answer the question, please. Were you not ordered out of your friend's -house?” - -“Am I obliged, your Honour, to answer--” - -“Answer yes or no,” said the Court, leaning forward and fixing the -witness with a very severe stare. (Sampson regarded him as distinctly -human, after all.) Miss Hildebrand's, eyes were still lowered. The aged -prisoner, however, was looking a hole through the now miserable witness. - -“He threatened to kill me,” exclaimed Stevens violently. “He acted like -a crazy man over a perfectly innocent--” - -“He ordered you out, didn't he?” came the deadly question. - -Mr. Stevens swallowed hard. “Yes.” - -“And you maintain that he took that step because he misunderstood -something or other, eh?” - -“Most certainly.” - -“Well, what was it he misunderstood?” - -“I must decline to answer. I stand on my rights.” - -“Wasn't it because Mrs. Hildebrand complained to him that you had -been--er--unnecessarily offensive to her?” - -“I decline to answer.” - -“In any event, you never entered his house again, and you never spoke to -him or his wife after that. Isn't that true?' - -“I was justified in ignoring both of them. They insulted me most--” - -“I understand, Mr. Stevens. We will drop the matter. I have no desire -to cause you unnecessary pain. Now will you be good enough to state -when you first noticed that there was something wrong with the books -and accounts of the defendant? What first caused you to suspect that the -funds were being juggled, as you put it in the direct examination?” - -Mr. Stevens had an easier time of it after that. He resumed his placid, -kindly air, and maintained it to the end, although a keen observer -might have observed an uneasy respect for Mr. O'Brien. He appeared to be -relieved when the examination was concluded. - -Sampson went out to luncheon in a more cheerful frame of mind. It -was quite clear to every one that Mr. Stevens was guilty, at least -circumstantially, of conduct unbecoming a gentleman. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -Two days went by. Mr. Drew, Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. Kauffman were -examined and cross-examined, and after them came the first of the expert -accountants employed to go over the books. The situation continued to -look black for Mr. Hildebrand--if anything a little blacker, for neither -of the foregoing witnesses appeared to have been guilty of offending -a lady to such an extent that her husband had to order him out of the -house. - -Mr. Drew received considerable unpleasant attention from the defendant's -counsel, but he came through pretty comfortably. He admitted that he -“cleaned up more than half a million” on the deal with the insurance -company, and that he was the husband of Mr. Stevens' sister. He always -had been sorry for Mr. Hildebrand, and even now was without animus. Mr. -Schoolcraft acknowledged buying and selling the younger Hildebrand's -shares, but was positive that there had been no collusion with Mr. -Stevens. - -The case began to drag. Sampson lost interest. He attended strictly and -no doubt diligently to the evidence, but when the expert accountants -began to testify he found himself considerably at sea. He was not good -at figures. They made him restless. The rest of the jury appeared to be -similarly afflicted. Politeness alone kept them from yawning. Afterwards -it was revealed that only one of the twelve was good at figures of any -sort: the automobile salesman. He was a perfect marvel at statistics. He -could tell you how many miles it is from New York to Oswego without even -calculating, and he knew to a fraction the difference in the upkeep of -all the known brands of automobiles in America. He made Sampson tired. - -Despite the damaging testimony that seemed surely to be strangling her -grandfather's chances for escape, Miss Hildebrand revealed no sign of -despair, or defeat. She came in each morning as serene as a May evening, -and she left the court-room in the afternoon with a mien as untroubled -as when she entered it. . - -There was quite a little flutter in the jury box--and outside of it, -for that matter--when, on the third morning, she appeared in a complete -change of costume--a greyish, modish sort of thing, Sampson would have -told you--very smart and trig and comforting to the masculine eye. -Sampson who knew more than any of his companions about such things, -remarked (to himself, of course)--that her furs were chinchilla. -Chinchilla is nothing if not convincing. - -It struck him, as he took her in--(she was standing, straight and slim, -conversing with that beardless cub of an assistant-assistant district -attorney)--that she was, if such a thing were possible, even lovelier -than she was in the other gown. No doubt Sampson failed in his sense of -proportion. She was undeniably lovelier today than yesterday, and she -would continue to go on being prettier from day to day, no matter what -manner of gown she wore. - -It also occurred to him that the young assistant-assistant was -singularly unprofessional, if not actually fresh, in dragging her into a -conversation that must have been distasteful to her. He wondered how she -could smile so agreeably and so enchantingly over the stupid things the -fellow was saying. - -Near the close of the noon recess he was constrained to reprove No. -7 for an act that might have created serious complications. He was -standing in the rotunda finishing his third cigarette, when Miss -Hildebrand approached on her way to the court-room. It had been his -practice--and it was commendable--to refrain from staring at her on -occasions such as this. A rather low order of intelligence prevented -his fellow jurors from according her the same consideration. They stared -without blinking until she disappeared from view. - -Now, No. 7 meant no harm, and yet he so far forgot himself that he -doffed his hat to her as she passed. Fortunately she was not looking in -his direction. As a matter of fact, she never even so much as noticed -the nine or ten jurors who strewed her path. No. 7 was mistaken, there -can be no doubt about that. He thought she looked at him instead of -through him, and in his excitement he grabbed for his hat. Perhaps -he hoped for a smile of recognition, and, if not that, a smile of -amusement. He would have been grateful in either case. - -“Don't do that,” whispered Sampson, gruffly. - -“Why not?” demanded No. 7, blinking his eyes. “No harm in being a -gentleman, is there?” - -“You must not be seen speaking to her--or to any one of the interested -parties, for that matter. Do you want to have her accused of bribery -or--er--complicity?” - -“I thought she was going to speak to me,” stammered No. 7. - -“Well, she wasn't. She has too much sense for that. Good Lord, if -counsel for the State saw you doing that sort of thing, they'd suspect -something in a second.” - -“Haven't you read about those jury-fixing scandals?” exclaimed the -chubby bachelor, surprisingly red in the face. He had almost reached his -own hat when Sampson spoke. Four or five of the others glowered upon the -offending No. 7. “We can't even be seen bowing to anybody connected with -the case.” - -“I saw you throw your cigar away when she came in the door,” retorted -No. 7, in some exasperation. “What did you do that for?” - -The chubby bachelor looked hurt. “Because I was through with it,” he -said. “I don't hang onto 'em till they burn my lips, you know.” He -deemed it advisable to resort to sarcasm. - -“Just remember that you are a juror,” advised No. 4 in a friendly tone. -One might have thought he was compassionate. - -“No harm done,” said No. 12. “She didn't even see you. I happen to know, -because she was lookin' right at me when you took off your lid. You -didn't notice me fiddling with my head-piece, did you? I guess not. She -don't expect us to, and so I didn't make any crack. I--” - -“I'd suggest,” said Sampson, with dignity, “that we devote a certain -amount of respect to the ethics.” - -It was a little puzzling. Ethics is a word that calls for reflection. -You've got to know just what it means, and after you know that much -about it, you've got to fix its connection. Several of the gentlemen -nodded profoundly, and two of them said: “Well, I should say so.” That -night Sampson sat alone in front of his fireplace, his brow clouded by -uneasy, disturbing thoughts. A woodfire crackled and simmered on the -huge Florentine andirons. Turple, coming in to inquire if he would speak -with Mrs. Fitzmorton on the telephone, was gruffly instructed to say -that he was not at home, and when Turple returned with the word that -Mrs. Fitzmorton was at home and still expecting him to dine at her house -that evening, notwithstanding the fact that her guests and her -dinner had been waiting for him since eight o'clock--and it was now -8:45--Sampson groaned so dismally that his valet was alarmed. The -groan was succeeded, however, by a far from feeble expression of -self-reproach, and a tremendous scurrying into overcoat and hat. He -reached Mrs. Fitzmorton's house--it happened to be in the next block -north--in less than three minutes, and he was so engagingly contrite, -and so terribly good-looking, that she forgave him at once--which was -more than the male members of the party did. - -They were all married men and they couldn't forgive anybody for being -late. They were always being implored, either pathetically or peevishly, -to stop complaining. - -Sampson had cause for worry. He had been slow in arriving at the truth, -but that afternoon his conviction was established. Miss Hildebrand was -depending on him to swing that jury! - -She was counting on his intelligence, his decision, his insight, his -power to see beyond the supposed facts in the case as presented by the -witnesses for the State. He was sure of it. There was nothing in the -cool, frank scrutiny that she gave him from time to time that could be -described by the most critical of minds as even suggestive of a purpose -to influence him, and yet he was sure that she depended on his good -sense for a solution of all that was going on. - -What disturbed him most was this: there was no distinction between the -look she gave him when the State scored a point and when the condition -was reversed. The same confident, reasoning expression was in her lovely -eyes, as much as to say: “You must see through all this, No. 3--of -course you must, or you couldn't look me in the eye as you do.” - -It was as clear as day to him: she was certain that her grandfather was -incapable of doing the thing he was charged with doing, and she could -not see how a man of his (Sampson's) perception could possibly think -otherwise. - -The revelation caused him to forget all about his dinner engagement. -Also it caused him to pass an absolutely sleepless night. When he -closed his eyes she still looked into them--always the same clear, -understanding, undoubting gaze that he had come to know so well. When he -lay with them wide open, staring into the darkness, the vision took more -definite shape, so he closed them tightly again. - -Turple noticed his haggardness the next morning and was solicitous. Now, -Turple, at his best, was not entitled to a stare of any description. But -Sampson's rapt gaze was so prolonged and so singularly detached from the -object upon which it rested--Turple's countenance--that the poor fellow -was alarmed. He had never seen his master look just like that before. -Later on, Sampson told him to go to the devil. Turple was relieved. - -The accountants, the detectives and two bookkeepers who formerly had -worked under Mr. Hildebrand testified and then the State rested. Through -it all the prisoner sat unmoved. Sampson wondered what was going on in -the mind of that gaunt, fine-faced old man. What would be his answer to -the damning evidence that stood arrayed against him? What _could_ be his -defence! - -He was sorry for him. He would have given a great deal to be able to -rise now from his seat in the jury box and announce candidly that he did -not feel that he could bring in a verdict against the old man, reminding -the Court and the district attorney that he had said in the beginning -that he could not answer for his sympathies. - -During the noon recess he took account of his fellow jurors. They were -a glum, serious looking set of men. He knew where their sympathies lay -and, like himself, they were depressed. The justice--even he--had lost -much of the geniality that at the outset had warmed the atmosphere. He -no longer smiled; no more did he exploit his wit, and as for his brisk -moustache, it drooped. - -To the amazement of every one, the defendant's counsel announced that -they had but one witness: the prisoner himself. And every one then knew -that no matter what the prisoner said in his own defence, his testimony -would be unsupported; it would have to stand alone against odds that -were overwhelming. - -Slowly but surely it became evident to these more or less discerning -men that James Hildebrand's plea would be for sympathy and not for -vindication. By his own story of the dealings with Stevens and Drew and -the others he hoped to reach their hearts and through their hearts a -certain sense of justice that moves in all men's minds. - -Sampson's heart sank. While he was convinced that the old man had been -cruelly tricked by his business associates, that they had squeezed him -dry in order to profit by his misery, that Stevens at least was actuated -by a personal grudge which found relief in crushing the father of -the man he hated, and that the others may have been innocently or -pusillanimously influenced by the designs of this one man who sought -control, there still remained the fact that Hildebrand, according to the -evidence, had violated the law and was a subject for punishment--if not -for correction, as the prison reformers would have it in these days. In -no way could the old man's act be legally or morally justified. Sampson, -after hearing the announcement of his counsel, realised that he would -have a very unpleasant duty to perform, and he knew that he was going to -hate himself. - -He had never spoken a word to Alexandra Hildebrand; he had not even -heard the sound of her voice--her conversation with counsel was carried -on in whispers or in subdued tones--And yet he was in love with her! He -was the victim of a glorious enchantment. - -And he knew that No. 7 was in love with her--foolishly in love with her; -and so was the once supercilious No. 12; and the chubby bachelor; and -No. 9 who wanted to stay off the jury because he had to get married in -three weeks; and No. 8 who had two sons in the high school, one daughter -in Altman's and two wives in the cemetery; and the sombre-faced No. 1; -and all the rest of them! No. 2, who chewed gum resoundingly, no -longer chewed. His jaws were silenced. He had an impression that Miss -Hildebrand disapproved of gum-chewing, so he stopped. More than this, no -man could sacrifice. - -The spruce young men from the district attorney's office were visibly -affected--(they really were quite sickening, thought Sampson); and the -deputy clerk, the court-room bailiffs, and the stripling who carried -messages from one given point to another with incredible speed, now that -he had something to keep him moving. - -All of them, in a manner of speaking, were in love with her. And she was -not in love with any one of them. There could be no doubt about that. -They meant absolutely nothing to her. - -Sampson wondered if she had a sweetheart, if there was some one with -whom she was in love, if those dear lips--and he sighed bleakly. He -hated, with unexampled venom, this purely suppositious male who harassed -him from morning till night. Common-sense told him that she must have -a sweetheart. It was inconceivable that she shouldn't possess the most -natural thing in the world. She just couldn't help having one. What sort -of a fellow was he? Of course, he didn't deserve her; that was clear -enough, assuming that the fellow actually existed. In his present frame -of mind, Sampson could think of only one man in the world who might -possibly be deserving of her. - -Nevertheless, he felt that he was behaving in a silly, amateurish -manner, falling in love with her like this. It was to be expected of -ignorant, common louts such as No. 7--a very ordinary jackass!--and the -other ten men in the box, to say nothing of the suddenly adolescent yet -middle-aged horde outside. It was just the sort of thing that they would -be certain to do. They were a fatuous--but there he stopped, scowling -within himself. What right had he to call these other men fools? He was -no better than they. Indeed, he was worse, for he always had believed -himself to be supremely above such nonsense as this. They made no -pretentions. They fell in love with her just as they would have fallen -in love with any pretty girl--and, Heaven knows, pretty girls are -always being fallen in love with. But that he, the unimpressionable, -experienced Sampson, should lose his heart--and head--over a girl who -had never spoken a word to him, whom he had never seen until six days -before, and who doubtless would go out of his life completely the -instant the trial was over--why, it ought to have been excruciatingly -funny. But it wasn't funny. - -It was very far from funny. Putting one's self in a class with No. 7 -and No. 12 and the rest of them was certainly not Sampson's idea of -something to laugh at. So he scowled ominously every time he chanced -to think of any one of them--which happened only when Miss Hildebrand -deigned to look at that particular individual. - -And he would have to send her beloved grandfather to the penitentiary. -He would have to hurt her; he would have to bring pain and despair and, -worse than these, astonishment to her beautiful eyes. He knew that he -would be haunted for the rest of his life by the look she would give him -when the verdict was announced. - -James Hildebrand went _on_ the stand on the afternoon of the sixth day. -A curious hush settled over the court-room. Men shifted in their chairs -and then slumped down dejectedly, as if oppressed by the utter futility -of the tale he would have to tell. Alexandra Hildebrand alone was -bright-eyed and eager. Her lips were slightly parted as the old man, -grey and erect, took the oath. She knew that the truth and nothing but -the truth could fall from the lips of this gentle old grandfather of -hers. Now they would have the truth! Now the case would crumble! She -sent one swift, reassuring look through the jury box, and, for the first -time, gazed into no man's eyes. She was puzzled. Every face was averted. -Long afterwards she may have recalled the queer little chill that -entered her heart, and stayed there for the briefest instant before -passing. - -[Illustration: 0081] - -The defendant's voice was low, well-modulated, unemotional; his manner -simple and yet impressive. Throughout the entire story that he told, his -hearers listened with rapt attention. - -She sent one swift, reassuring look through the jury box. - -They were hoping that he could convince them. They watched his fine, -distinguished face; they watched his sombre, unflinching eyes; they -watched his steady hands as they rested on the arms of the chair; they -watched him with fear in their hearts: the fear that he would falter and -betray himself. - -He entered a simple, direct denial of the accusation made against him. -His story was not a long one, and it would have to go uncorroborated, -for, as he said himself, there was no one upon whom he could call for -support. In the first place, he declared that he did not know that he -was suspected of having robbed his partners until after many months had -passed. He was aware of the investigation, but it had never entered his -head that he could be the person under suspicion. He admitted taking a -hurried and perhaps ill-advised departure from New York, and, in answer -to a direct question from his own counsel, declared that he would never -reveal his reason for leaving so secretly and in such haste. - -Facing the jury he stated calmly, deliberately and in a most resolute -manner that he would go to prison for the rest of his days, that he -would suffer lasting ignominy and disgrace, before he would publicly -account for this action on his part. - -When he learned that a true bill had been returned against him by the -Grand Jury, his first impulse was to return to his own country and fight -the charge. Reflection convinced him that he was safe as long as he -remained in his sequestered home in Switzerland, and he made up his mind -to remain there and die with unlifted disgrace bearing down upon his -good name rather than to return and face the probability of having to -account for his absence. That, and that alone, was responsible for his -decision to remain where he was. No one knew of his whereabouts, not -even his own kith and kin. He was as safe as if he were already dead. -Then, in solemn, unforgettable tones he declared that he had never taken -a penny belonging to the Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, that -he was innocent of the charge brought against him, notwithstanding the -fact that appearances were sufficient to convict. - -Time brought a change in him. He decided to return and face his -accusers. He did not hope to convince them that he was innocent. He -only wanted the opportunity to stand before the world and proclaim his -innocence. He had no testimony to offer. He could only say that he had -not done this monstrous thing of which he was accused. - -His testimony was given as a simple statement. He was allowed to tell -his brief story without the interpolation of a single question by his -counsel. Succinctly but with scant bitterness, he recited the story of -his own unfair treatment at the hands of his former partners. He touched -very casually upon that phase of the matter, as if it were of small -consequence to him now. There were no harsh words for the men who had -tricked him. One could not help having the feeling that he looked upon -them as beneath his notice. - -He came home of his own free-will, after years of deliberation. He had -been influenced by no one in this singular crisis. He was alone in the -world. Except for his beloved granddaughter, there was no one else who -could suffer through the result of this trial. He was prepared to accept -the verdict of the twelve gentlemen who listened to him and who had -listened to the testimony of others before him. - -There was not a sound in the court-room when he paused and drew a long -deep breath. Every eye was upon him. Then, in a clear, resonant voice he -said: - -“Gentlemen, I repeat that I am absolutely innocent of this charge. I ask -you to believe me when I say this to you. If you do not believe me, I -must be content to accept your judgment. I do not ask you to discredit -the testimony of the men who have appeared against me. They have told -all they know about the circumstances, I dare say, and I am convinced -that they are honest men. They have only shown you that there was a -colossal theft, that a large sum of money is unaccounted for in their -business. They have not shown you, however, that I am the man who took -it. They have only shown you that fifty thousand dollars is missing and -unaccounted for. I admit I was responsible as treasurer of the company -for the safe-keeping and guardianship of all that money. It disappeared. -I can only say to you, gentlemen, that I did not take it.” - -His voice was husky. There was a long pause, and then he settled back -in his chair and turned wearily to the district attorney for -crossexamination. It was then that the crowd knew he had finished his -story. A deep breath came from the lips of every one, as if for many -minutes it had been withheld. - -Sampson's gaze involuntarily sought Alexandra Hildebrand's face. He did -not mean to look at her. He could not resist the impulse, however. It -was stronger than the adamantine resolution he had made. The light of -triumph was in her glowing eyes, the flush of victory in the cheek. Her -grandfather had cleared himself! - -Sampson's heart ached as it sank to depths from which it would never -rebound. He turned hopelessly to the man in the witness chair, and -waited for the district attorney to open his grilling cross-examination. -He knew what the State would demand: why did he go away? Who replaced -a large portion of the amount originally missing? Why did he sell his -real-estate and his interest in the business? A hundred vital questions -would be discharged at him, and he would--But, even as he delved in -these dismal reflections, the district attorney arose in his place and -said, clearly, distinctly--although no man at first believed his ears: - -“No questions, your Honour.” - -There was utter silence while this amazing announcement sank into -the minds of the listeners. Counsel for the defence sat rigid and -uncomprehending in their chairs; the justice leaned forward and stared; -the prisoner's eyes widened for a second and then slowly closed. His -chin fell; his attitude was one of acute humiliation. His story was not -even worthy of notice! No questions! The acme of derision! - -Argument by counsel followed, the beardless “assistant-assistant” making -the opening address to the jury. He floundered badly. Sampson derived -some consolation from his futile, feeble arraignment. If the principal -attorney for the State didn't do a great deal better than his singularly -ineffectual confrere, there was still hope that the prisoner's counsel -might by impassioned pleas stir the hearts of twelve men to mercy. -The sympathies of all were--But even as he speculated on the probable -lengths to which sympathy would carry his companions in arriving at -a verdict, there suddenly flashed into his brain a vast illumination. -James W. Hildebrand was not guilty! He was shielding some one else! His -reluctance to tell why he left New York was explained. He could not tell -without betraying a secret that must forever remain inviolate! Sampson -breathed easier. Why, it was as plain as day to him! At least, it was -something on which to base a conclusion. It might come in very handy too -when the jury, in seclusion, began to grope for a favouring light. On -reflection they would all agree that no witness actually had sworn that -Hildebrand took the money. The evidence was decidedly circumstantial. By -deduction alone was he guilty. On the other hand he had solemnly sworn -that he didn't take it. And if he didn't take it, who did? That, said -Sampson, was a very simple thing to answer: Some person unknown to the -jury. - -Miss Hildebrand's spirits undoubtedly fell after that significant move -of the State. There was an anxious, bewildered expression in her eyes, -and a rather pathetic droop at the corners of her adorable mouth. - -The argument proceeded. Mr. O 'Brien made the closing speech for the -defendant. Her spirits revived under the eloquent, fervent plea of the -now brilliant Irishman. Sampson experienced a feeling of real affection -for the earnest, though unkempt orator, who more than once brought -tears almost to the surface of his eyes. He had great difficulty in -suppressing a desire to blubber, and, when he saw her velvety eyes -swimming in tears, he blew his nose so violently that he started an -epidemic. No. 7, instead of blowing his nose, sniffed so repeatedly and -so audibly that every one wished he'd blow, and have it over with. - -And when her eyes flashed with indignation during the uncalled-for -tirade of the assistant district attorney, Sampson developed a bitter -hatred for the man. When she appeared crushed and bewildered by the -vicious attacks of the fellow, and shrank down in her chair like a -frightened child, Sampson wanted to take her in his strong, comforting -arms and--But, of course, there wasn't any use thinking about such a -thing as that. It was not one of his duties as a juror. - -The case went to the jury at four o'clock that afternoon, after a -somewhat protracted and, to Sampson, totally unenlightening charge by -the justice, who advised the jurors that they must weigh the evidence -as it was found and forbear allowing their sympathies to overcome their -sense of justice. And so on and so forth. He made it very hard for the -jurors. If they went entirely by the evidence, there wasn't anything -left for them to do but to find the defendant guilty. Sampson had hoped -for ameliorating suggestions from the learned justice on which he could -base a sensible doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. - -But, in so many words, the justice announced that the preponderance of -the evidence was in favour of the State. He told the jurors it was their -duty and privilege to take the defendant's unsupported testimony for -what they considered it to be worth and to place it in opposition to the -evidence produced by the State. It was then their duty to render a fair -and impartial verdict on the evidence. - -As the twelve men filed out of the box on their way to the jury room, -Sampson shot a glance at Alexandra Hildebrand. He would not see her -again until he returned to the seat he had occupied for six days, and -after that she was to pass out of his life entirely. He hoped that she -would not be there when he came back with his verdict. It would be much -easier for him. He did not attempt to deceive himself any longer. If -he lived up to his notions of honour and integrity, there was but one -verdict he could return. (He wondered if his companions would prove to -be as rigid in this respect as he.) - -She was looking in the opposite direction, her chin in her hand. She did -not meet his unhappy gaze. He was grateful for that. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -Whatcheb say your name was?” demanded No. 8, aggressively. - -“I didn't say,” said Sampson coolly. “Call me No. 3, if you don't mind. -I'll answer to it.” - -“Well, my name is Hooper, and that's what I want to be called.” - -“I'm not going to call you anything,” said Sampson, turning away in his -loftiest manner. - -“Well, I guess it's just as well you don't,” snorted No. 8, sticking out -his chest, and it wasn't a very obtrusive chest at that. Putting it back -to where it normally belonged was a much less arduous job for No. 8 -than sticking it out. He couldn't have stuck it out at all if he hadn't -possessed the backing of ten men. - -In short, the jury had been out for seven hours and the last ballot -stood eleven to one for acquittal. Sampson was the unit. - -No. 12 tried diplomacy. “Say, now, fellers, let's get together on this -thing. We don't get anywhere by knockin' Mr. Sampson. He's got a right -to think as he pleases, same as we have. So let's be calm and try to get -together.” - -“My God,” groaned No. 1, “can you beat that? Eleven of us have been -together since five o'clock this afternoon, and you talk about being -calm. Now, as foreman of this jury, I think I've got some right to be -heard. You'll admit that, won't you, Mr. Sampson?” - -“Certainly. Up to this moment, I've had no difficulty in hearing you. It -isn't necessary to shout, either. I'm not deaf.” - -“Now, let me talk,” went on the foreman. “Keep still a minute, you -fellers. Mr. Sampson is a gentleman. He's got as much sense, I suppose, -as any of us. He--” - -“Thanks,” said Sampson. - -“Well, here we are, 'leven to one. You admit that your sympathies are -with the old man, same as the rest of us. You say you'd sooner be -shot than to send him up. Well, now let's--wait a minute, Hooper! I'm -talking. Let's talk this thing over as friends. I apologise for what I -said just after supper. You've got a right to be pig-headed. You've got -a legal right to hang this jury. But is it right and fair? If 'leven -of us are willing to go on record as--er--as putting credence in the -testimony of Mr. Hildebrand, I can't see why you're afraid to come in -with us. Down in your soul you don't think he's guilty. You say that -maybe he is shielding some one else. If that's the way you feel, why not -come out like a man and give the poor old lad the benefit of the doubt? -Lord knows I'm a hard man. I don't want to see any guilty man escape. -I believe in putting 'em where they belong, and keeping 'em there. By -Gosh, nobody dares to say to my face that I'm easy on criminals. I'm as -hard as nails. My wife says I'm as hard as all get-out. And she ought -to know. She's heard me talk about crime here in New York for nearly -fifteen years, and she knows how I feel. Well, if I am willing to give -the old man a chance, it ought to stand for something, oughtn't it? Hard -as I am? Just reason it out for yourself, Mr. Sampson. Now, we all -agree that the evidence against him is pretty strong. But it is -circumstantial. You said so yourself in the beginning. It was you who -said that it was circumstantial. You said--just a minute, Hooper! You -said that while everything pointed to him as the guilty man, nobody -actually swore that he saw him take the money. On the other hand, he -swears he didn't take it. He ought to know, oughtn't he? If he knows who -did take it, why that's his business. I don't believe in squealers. I -wouldn't have any mercy on a man who turned State's evidence to save -himself. Well, now, supposing old man Hildebrand knows who got away with -the stuff. He is too much of a man to squeal. We oughtn't to send him up -just because he won't squeal on the man--a friend, for all we know--even -though it might save him from going to the pen. I leave it to you, Mr. -Sampson: ought we?” - -“Of course we oughtn't,” broke in the irrepressible Mr. Hooper. “Any -damn' fool ought to see that.” - -Sampson eyed Mr. Hooper severely. “He's leaving it to me, Mr. Hooper; -not to you.” He leaned a little closer, his eyes narrowing. “And, by the -way, Mr. Hooper, before we go any farther, I should like to call your -attention to several facts entirely separate and apart from this trial. -It may interest you to know that I am six feet one in my stocking feet, -that I weigh one hundred and ninety-five pounds, that I am just under -thirty years of age, that I was one of the strongest men in college, -and that up to a certain point I am, and always have been, one of the -gentlest and best-natured individuals in the world.” - -“What do you mean by that?” blustered No. 8. - -“Gentlemen!” admonished the foreman. The automobile salesman stopped -picking his teeth. - -“I am merely trying to convince you, Mr. Hooper, that there is a great -deal more to be said for circumstantial evidence than you might think. -You might go on forever thinking that I am a meek, spineless saphead, -and on the other hand you might have it proved to you that I'm not. -Please reflect on what I have just said. It can't do you any harm to -reflect, Mr. Hooper.” - -“Oh, piffle!” said Mr. Hooper, getting very red in the face. - -“Sic 'em!” said No. 12, under his breath. - -“Moreover,” went on Sampson, smiling--but mirthlessly--“I am assuming -that your exercises as a hat salesman are not such as one gets in a -first-class gymnasium. I hope you will pardon me for asking you to -repeat the word you just uttered. I think it was 'piffle.'” - -Mr. Hooper grinned. He didn't feel like grinning but something -psychological told him to do it--and to do it as quickly as possible. -“Aw, don't get sore, old man. Forget it!” - -“Certainly,” said Sampson. - -The foreman seized the opportunity. “There, now, that's better. At last -we seem to Be getting together.” - -No. 7 spoke up. “This might be a good time to take another ballot. It's -'leven minutes to one by my watch. We stand 'leven to one. That's a good -sign. Say, do you know that's pretty darned smart, if I do say it myself -who--” - -“Let's have Mr. Sampson's revised views on the subject and then take a -final ballot for tonight,” said the foreman, wearily. - -“I haven't revised my views,” said Sampson. - -There were several draughty sighs. “I've stated them five or six times -to-night, and I see no reason to alter them now. Deeply as I regret it, -I cannot conscientiously do anything but vote for a conviction.” - -“Now, listen to me once more, Mr. Sampson,” began the chubby bachelor. -“I'll try to set you straight in--” - -“See here,” said Sampson, arising and confronting his companions, “we -may just as well look this thing squarely in the face. I don't want -to send him up any more than the rest of you do. But I am going to be -honest with myself in this matter if I have to stay out here for six -months. We've heard all of the evidence. It seems pretty clear to all of -us that the defendant was responsible for the loss of that money, even -if he didn't take it himself. He was the treasurer of the concern. He -had absolute charge of the funds. So far as we are concerned the State -has made out its case. We are supposed to be impartial. We are supposed -to render a verdict according to the law and the evidence. We cannot be -governed by sympathy or conjecture. - -“When I left the court-room with the rest of you gentlemen to deliberate -on a verdict, I will confess to you that I had in my heart a hope that -you men would do just what you have done all along: vote for acquittal. -When I came into this room seven hours ago, I was eager to vote just as -you have voted. Then I began to reflect. I asked myself this question: -how can I go back to that court-room and look the district attorney and -the Court in the face and say that James Hildebrand is not guilty? If I -did that, gentlemen, I am quite sure I could never look an honest man in -the face again. We have all been carried away by our sympathies--I quite -as much as the rest of you. I am convinced that there isn't a man among -you who can stand up here and say, on his honour, that the evidence -warrants the discharge of the defendant. - -“God knows I want to set him free. I am inclined to believe his story. -He is not the sort of man who would steal. But, after all, we are bound, -as honest men, to carry out the requirements of the law. The Court -clearly stated the law in this case. Under the law, we can do nothing -else but convict, gentlemen. - -“You, Mr. Foreman, have said that Hildebrand perhaps knows who took -the money. You will admit that you are guessing at it, just as I am -guessing. In his own testimony he was careful to say nothing that would -lead us to believe that he knows the guilty man. The State definitely -charges him with the crime and it produces evidence of an overwhelming -nature to support the charge. Against this evidence is his simple -statement that he did not take the money. He had already pleaded not -guilty. Is it to be expected of him, therefore, that he should say -anything else but that he did not rob his partners? - -“Only the criminals who are caught redhanded confess that they -are guilty. The guiltiest of them go on the stand, as we all know, -proclaiming their innocence, and, not one, but all of the men who go to -the chair after making such pleas maintain with their last breath that -they are innocent. Gentlemen, this is the bitterest hour in all my life. -I want to set this old man free, but I cannot conscientiously do so. I -took my oath to render a fair and impartial verdict. You all know what -a fair and impartial verdict must be in this case. I shall have to vote, -as I have voted from the beginning, for conviction.” - -He sat down. No. 7, who was directly opposite him across the long table, -leaned forward suddenly with an odd expression in his eyes. Then he -blinked them. - -“Why, by jingo, he's--he's crying!” he exclaimed, something akin to awe -in his voice. “You got tears in your eyes, darn me if you haven't.” - -There were tears in Sampson's eyes. He lowered his head. - -“Yes,” he said gruffly; “and I am not ashamed of them.” - -“Oh, come now, old feller,” said Mr. Hooper, uncomfortably; “don't make -a scene. Pull yourself together. We're all friends here, and we're all -good fellers. Don't--” - -“I'm all right,” said Sampson coldly. “You see I'm not as -hard-hearted as you thought. Now, gentlemen, I shall not attempt to -argue with you. I shall not attempt to persuade you to look at the case -from my point of view. As a matter of fact, I am rather well pleased -with the attitude you've taken. The trouble is that it isn't going to -help the poor old man. All we can do is to disagree, and that means -he will have to be tried all over again, perhaps after many months of -confinement. I should like to ask you--all of you--a few rather pointed -questions, and I'd like to have square and fair answers from you. What -do you say to that?” - -“Fire away,” said the foreman. - -“It's one o'clock,” said No. 7. “Supposin' we wait till after -breakfast.” - -“Gawd, I'm sleepy,” groaned No. 12. - -“No,” said the foreman firmly; “let's hear what Mr. Sampson has to say. -He's got a lot of good common sense and he won't ask foolish questions. -They'll be important, believe me.” - -They all settled hack in their chairs, wearily, drearily. - -“All right. Go ahead,” sighed the chubby bachelor. “I'll answer any -question except 'what'll you have to drink,' and I'll answer that -to-morrow.” - -Sampson hesitated. He was eyeing No. 7 in a retrospective sort of -way. No. 7 shifted in his chair and succeeded in banishing the dreamy, -faraway look in his eyes. - -“Assuming,” began the speaker, “that we were trying a low-browed, -undershot ruffian instead of James W. Hildebrand, and the evidence -against him was identical with that which we have been listening to, -would you disregard it and accept his statement instead?” - -“The case ain't parallel,” said No. 8. “His face wouldn't be James W. -Hildebrand's, and you can bank a lot on a feller's face, Mr. Sampson.” - -The others said, “That's so.” - -“That establishes one fact very clearly, doesn't it? You all admit that -with a different sort of a face and manner, Mr. Hildebrand might be as -guilty as sin. Well, that point being settled, let me ask you another -question. If Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter who has faced -us for six working days, were a sour-visaged, watery-eyed damsel of -uncertain age and devoid of what is commonly called sex-appeal, would -your sympathies still be as happily placed as they are at present?” - -No man responded. Each one seemed willing to allow his neighbour to -answer this perfectly unanswerable question. - -“You do not answer,” went on Sampson, “so I will put it in another -form. Suppose that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand had not been there at all; -suppose that she had not been where we could look at her for six short -consecutive days--and consequently think of her for six long consecutive -nights--or where she couldn't possibly have looked at us out of eyes -that revealed the most holy trust in us--well, what then? I confess that -Miss Hildebrand exercised a tremendous influence over me. Did she have -the same effect upon you?” - -Several of them cleared their throats, and then of one accord, as if -moved by a single magnetic impulse, all of them said, in a loud, almost -combative tone, “No!” - -The chubby bachelor qualified his negative. “She didn't have an undue -influence, Mr. Sampson. Of course, I liked to look at her. She's easy to -look at, you know.” He blushed as his eyes swept the group with what he -intended to be defiance but was in reality embarrassment. - -No. 7: “I was awfully sorry for her. I guess everybody was.” - -No. 9; “She's devoted to the old man. I like that in her. I tell you -there's nothing finer than a young girl showing love and respect for--” - -No. 12: “She's a square little scout. Take it from me, gents, she wasn't -thinking of me as a juror when she happened to turn her lamps on me. -I'm an old hand at the game. I can tell you a lot about women that you -wouldn't guess in--” - -Sampson: “We may, therefore, eliminate Miss Hildebrand as the pernicious -force in our deliberations. She has nothing to do with our sense of -justice. We would be voting, I take it, just as we have been all along -if there were no such person as she. However, it occurs to me that each -of you gentlemen may have had the same impression that I had during the -trial. I had a feeling that Miss Hildebrand was depending on me to -a tremendous extent. You may be sure that I do not charge her with -duplicity--God knows I have the sincerest admiration for her--but I -found it pretty difficult to meet her honest, serene, trustful eyes -without experiencing a decided opinion that it was my bounden duty to -acquit her grandfather. Anybody else feel that way about it?” - -There was a long silence. Again each man seemed to be waiting for the -other to break it. It was the foreman who spoke. - -“I'll be perfectly honest, for one,” he said. “I thought and still think -that she looked upon me as a friendly juror. Nothing wrong about -it, mind you--not a thing. I wouldn't have you think that she -deliberately--er--ahem! What have you to say, No. 7?” - -No. 7 blushed violently. “Not a word,” said he. “I profess to be a -gentleman.” - -No. 8 snorted. “Well, then, act like one. Mr. Sampson's a gentleman. He -don't hesitate to say that he was--Say, Mr. Sampson, just what did you -say?” - -“I said, without the slightest desire to create a wrong impression, that -I was deeply affected by the trust Miss Hildebrand appeared to place -in me. She believes her grandfather to be innocent, and I think she -believes that I agree with her. That's the long and the short of it.” - No. 4 slammed his fist upon the table. “By thunder, that's just exactly -the fix I'm in. Right from the start, I seemed to feel that I got on -this jury because she liked the looks of me. Not the way you think, -Hooper, but because I looked like a man who might give her grandfather a -square trial and--” - -Mr. Hooper interrupted him hotly: “What do you mean by 'not the way you -think'? That sounded kind of disparaging, my good man--disparaging to -her. Explain yourself.” Sampson interposed. “I think we all understand -each other, gentlemen. Miss Hildebrand practically picked the whole -dozen of us. She inspected us as we came up, she sized us up, and -she had the final word to say as to whether we were acceptable to the -defence. She believed in us, or we wouldn't be here to-night. What makes -it all the harder for us, gentlemen, individually and collectively, is -that we believe in her. Now, what are we to do? Live up to her estimate -of us, or live up to a prior estimate of ourselves?” - -“Well, let's sleep over it,” said the foreman uneasily. “I guess we're -all tired and--” - -“I guess we won't sleep much,” broke in No. 7 miserably. “Damn' if -you'll ever get me on a jury again. I'm a nervous man anyhow and -now--I'm a wreck. I don't know what to do about this business.” - -“If it were not for Miss Hildebrand, gentlemen, we'd all know what to -do,” said Sampson. “Isn't that a fact?” - -“Well, you seem to have made up your mind,” said No. 8 gloomily. “I -thought mine was made up, but, by gosh, I--I want to do what's right. I -took my oath to--” - -“We will take a ballot before breakfast in the morning,” said No. 1 -decisively. “Now, let's sleep if we can.” - -They disposed themselves in chairs, stretched out their legs and--waited -for an illuminating daybreak. - -Sampson's decision was final. He would not stultify his honour. He -would not be swayed by the sweetest emotion that ever had assailed him. -Besides, he argued through the long, tedious hours before dawn, when all -was said and done, what could Alexandra Hildebrand ever be to him? She -would go out of his life the day that-- - -But there he was at it again! Why couldn't he put her out of his -thoughts? Why was he continually thinking of the day when he would see -the last of her? And what a conceited fool he had been! She had -been most impartial with her mute favours. Every man on the jury was -figuratively and literally in the same boat with him. Each one of them -believed as he believed: that he was the one special object of interest -to her. - -But still--he was quite sure--she _had_ communed with him a little -more--was he justified in using the word?--intimately than with the -others? Surely he could not be mistaken in his belief that she -looked upon him as a trifle superior to--But some one was nudging him -violently. - -“Wake up, Mr. Sampson,” a voice was saying--a voice that was vaguely -familiar. It was a coarse, unfeminine voice. “We're ready to take a -ballot before we go out to breakfast. Want to wash up first or will -you--” - -“What time is it?” muttered Sampson, starting up from his chair. Was it -the chair that creaked, or was it his bones? He was stiff and sore and -horribly unwieldy. - -“Half past seven,” said the foreman. Then Sampson recognised the voice -that had interrupted his personal confession. Moreover, he recognised -the unshaven countenance. It was really quite a shock, coming so closely -upon... “You've been hitting it up pretty soundly. No. 7 says he didn't -sleep a wink. Afraid to risk it, he says.” - -At eight o'clock an attendant rapped on the door and told them to get -ready to go out to breakfast. - -“Go away!” shouted the foreman. He was in the midst of an argument with -No. 7 when the interruption came, and he was getting the better of it. - -“I'm willing to go half way,” said No. 7 dreamily. “Hungry as I am, I'll -go half way. I've got the darnedest headache on earth. If I had a cup of -coffee maybe I'd--” - -“What do you mean half way?” exploded Mr. Hooper. “You can't render a -half-way verdict, can you?” - -The ballot had just been taken. It stood eleven to one for conviction! -This time No. 7 was the unit. - -“No,” said the dreamy No. 7, unoffended. “What I want to do is to -make it as light for him as possible. Can't we find him guilty of -embezzlement in the third degree or--” Sampson interrupted. He too -wanted his coffee. “Let's have our breakfast. Afterwards we can -discuss--” - -“I want to settle it now,” roared Mr. Hooper. “It's all nonsense talking -about breakfast while--” - -“Well, then,” said Sampson, “suppose we agree to find him guilty as -charged and recommend him to the mercy of the Court.” - -This was hailed with acclaim. Even No. 7, emerging temporarily from his -mental siesta, agreed that that was “a corking idea.” - -“Find him guilty,” he explained, satisfying himself at least, “and then -ask the Court to discharge him. Maybe a little lecture would do him -good. A few words of advice--” - -“And now, gentlemen,” broke in Sampson crisply, “since we have -reached the conclusion that we are trying Mr. Hildebrand and not Miss -Hildebrand, perhaps we would better have our coffee.” - -At ten o'clock the jury filed into the courtroom and took their places -in the box. Each was conscious of what he was sure must look like a ten -days' growth of beard, and each wore the stem, implacable look that is -best described as “hang-dog.” - -A dozen pairs of eyes went on an uneasy journey in quest of an object of -dread. She was not there. There were a dozen sighs of relief. Good! If -they could only get it over with and escape before she appeared! What -was all this delay about? They were ready with their verdict; why should -they be kept waiting like this? No wonder men hated serving on juries. - -The Court came in and took his seat. He looked very stern and -forbidding. He looked, thought Sampson, like a man who has been married -a great many years and is interested only in his profession. A few days -earlier he looked more or less like an unmarried man. - -“Gentlemen of the jury,” began the Clerk after the roll-call, “have you -arrived at a verdict?” - -“We have,” said No. 1, with an involuntary glance in the direction of -the door. - -The verdict itself was clear and concise enough. “We, the jury, find the -defendant, James W. Hildebrand, guilty as charged.” - -The old man's eyes fell. A quiver ran through his gaunt body. An -instant later, however, he sat erect and faced his judges, and a queer, -indescribable smile developed slowly at the corners of his mouth. -Sampson was watching him closely. Afterwards he thought of this smile -as an expression of supreme indulgence. He remembered feeling, at the -moment, very cheap and small. - -Before the defendant's counsel could call for a poll of the jury, -No. 1 arose in his place and laboriously addressed the Court. He announced -that the jury had a communication to make and asked if this was the -proper time to present it. The Court signified his readiness to hear the -communication, and No. 1, nervously extracting from his pocket a sheet -of note paper, read the following recommendation:--“The jury, having -decided in its deliberations that the defendant, James W. Hildebrand, -is legally and morally guilty as charged in the indictment, craves -the permission of this honourable Court to be allowed to submit a -recommendation bearing upon the penalty to be inflicted as the result -of the verdict agreed upon. We would respectfully urge the Court to -exercise his prerogative and suspend sentence in the case of James -W. Hildebrand. The evidence against him is sufficient to warrant -conviction, but there are circumstances, we believe, which should -operate to no small degree in his favour. His age, his former high -standing among men, and his bearing during the course of this trial, -commend him to us as worthy of this informal appeal to your Honour's -mercy. This communication is offered regardless of our finding and is -not meant to prejudice the verdict we have returned. In leaving the -defendant in the hands of this Court, we humbly but earnestly petition -your Honour to at least grant him the minimum penalty in the event that -you do not see fit to act upon our suggestion to suspend sentence.” - -The document, which was signed by the twelve jurors, had been prepared -by Sampson, and it was his foresight that rendered it entirely within -the law. He was smart enough not to incorporate it in the finding -itself; it was a supplementary instrument which could be accepted or -disregarded as the Court saw fit. - -The Court gazed rather fixedly at the sheet of paper which was passed -to him by an attendant. His brow was ruffled. He pulled nervously at his -moustache. At last, clearing his throat, he said, addressing the counsel -for the defence: - -“Gentlemen, do you wish to poll the jury?” - -Mr. O 'Brien waived this formality. He and his partner seemed to be -rather well pleased with the verdict. They eyed the Court anxiously, -hopefully. - -“The Court will pronounce sentence on Friday,” announced the justice, -his eye on the door. He acted very much like a man who was afraid -of being caught in the act of perpetrating something decidedly -reprehensible. “I wish to thank the jurors for the careful attention -they have given the case and to compliment them on the verdict they have -returned in the face of rather trying conditions. It speaks well for the -integrity, the soundness of our jury system. I may add, gentlemen, that -I shall very seriously consider the recommendation you have made. The -prisoner is remanded until next Friday at ten o'clock.” - -Half an hour later Sampson found himself in the street. He had spent -twenty minutes or more loitering about the halls of the Criminal Courts -building, his eager gaze sweeping the throng that was forever changing. -It searched remote corners and mounted quadruple stairways; it raked the -balcony railings one, two and three flights up; it went down other -steps toward the street-level floor. And all the while his own gaze was -scouting, the anxious eyes of four other gentlemen were doing the same -as his: No. 7, No. 8, No. 6 and No. 12. They were all looking for -the trim, natty figure and the enchanting face of Miss Alexandra -Hildebrand--vainly looking, for she was nowhere to be seen. - -And when Sampson found himself in the street--(a bitter gale was -blowing)--he was attended by two gentlemen who justly might have been -identified as his most intimate, bosom friends: the lovesick No. 7 and -the predatory No. 12. They had him between them as they wended their -way toward the Subway station at Worth Street, and they were smoking -his cigars (because he _couldn't_ smoke theirs, notwithstanding their -divided hospitality)--and they were talking loudly against time. Sampson -had the feeling that they were aiming to attach themselves to him for -life. - -They accepted him as their guiding light, their mentor, their firm -example. For all time they would look upon him as a leader of men, and -they would be proud to speak of him to older friends as a new friend -worth having, worth tying up to, so to say. They seemed only too ready -to glorify him, and in doing so gloried in the fact that he was a -top-lofty, superior sort of individual who looked down upon them with -infinite though gentle scorn. - -Moreover, they thought, if they kept on the good side of Sampson -they might reasonably expect to obtain an occasional glimpse of Miss -Alexandra Hildebrand, for, with his keenness and determination, he was -sure to pursue an advantage that both of them reluctantly conceded. - -In the Subway local No. 7 invited Sampson to have lunch with him. He -suggested the Vanderbilt, but he wasn't sure whether he'd entertain in -the main dining room or in the Della Robbia room. He seemed confused and -uncertain about it. No. 12 boisterously intervened. He knew of a nice -little place in Forty-second Street where you can get the best oysters -in New York. He not only invited Sampson to go there. They clung to him, -however, until they reached Times Square Station with him but -magnanimously included No. 7, which was more than No. 7 had done for -him. - -Sampson declined. They clung to him, however, until they reached Times -Square station. There he said good-bye to them as they left the kiosk. - -[Illustration: 0113] - -“Perhaps we may meet again,” he said pleasantly. No. 7 fumbled in his -vest pocket and brought forth a soiled business card. - -“If you ever need anything in the way of electric fixtures or repairing, -remember me, Mr. Sampson,” he said. “Telephone and address as per card. -Keep it, please. I am in business for myself. The Trans-Continental -Electric Supply Emporium.' - -“Here's my card, Mr. Sampson,” said No. 12. “I'd like to come around -and give you a little spiel on our new model some day soon. We're -practically sold up as far as December, but I think I can sneak you in -ahead--what say?” - -“I have an automobile, thank you. Two of them, in fact.” He mentioned -the make of car that he owned. No. 12 was not disheartened. - -“You could have fifteen of our cars for the price you paid for -yours--one for every other day in the month. Just bear that in mind. A -brand new car every second day. Let me see: your address is--” He paused -expectantly. - -“The Harvard Club will reach me any time.” - -No. 12 started to write it down but paused in the middle of “Harvard” to -grasp the extended hand of his new friend. “I fancy you can remember it -without writing it down,” went on Sampson, smilingly. - -“Never trust to memory,” said No. 12 briskly. “This burg is full of -clubs and--well, so long!” - -No. 7 was still troubled about luncheon. “I'm sorry you can't go to the -Vanderbilt and have a bite--a sandwich and a stein of beer, say.” No. -12 turned to speak to a passing acquaintance, and No. 7 seized the -opportunity to whisper tensely: “She's staying there. I followed her -three times and she always went to the Vanderbilt. Got off the Subway at -Thirty-third Street and--” - -“She? What she?” demanded Sampson, affecting perplexity. - -No. 7 was staggered. It was a long time before he could say: “Well, holy -Smoke!” And then, as Sampson still waited: “Why, _her_, of course--who -else?” - -Sampson appeared to understand at last. He said: “A ripping good hotel, -isn't it?” - -“A peach,” said No. 7, and then they parted. - -That evening Sampson dined at the Vanderbilt. At first, like No. 7, he -wasn't quite sure whether he would dine upstairs or in the Della Robbia -room. He went over the ground very thoroughly before deciding. At eight -o'clock he disconsolately selected the main dining-room and ate, without -appetite, a lonely but excellent dinner. - -He wondered if No. 7 could have lied to him. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -He also dropped in at the Vanderbilt for lunch on Thursday. - -Friday morning he was in the court-room, ostensibly to hear sentence -pronounced. He sat outside the railing. Seven of his fellow-jurors -straggled in as the hour for convening court approached. Sampson found -himself flanked by No. 7 and No. 12, the former a trifle winded after a -long run from Worth Street. In a hoarse wheeze he informed Sampson that -“she'll be here in a minute,” and, sure enough, the words were barely -out of his mouth when Alexandra Hildebrand entered the court-room with -Mr. O 'Brien. - -Sampson was shocked by her appearance. She was pale and tired-looking -and there were dark circles beneath her wonderful eyes. She looked ill -and worn. His heart went out to her. He longed to hold her close and -whisper-- - -“My God!” oozed from No. 7's agonised lips. “She's--she's sick!” - -Sampson kicked him violently on the shin. “She'll hear you, you -blithering idiot,” he grated out. - -The courtesy of the Court was extended once more to Miss Hildebrand. -She was invited to have a seat inside the railing. If she recognised a -single one of the eight jurors who sat outside, she failed to betray -the fact by sign or deed. The prisoner, a troubled, anxious look in his -eyes, entered and took his accustomed seat instead of standing at the -foot of the jury box to await sentence. Miss Hildebrand put her arm -over his shoulders and brushed his lean old cheek with her lips. He was -singularly unmoved by this act of devotion. Sampson glowered. The old -man might at least have given her a look of gratitude, a pat of the -hand--oh, anything gentle and grandfatherly. But there he sat, as rigid -as an oak, his gaze fixed on the Court, his body hunched forward in an -attitude of suspense. He was not thinking of Alexandra. - -Hildebrand arose when his name was called, and it was plain that he -maintained his composure only by the greatest exertion of the will. -Sampson watched him curiously. He had the feeling that the old man would -collapse if the Court's decision proved severe. - -The customary questions and answers followed, the old man responding in -a voice barely audible to those close by. - -“The Court, respecting the wishes of the jurors who tried and found you -guilty, James Hildebrand, is inclined to be merciful. It is the judgment -of this Court that the penalty in your case shall be fixed at two years' -imprisonment, but in view of the recommendation presented here and -because of your previous reputation for integrity and the fact that you -voluntarily surrendered yourself to justice, sentence is suspended.” - -Other remarks by the Court followed, but Sampson did not hear them. -His whole attention was centred on Alexandra Hildebrand. Her slim body -straightened up, her eyes brightened, and a heavenly smile transfigured -her face. - -Sampson felt like cheering! - -A few minutes later she passed him in the rotunda. For an instant their -eyes met. There was a deep, searching expression in hers. Suddenly a -deep flush covered her smooth cheek and her eyes fell. She hurried past, -and he, stock-still with wonder and joy over this astounding exposition -of confusion on her part, failed utterly to pursue an advantage that -would have been seized upon with alacrity by the atavistic No. 12. He -allowed her to escape! - -[Illustration: 0123] - -Aroused to action too late, he bolted after her, only to see her enter -a waiting taxi-cab and--yes, she _did_ look back over her shoulder. -She knew he would follow! He raised his hat, and he was sure that she -smiled--faintly, it is true, but still she smiled. If he hoped that she -would condescend to alter her course, he was doomed to disappointment. -The driver obeyed his original instructions and shot off in the -direction of Lafayette Street. - -The memory of her tribute--a blush and a fleeting smile--was to linger -with Sampson for many a weary, watchful day. - -The taxi-cab--a noisy, ungentle abomination--was whirling her corporeal -loveliness out of his reach and vision with exasperating swiftness, -leaving him high and dry in an endless, barren desert. His heart gave -a tremendous jump when a traffic policeman stopped the car at the -corner above. He set forth as fast as his long legs could carry him with -dignity, hoping and praying that the officer would be as slow and as -stubborn about--But she must have looked into the fellow's eyes and -smiled, for, with surprising amiability, he signified that she was -to proceed. Apparently he was too dazzled to reprimand or caution the -driver, for the taxi went forward at an increased speed. - -Some one touched Sampson's elbow. He withdrew his gaze from the -vanishing taxi-cab and allowed it to rest in sheer amazement upon the -bleak countenance of No. 7. - -“She's going away,” said No. 7 in sepulchral tones. - -“Evidently,” said Sampson. “Exceeding the speed limit while she is about -it, too.” - -“I mean,” said the other, “she's going to take a long journey. She's -leaving New York! That taxi is full of satchels and valises and stuff, -and the driver has orders to get her to the Hudson tube by eleven -o'clock. I heard that much anyhow, hangin' around here. Say, do you know -there is another woman in that cab with her? There sure is. I saw her -plain as day. Kind of an old woman with two or three little satchels and -one of them dinky white dogs in her lap.” - -“A lady's maid,” said Sampson. - -“Where do you suppose she's going?” - -“How should I know?” demanded Sampson severely. - -“And why is she running away without grandpa? What's going to become of -the old man? Seems as though she'd ought to hang around until he's--” - -“I daresay she knows what she is doing,” said Sampson, disturbed by the -same thoughts. - -“Maybe he's going to join her later on?” hopefully. “Over in Jersey -somewhere.” - -“Very likely. Good-bye.” Sampson wrung the limp hand of No. 7 and made -off toward Broadway. - -He lunched with a friend at the Lawyers' Club. In the smoking room -afterwards, he came face to face with the assistant district attorney -who had prosecuted the case of James Hildebrand. His friend exclaimed: - -“Hello, Wilks! You ought to know Mr. Sampson. He's been under your nose -for a week or ten days.” - -Wilks grinned as he shook hands with the exjuror. “Glad to know you as -Mr. Sampson, sir, and not as No. 3. We had a rather interesting week, of -it, didn't we?” - -Sampson was surprised to find that he rather liked the good-humoured -twinkle in Wilks's eyes. He had thoroughly disapproved of him up to this -instant. Now he appeared as a mild, pleasant-voiced young man with a far -from vindictive eye and a singularly engaging smile. Departing from his -rôle as prosecutor, Wilks succeeded in becoming an uncommonly decent -fellow. - -“Interesting, to say the least,” replied Sampson. - -Wilks had coffee with them, and a cigar. - -“I must say, Mr. Sampson, that you jurors had something out of the -ordinary to contend with. There isn't the remotest doubt that old -Hildebrand is guilty, and yet there was a wave of sympathy for him that -extended to all of us, enveloped us, so to speak. At the outset, we were -disposed to go easy with him, realising that we had a dead open and shut -case against him. - -“We awoke to our danger when the trial was half over. That is to say, we -awoke to the fact that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand was likely to upset the -whole pot of beans for us. You have no idea what we sometimes have to -contend with. There is nothing so difficult to fight against as the -force of feminine appeal. Men are simple things, you see. We boast about -our righteous strength of purpose, but along comes a gentle, frail bit -of womanhood and we find ourselves--well, up in the air! Miss Hildebrand -had a decidedly agreeable effect on all of us. It is only natural that -she should. We realised what it all meant to her, and I daresay there -wasn't one of us who relished the thought of hurting her. - -“Her devotion was really quite beautiful,” observed Sampson, feeling -that he had to put himself on record. - -“I understand how you jurors felt about her and, through her, about the -old man. The State is satisfied to let him off as you recommended. It is -more than likely that he was badly treated in those deals with Stevens -and Drew, and if he can rehabilitate himself I think we will have -done well not to oppose leniency. At any rate, his granddaughter has -something to rejoice over, even though she may have been shocked by your -decision that he is guilty.” - -“What do you know about her, Mr. Wilks?” inquired Sampson. - -“Nothing in particular. She is an orphan, as you know, and I understand -she has been residing with her grandfather in Switzerland. She returned -to this country with him at the time of his voluntary surrender three -months ago. His bail was fixed at twenty thousand dollars, and she tried -to raise it, but failed. She has been trying to sell his Bronx property, -but, of course, that sort of thing takes time. I understand that a deal -is about to be closed, however, thanks to her untiring efforts, and -the old man may realise handsomely after all. I suppose the Cornwallis -Realty and Investment Company will bring civil action to regain the -fifty thousand lost through his defection. If he is sensible he will -restore the amount and--well, that will be the end of it.” - -“Why didn't he sell it long ago?” - -“He couldn't very well manage it without coming to New York, and he was -so closely watched that he couldn't do that without running a very great -risk. Evidently she, believing absolutely in his innocence, induced him -to give himself up and have his name cleared of the stigma that was upon -it. This is mere conjecture, of course.” - -“Well, she's a brick, at any rate,” said Sampson, with some enthusiasm. - -Wilks smiled. “That verdict, at least, is universal. Justice, however, -has miscarried in more cases than I care to mention, simply because some -little woman proves herself to be a brick. No doubt you will recall any -number of such cases right here in New York. If we had had the remotest -idea what Miss Hildebrand was like, we would have put up a strenuous -kick against her sitting beside the prisoner where you all could see -and be seen. She made it hard for you to convict the old man, and she -certainly wormed the recommendation to the Court out of you. To tell you -the truth, we feared an acquittal. When the jury stayed out all night I -said to myself: 'We're licked, sure as shooting. 'The best we looked -for was a disagreement. I've been told that the first half dozen ballots -stood eleven to one for acquittal. So you see, I wasn't far off in my -surmise. It has taught me a lesson. There will be no more attractive, -thoroughly upsetting young ladies to cast spells over judge, jury, and -lawyers if I can help it. I hope you will pardon me for saying it, Mr. -Sampson, but I am firmly convinced if there had been no Miss Alexandra -Hildebrand in the case you gentlemen would have brought in your verdict -in twenty minutes.” - -“I suppose you know that I am the one who stood out against the eleven,” - said Sampson. - -“I suspected as much. I don't mind saying that the State counted on you, -Mr. Sampson.” Sampson started. How was this? The State counted on him -also? Suddenly he flushed. - -“I had a notion that Miss Hildebrand counted on me, Mr. Wilks.” - -“She did,” said the lawyer. “I think she lost a little of her -confidence, however, as the trial progressed. She appeared to be -devoting nearly all of her energies to you. You, apparently, were the -one who had to be subdued, if you will forgive the term. She is the -cleverest, shrewdest young woman I've ever seen. She is the best judge -of men that I've ever encountered--far and away better than I or any one -connected with our office. When that jury was completed I realised, -with a sort of shock, that it was she who selected it. She made but one -mistake--and that was in you. There is where we were smarter than she. -I knew that you would do the right thing by us, in spite of your very -palpable efforts to get off. If there had been some one else in your -place, Mr. Sampson, James Hildebrand would have been acquitted.” - -“Possibly,” said Sampson, with a sinking of the heart. He felt like a -Judas! She had made but one mistake, and it was fatal! - -“As I was saying,” went on Wilks, blowing rings toward the ceiling, -“women play thunder with us sometimes. A friend of mine from Chicago -dined with me last night. He is in the State's Attorney's office out -there and he's down here on business. You ought to hear him on the -subject of women mixing up in criminal cases. He says it's fatal--if -they're pretty and appealing. Nine times out of ten they have more -nerve, more character and a good deal more intelligence than the average -juryman, and Mr. Juror is like wax in their hands. Take a case they -had out there last fall--the Brownley case--you read about it, perhaps. -Young fellow from Louisiana got into bad company in Chicago, and went -all wrong. Gambled and then had to rob his employers to get square with -the world. His father and sister came up from New Orleans and made a -fight for him. They got the best legal talent in town, and then little -sister sat beside brother and petted him from time to time. A cinch! The -jury was out an hour. Not guilty! See what I mean? And you remember -the Paris case a year or two ago when the detectives nabbed a couple -of international card sharks and bunco men after they had worked the -Atlantic for two years straight without being landed? French juries -tried 'em separately. One of them got five years and the other got off -scot free. Why? Because his pretty young wife turned up and--well, you -know the French! Woman is lovely in her place, but her place isn't in -the court-room unless she favours the prosecution.” - -“They're like good-looking nurses,” said Sampson's friend. “They make a -chap forget everything else.” - -“Same principle,” said Wilks. “Patients and juries are much the same. -They require careful nursing.” - -Sampson was like a lost soul during the weeks that followed the trial. -The hundred and one distractions he sought in the feverish effort to -drive Alexandra Hildebrand out of his thoughts failed of their purpose. -They only left him more eager than before. He longed for a glimpse of -her adorable face, for a single look into her eyes, for the smile she -had promised as she rode away from him, for the sheer fragrance of her -unapproachable beauty. She filled his heart and brain, and she was lost -to him. - -The most depressing fits of jealousy overtook him. He tried to reason -with himself. Why shouldn't she have a sweetheart? Why shouldn't she be -in love with some one? What else could he expect--in heaven's name, what -else? Of course there was one among all the hundreds who adored her that -she could adore in return. Still he was sick with jealousy. He hated -even the possibility that there was a man living who could claim her as -his own. - -At the end of a month of resolute inactivity, he threw off all restraint -and inaugurated a determined though innocuous search for her. He made it -his business to stroll up and down Fifth Avenue during the fashionable -hours of the day, and so frantic were his efforts to discover her in the -shifting throngs that he always went home with a headache, bone-weary -and appetiteless. His alert, all-enveloping gaze swept the avenue from -Thirty-fourth Street to Fiftieth at least twice a day, and by night it -raked the theatres and restaurants with an assiduity that rendered him -an impossible companion for friends who were so unfortunate as to be -involved in his prowlings. His lack of concentration, except in one -pursuit, was woful. His friends were annoyed, and justly. No one likes -inattention. Half the time he didn't hear a word they were saying to -him, and the other half they were resentfully silent. - -He invaded Altman's, McCreery's, Lord & Taylor's and the other big -shops, buying things that he did not want, and he entered no end of -fashionable millinery establishments--and once a prominent corset -concern--not for the sake of purchasing, of course, but always with the -manner of an irritated gentleman looking for an inconsiderate wife. - -This determined effort to ferret out Miss Hildebrand was due to a -report from No. 7, on whom he called one day in regard to an electrical -disturbance in his apartment. No. 7 told him that No. 4, who was the -proprietor of a plumbing establishment in Amsterdam Avenue, had seen -Miss Hildebrand on top of a passing Fifth Avenue stage. By means of some -remarkable sprinting No. 4, fortunately an unmarried man, overtook the -stage at the corner above (Forty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue), and -climbed aboard. Just as he sat down, all out of breath, two seats behind -the young lady, she got off and entered Sloane's. No. 4 had a short -argument with the conductor about paying fare for a ride of two blocks, -but it was long enough to carry him to the corner above Sloane's, so that -when he got back to the big shop she was lost. - -He was not discouraged. Saying that he was waiting for his wife he -continued to invest the approach to the elevators with such success that -after nearly an hour (and an hour as computed by plumbers is no small -matter) he was rewarded by the appearance of Miss Hildebrand. - -Without notifying the floorwalkers that he couldn't wait any longer for -his wife, he made off after the young lady, leaving them to think, if -they thought at all, that his wife was a very beautiful person who had -married considerably beneath her station. Miss Hildebrand waited at -the corner for a stage. No. 4 already had squandered ten cents, but he -didn't allow that to stand in the way of further adventure. He had his -dime ready when the 'bus came along--in fact, he had two dimes ready, -for it was his secret hope that she would recognise him. But alas! There -was room for but one more passenger, and he was left standing on the -curb, while she went rattling up the avenue in what he reckoned to be -the swiftest 'bus in the service. - -Sampson's deductions were clear. She wouldn't be shopping at Sloane's -unless she was buying furnishings of some sort for a house, and it was -reasonable to suppose that the house was somewhere within reach of the -stage line route. No. 4 had failed to note, however, whether she took -a Riverside Drive or a Fifth Avenue stage. Although Sampson was not in -need of a plumber's services, he looked up No. 4 and had him send men -around to inspect the drain in the kitchen sink. It cost him nearly -twelve dollars to have a five minutes' profitless interview with the -master-plumber. - -It was at this time that he began his pilgrimages up and down Fifth -Avenue, and it was also about this time that he acknowledged himself to -be a drivelling, silly, sentimental idiot--worse even than the drooping -No. 7. - -In the course of his investigations he dropped in to see No. 8 at the -hat store; he talked insurance with No. 11 (and forever afterward had it -talked with him, despite all the pains he took to stop it); he ordered a -suit of clothes at the tailor shop of No. 6; and he even went so far as -to consult No. 1 about having his piano tuned, a proceeding which called -for the immediate acquisition of an instrument. (It occurred to him, -however, that it might prove to be money well spent, for any man who is -thinking of getting married ought to have a grand piano if he can afford -it.) - -One day, overcoming an aversion, he sauntered up to a place in Broadway -and inquired for No. 12. To his amazement, No. 12 seemed a bit hazy as -to the existence of such a person as Miss Hildebrand. It was some time -before the fellow could call her to mind, and then only when the trial -was mentioned. - -“Ah, yes,” said he, rapping his brow soundly, “I get you now. The pretty -little thing we saw at the trial. Lord, man, how long ago was that? Two -months? Well, say, I've seen a couple or three since then that make -her look like a last year's bird's-nest. I'm demonstrating for a little -cutey in the Follies just at present and she has Miss Hildebrand lashed -to the mast. Yellow hair and eyes as blue as--What's your hurry? I'm not -busy--got all kinds of time.” - -But Sampson “walked out on him,” raging inwardly. It was all he could -do to conquer an impulse to kick No. 12. Comparing Alexandra Hildebrand -with a “little cutey in the Follies”! And forgetting her, too! -Unspeakable! - -He discovered James Hildebrand a day or two later. The old man was -living in a small hotel just off Broadway, in the upper Forties. An -actor friend of Sampson's was living in the same hotel, and it was -through him that he learned that Hildebrand had been stopping there for -nearly two months, quite alone. A surprisingly pretty young woman had -called to see him on two or three occasions. According to Sampson's -informant, the old gentleman had just concluded a real estate deal -running into the hundreds of thousands and was soon to return to Europe. -This was most regrettable, lamented the actor, for he couldn't remember -ever having seen a prettier girl than Hildebrand's visitor--who, he had -found out at the desk, was a relative of some description. - -A simple process would have been to interview old Mr. Hildebrand, -but Sampson's pride and good-breeding proved sufficiently strong and -steadfast in the crisis. He held himself aloof. - -A week later he saw Mr. Hildebrand off on one of the trans-Atlantic -liners. Mr. Hildebrand was not aware of the fact that he was being seen -off by any one, however, and Sampson was quite positively certain that -no one else was there for the purpose. There was no sign of Alexandra. - -He went abroad that summer.... Early in the autumn he was back in New -York, resolved to be a fool no longer. No doubt she had married the chap -she loved--and was living happily, contentedly in luxurious splendour -supplied by Sloane's--as long ago, no doubt, as the early spring it may -have happened. - -His heart had once ached for her as an orphan, but all that would now be -altered if she had taken unto herself a husband. Somehow one ceases to -be an orphan the instant one marries. You never think of a fatherless -and motherless wife as an orphan. An orphan is some one you are expected -to feel sorry for. - -He never had thought of himself as an orphan, although his father and -mother had been dead for years. No one ever had been sorry for him -because he was an orphan. What is it that supplies pity for one sex and -not for the other? - -January found him in California. A year ago he had planned--Alas, -his thoughts were ever prone to leap backward to the events of a year -ago--back to the twentieth day of January. He would never forget it. On -that day he first looked upon the loveliest of all God's creatures. The -year had not dimmed his vision. He could see her still as plainly as on -that memorable January day when they “landed” him. - -He wanted to see her once more, married or single, just to tell her that -it was conscience that caused him to fail her in her hour of need. He -wanted her to understand. He wanted her to believe that he couldn't help -being honest, and he wanted very much to hear her say that he did the -only thing an honourable gentleman could possibly do. - -Wending his way northward, he came to San Francisco late in February, -and there fell into the open arms of several classmates whom he had not -seen since his college days. One of them was Jimmy Dorr, now a brilliant -editor and journalist. To him he related the story of the Hildebrand -trial, and the fruitless quest of the girl he still dreamed about. Jimmy -was vastly interested. He was a romanticist. His eyes glittered with -excitement. - -“By Jove, it's a corker!” he exclaimed, breathlessly. - -“A corker?” repeated Sampson, staring. - -“Corking idea for a novel, that's what I mean. Why, you couldn't beat it -if you sat down and thought day and night for ten years. Ideas, that's -what the novelists want. The only thing that has kept me from breaking -into the literary game is an absolute paucity of--ideas. And here -you are handing me one. I shall write a novel. I'll have you find her -imprisoned in a dungeon by the conniving grandparent--” - -“Or by a rascally husband,” put in Sampson, gloomily. - -Dorr became thoughtful. “By the way, we've been having a more or less -notable trial here for the past week and a half. Lot of interest in it -all over the country. Have you heard of the Rodriguez ease?” - -“Not yet,” said Sampson, resignedly. “Fire away. I 'll listen.” - -“The arguments to the jury will be concluded to-morrow morning and there -ought to be a verdict before night. How would you like to go around -there with me at ten o 'clock and hear the State's closing argument? I -can manage it easily, although it's hard to get tickets. In a word, it -is the most popular show in town. Standing room only. Come along, and -I'll bet my head you'll never forget the experience.” - -“I hate a court-room,” said Sampson. - -“Well, you won't hate this one. I've been dropping in every day for an -hour or so, and, by gad, it _is_ interesting.” A faraway, dreamy look -came into Dorr's spectacled eyes. “Rodriguez is a wonderful character. -You see such chaps only in books and plays--seldom in plays, however, -for you couldn't find actors to look the part. He is a Spaniard, a -native of Mexico City, and as lofty as any grandee you'd find in old -Granada itself. Private detectives caught him in Tokio last summer, -after a world-wide search of three years. He is charged with forgery. -Forged a deed to some property in Berkeley and got away with the -proceeds of the sale. He stubbornly maintains that the deed was a -bona-fide instrument, and is fighting tooth and nail against the people -who accuse him. I 'd like to have you see him, Sampy.” - -The next morning, a bit bored but conscious of a thrill of interest -in attending a trial in the capacity of spectator instead of talesman, -Sampson accompanied the editor to the court-room where the case of -the State vs. Victoriana Rodriguez was being heard. The corridors -and approaches were packed with people. A subdued buzz of excitement -pervaded the air. Every face in the throng revealed the ultimate of -eagerness, each body was charged with a muscular ambition to crowd past -the obstructing bodies before it. Sampson had never witnessed anything -like this before. He demurred. - -“See here, Jimmy, I refuse to surge with a mob like this. Good-bye, old -man. See you--” - -But Dorr conducted him to the private entrance to the judge's chambers, -and a few minutes later into the crowded court-room. They found places -behind the row of reporters and stood with their backs to the wall. - -The jury was in the box, awaiting the opening of court. Sampson surveyed -them with some interest. They were a youngish lot of men and, to his way -of thinking, about as far from intelligent as the average New York jury. -They looked dazed, bewildered and distinctly uncomfortable. He knew how -they were feeling--no one knew better than he! - -The prisoner entered, followed by his counsel, and took his seat. -Sampson favoured Dorr with a smile of derision. Rodriguez was a most -ordinary looking fellow--swarthy, unimposing and at least sixty years -of age. He was not at all Sampson's conception of a Spanish grandee. -Certainly he was not the sort of chap an author would put into a book -with the expectation of having his readers accept him as a hero. - -“Good Lord, Jimmy, is _that_ the marvellous character you've been -talking about!” whispered the New Yorker. “Why, he's just a plain, -ordinary greaser. Nothing lofty about him.” - -But Jimmy didn't hear. He was gazing in rapt eagerness over the heads -of the seated throng outside the railing. Sampson leaned forward and -whispered something to the reporter from Dorr's paper. He repeated the -remark, receiving no response the first time. The young fellow's reply, -when it came, was what Sampson, from his vast experience in law courts, -summed up as “totally irrelevant and not pertinent to the case.” - -Somewhat annoyed, he turned to Jimmy Dorr. That gentleman's gaze was -fixed, so Sampson followed it. A young woman had taken the seat beside -the prisoner. He could not see her face, but something told him that it -was attractive--and then he was suddenly interested in the way her dark -hair grew about her neck and ears. Dorr was whispering: - -“She's the most wonderful thing you ever laid eyes on, Sampy. Wait -till you get a good peek at her face. You'll forget your old Miss -Hill-obeans. She landed here about a month ago, straight from Spain, -where she has been in a convent since she was fourteen. Doesn't speak a -word of English--not a syllable, the reporters say. She--Hey! Sh! What -the devil's the matter with you!” - -Sampson had uttered a very audible exclamation. He was staring at her -with widespread, glazed, unbelieving eyes. She had turned to favour the -reporters with a wistful, shy, entrancing “good morning” smile, and he -looked once more upon the face he had never forgotten and would never -forget. - -“My God!” he whispered, grasping Dorr's arm in a grip that caused his -friend to wince. “Why, it's--Not a word of English! A month ago! Out of -a convent!” He was babbling weakly. His brain was not working. - -“Is it too hot in here for you, old man!” whispered Dorr, alarmed. -“Shall we get out! You look as though--” - -“Who is she!” gasped Sampson. - -Dorr looked triumphant. “I thought she'd bowl you over. But, my Lord, I -didn't dream she'd give you such a jolt as this. The whole damned -bunch of us has gone mad over her. She's old Rodriguez's daughter--the -Senorita Isabella Consuelo Maria Rodriguez.” - - -THE END - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Light that Lies, by George Barr McCutcheon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT THAT LIES *** - -***** This file should be named 54098-0.txt or 54098-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/9/54098/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Light that Lies - -Author: George Barr McCutcheon - -Release Date: February 3, 2017 [EBook #54098] -Last Updated: March 12, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT THAT LIES *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - -</pre> - - <div style="height: 8em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h1> - THE LIGHT THAT LIES - </h1> - <h2> - By George Barr McCutcheon - </h2> - <h4> - The McClure Publications. Inc. - </h4> - <h3> - 1916 - </h3> - <h4> - The Dodd Mead And Company, Inc. - </h4> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0010.jpg" alt="0010 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0010.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0011.jpg" alt="0011 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0011.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - <b>CONTENTS</b> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">S</span>ampson had been - uncommonly successful in evading jury service. By some hook or crook he - always had managed to “get off,” and he had begun to regard his trips down - to General or Special Sessions—coming with monotonous regularity - about three times a year—as interruptions instead of annoyances. - Wise men advised him to serve and get it over with for the time being, but - he had been so steadfastly resourceful in confining his jury service to - brief and uneventful “appearances,” and to occasional examinations as to - his fitness to serve as a juror, that he preferred to trust to his - smartness rather than to their wisdom. Others suggested that he get on the - “sheriff's jury,” a quaintly distinguished method of serving the - commonwealth in that the members perform their duty as citizens in such a - luxurious and expensive way that they never appear in the newspapers as - “twelve good men and true” but as contributors to somewhat compulsory - festivities in which justice is done to the inner man alone. But Sampson, - though rich, abhored the sheriff's jury. He preferred to invent excuses - rather than to have them thrust upon him. - </p> - <p> - Having escaped service on half-a-dozen murder trials by shrewd and - original responses to important questions by counsel for one side or the - other—(it really didn't matter to Sampson which side it was so long - as he saw the loophole)—he found himself at last in the awkward - position of having exhausted all reasonable excuses, and was obliged to - confess one day in court that he had reconsidered his views in regard to - capital punishment. This confession resulted, of course, in his name being - dropped from the “special panel,” for the jury commissioner did not want - any man in that august body who couldn't see his way clear to taking the - life of another. He “got off” once on the ground that he was quite certain - he could not convict on circumstantial evidence, despite the assurance of - learned experts that it is the <i>best</i> evidence of all, and he escaped - another time because he did not consider insanity a defence in homicidal - cases. - </p> - <p> - Then they drew him for Special Sessions and eventually for the humiliating - lower courts, the result being that his resourcefulness was under a - constant and ever increasing strain. Where once he had experienced a - rather pleasing interest in “getting off” in important cases, he now found - himself very hard put to escape service in the most trifling of criminal - trials. - </p> - <p> - He began to complain bitterly of the injustice to himself, an honest, - upright citizen who was obliged to live in a constant state of - apprehension. He felt like a hunted animal. He was no sooner safely out of - one case when he was called for another. - </p> - <p> - It was all wrong. Why should he be hounded like this when the city was - full of men eager to earn two dollars a day and who would not in the least - mind sitting cross-legged and idle all day long in a jury box—snoozing - perhaps—in order to do their duty as citizens? Moreover, there were - men who actually <i>needed</i> the money, and there were lots of them who - were quite as honest as the prisoners on trial or even the witnesses who - testified. - </p> - <p> - He was quite sure that if he ever was sworn in as a juror, his entire - sympathy would be with the prisoner at the bar, for he would have a fellow - feeling for the unhappy wretch who also was there because he couldn't help - it. The jury system was all wrong, claimed Sampson. For example, said he, - a man is supposed to be tried by twelve of his peers. That being the case, - a ruffian from the lower East Side should be tried by his moral and mental - equals and not by his superiors. By the same argument, a brainy, - intelligent bank or railway president, an editor, or a college professor, - should not be tried by twelve incompetent though perfectly honest - window-washers. Any way you looked at it, the jury system was all wrong. - The more Sampson thought about it the more fully convinced was he that - something ought to be done about it. - </p> - <p> - He had been obliged to miss two weddings, a private-car jaunt to Aiken, - one of the Harvard-Yale football matches, the docking of the <i>Olympic</i> - when she carried at least one precious passenger, the sailing of the <i>Cedric</i> - when she carried an equally precious but more exacting object of interest, - a chance to meet the Princess Pat, and a lot of other things that he - wouldn't have missed for anything in the world notwithstanding the fact - that he couldn't remember, off hand, just what they were. Suffice it to - say, this miserable business of “getting off” juries kept Sampson so - occupied that he found it extremely difficult to get on with anything - else. - </p> - <p> - He was above trying to “fix” any one. Other men, he knew, had some one - downtown who could get them off with a word to the proper person, and - others were of sufficient importance politically to make it impossible for - them to be in contempt of court. That's what he called “fixing things.” - </p> - <p> - Shortly after the holidays he was served with a notice to appear and be - examined as to his fitness to serve as juror in the case of the State vs. - James W. Hildebrand. Now, he had made all his arrangements for a trip to - California. In fact, he planned to leave New York on the twenty-first of - January, and here he was being called into court on the twentieth. - Something told him that the presiding justice was sure to be one of those - who had witnessed one or more of his escapes from service on previous - occasions, and that the honourable gentleman in the long black gown would - smile sadly and shake his head if he protested that he was obliged to get - off because he had to go to California for his health. The stupidest judge - on earth would know at a glance that Sampson didn't have to go anywhere - for his health. He really had more of it than was good for him. - </p> - <p> - If he hadn't been so healthy he might have relished an occasional - fortnight of indolence in a drowsy, stuffy, little court-room with - absolutely nothing to do but to look at the clock and wonder, with the - rest of the jurors, how on earth the judge contrived to wake up from a - sound sleep whenever a point came up for decision and always to settle it - so firmly, so confidently, so promptly that even the lawyers were fooled - into believing that he had been awake all the time. - </p> - <p> - Sampson entered the little court-room at 9:50 o'clock on the morning of - the twentieth. - </p> - <p> - He was never to forget the morning of the twentieth. - </p> - <p> - Fifteen or twenty uneasy, sour-faced men, of all ages, sizes and condition - sat outside the railing, trying to look unconcerned. They couldn't fool - him. He knew what they were and he knew that in the soul of each lurked - the selfish, cruel prayer that twelve men would be snatched from among - them and stuffed into the jury box to stay before the clerk could draw his - own dreaded name from the little box at his elbow. - </p> - <p> - Other men came in and shuffled into chairs. The deputy clerk of the court - emerged from somewhere and began fussing with the papers on his desk. - Every man there envied him. He had a nice job, and he looked as though he - rather liked being connected with an inhuman enterprise. He was immune. He - was like the man who already has had smallpox. Lazy court attendants in - well-worn uniforms ambled about freely. They too were envied. They were - thoroughly court-broken. A couple of blithe, alert looking young men from - the district attorney's office came and, with their hands in their - pockets, stared blandly at the waiting group, very much as the judges at a - live-stock show stare at the prize pigs, sheep and cattle. They seemed to - be appraising the supply on hand and, to judge by their manner, they were - not at all favourably impressed with the material. Indeed, they looked - unmistakably annoyed. It was bad enough to have to select a jury in any - event, but to have to select one from <i>this</i> collection of - ignoramuses was—well, it was <i>too</i> much! - </p> - <p> - The hour hand on the clock said ten o'clock, but everybody was watching - the minute hand. It had to touch twelve before anything, could happen. - Then the judge would steal out of his lair and mount the bench, while - every one stood and listened to the unintelligible barking of the - attendant who began with something that sounded suspiciously like - “Oy-yoy!” notwithstanding the fact that he was an Irish and not a Jewish - comedian. - </p> - <p> - Two uninteresting, anxious-eyed, middle-aged men, who looked a trifle - scared and uncertain as to their right to be there, appeared suddenly - inside the railing, and no one doubted for an instant that they were the - defendant's lawyers. Sampson always had wondered why the men from the - district attorney's office were so confident, so cocky, and so spruce - looking while their opponents invariably appeared to be a seedy, harassed - lot, somewhat furtive in their movements and usually labouring under the - strain of an inward shyness that caused a greasy polish of perspiration to - spread over their countenances. - </p> - <p> - Sampson was to find that these timid, incompetent looking individuals had - every reason in the world to be perspiring even so early in the - proceedings. They turned out to be what is known in rhetorical circles as - “fire-eaters” The judge took his seat and the clerk at once called the - case of the State vs. James W. Hildebrand. Sampson speculated. What had - Hildebrand done to get himself into a mess of this sort? Was it grand or - petit larceny, or was it house-breaking, entering, safe-cracking, or—Two - burly attendants came up the side aisle and between them walked a gaunt, - grey, stooped old man, his smooth shaven face blanched by weeks of sunless - existence. - </p> - <p> - Sampson had expected to see a sullen-faced, slouching young fellow, shaved - and brushed and combed into an unnatural state of comeliness for the - purpose of hoodwinking the jury into the belief that his life was as clean - as his cheek. He could not deny himself a stare of incredulity on - beholding this well-dressed, even ascetic looking man who strode - haltingly, almost timidly through the little gate and sank into the chair - designated by his counsel. Once seated, he barely glanced at his lawyers, - and then allowed his eyes to fall as if shame was the drawing power. - Somehow, in that instant, Sampson experienced the sudden conviction that - this man James W. Hildebrand was no ordinary person, for it was borne in - upon him that he despised the men who were employed to defend him. It was - as if he were more ashamed of being seen with them than he was of being - haled into a court of justice charged with crime. - </p> - <p> - The assistant district attorney in charge of the case addressed the - waiting talesmen, briefly outlining the case against the defendant, and - for the first time in his experience Sampson listened with a show of - interest. - </p> - <p> - James W. Hildebrand was charged with embezzlement. Judging by the efforts - of his counsel to have the case set over for at least ten days and the - Court's refusal to grant a delay, together with certain significant - observations as to the time that would probably be required to produce and - present the evidence—a week or more—Sampson realised that this - was a case of considerable magnitude. He racked his brain in the futile - effort to recall any mention of it in the newspapers. It was his practice - to read every line of the criminal news printed, for this was the only - means he had of justifying the declaration that he had formed an opinion. - Nothing escaped him—or at least he thought so—and yet here was - a case, evidently important, that had slipped through without having made - the slightest impression on him. It was most disturbing. This should not - have happened. - </p> - <p> - His heart sank as he thought of the California reservations uptown. He was - expected to take up the transportation and Pullman that very afternoon. - </p> - <p> - The old man—he was seventy—was accused of having - misappropriated something like fifty thousand dollars of the funds - belonging to a real-estate and investment concern in which he was not only - a partner but also its secretary and treasurer. The alleged crime had been - committed some five years prior to the day on which he was brought to - trial. - </p> - <p> - After having evaded capture for four years and a half by secluding himself - in Europe, he voluntarily had returned to the States, giving himself up to - the authorities. Sampson abused himself secretly for having allowed such a - theatric incident as this to get by without notice on his part. Other - prospective jurors sitting nearby appeared to know all about the case, for - he caught sundry whispered comments that enlightened him considerably. He - realised that he had been singularly and criminally negligent. - </p> - <p> - A protracted and confidential confab took place between the Court and the - counsel for both sides. Every juror there hoped that they were discussing - some secret and imperative reason for indefinitely postponing the case - after all—or, perhaps, better than that, the prisoner was going to - plead guilty and save all of them! - </p> - <p> - Finally the little group before the bench broke up and one of the - attorneys for Hildebrand approached the rail and held open the gate. A - woman entered and took a seat beside the prisoner. Sampson, with scant - interest in the woman herself—except to note that she was slender - and quite smartly attired—was at once aware of a surprising - politeness and deference on the part of the transmogrified lawyers, both - of whom smirked and scraped and beamed with what they evidently intended - to be gallantry. - </p> - <p> - The attorneys for the state regarded the lady with a very direct interest, - and smiled upon her, not condescendingly or derisively as is their wont, - but with unmistakable pleasure. A close observer would have detected a - somewhat significant attentiveness on the part of the justice, a - middle-aged gentleman whose business it was to look severe and ungenial. - He gave his iron-grey moustache a tender twist at each end and placed an - elbow on the desk in front of him, revealing by that act that he was as - human as any one else. - </p> - <p> - I have neglected to state that Sampson was thirty, smooth-faced, - good-looking, a consistent member of an athletic club and a Harvard man - who had won two H's and a <i>cum laude</i> with equal ease. You will - discover later on that he was unmarried. - </p> - <p> - He was the seventeenth talesman called. Two jurors had been secured. The - other fourteen had been challenged for cause and, for the life of him, he - couldn't see why. They all looked pretty satisfactory to him. He garnered - a little hope for himself in the profligate waste of good material. If he - could sustain his customary look of intelligence there was a splendid - chance that he too would be rejected. - </p> - <p> - It seemed to him that the attendant in announcing his name and place “of - residence after the oath vociferated with unusual vehemence. Never before - had he heard his name uttered with such amazing gusto. - </p> - <p> - “You have heard the statement concerning the charge against the defendant, - Mr. Sampson,” said the assistant district attorney, taking his stand - directly in front of him. “Before going any farther, I will ask if you - know of any reason why you cannot act as a juror in this case?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson had always been honest in his responses. He never had lied in - order to “get off.” Subterfuges and tricks, yes—but never deliberate - falsehood. - </p> - <p> - “No,” he answered. - </p> - <p> - “Have you heard of this case before?” - </p> - <p> - “No,” admitted Sampson, distinctly mortified. - </p> - <p> - “Then you have formed no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the - defendant?” - </p> -<p> - “No.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you acquainted with the defendant, James W. Hildebrand?” - </p> - <p> - “No.” - </p> - <p> - “Have you had any business dealings with either of his counsel, Mr. Abrams - or Mr. O'Brien?” - </p> - <p> - “No.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you acquainted with either of his former partners, the gentlemen who - are to appear as witnesses against him, Thomas Stevens and John L. Drew?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson's face brightened. “I know a John Drew,” he said. The lawyer shook - his head and smiled. “But he's not in the loan business,” he added. - </p> - <p> - “Do you know Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter of this - defendant? The lady sitting beside him?” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0029.jpg" alt="0029 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0029.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - For the first time, Sampson directed his attention to the woman. His - glance, instead of being casual and perfunctory, as he had expected it - would be, developed into a prolonged stare that left him shy and confused. - She was looking into his eyes, calmly, seriously, and, he thought, a bit - speculatively, as if she were estimating his mental displacement. As a - matter of fact, she was merely detaching him from the others who had gone - before. He had the strange, uncomfortable feeling that he was being - appraised by a most uncompromising judge. His stare was not due to - resentment on his part because of her cool inspection. It was the result - of suddenly being confronted by the loveliest girl he had ever seen—unquestionably - the loveliest. - </p> - <p> - It seemed an affront to this beautiful, clear-eyed creature to say that he - did not know her. To say it to her face, too—with her eyes upon him—why, - it was incomprehensibly rude and ungallant. He ought to have been spared - this unnecessary humiliation, he thought. How would she feel when he - deliberately, coldly insulted her by uttering a bald, harsh negative to - the question that had been asked? - </p> - <p> - “I—I am afraid not,” he managed to qualify, hoping for a slight - smile of acknowledgement. - </p> - <p> - “Would you be inclined to favour the defendant because of his age, Mr. - Sampson?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson hesitated. Here was his chance. He looked again at Miss Alexandra - Hildebrand. She was still regarding him coolly, impersonally. After all, - he was nothing to her but a juror—just an ordinary, unwholesome - specimen undergoing examination. If he was rejected, he would pass out of - her mind on the instant and never again would he be permitted to enter. He - felt very small and inconsequential. - </p> - <p> - “Well, naturally, I suppose, I should be influenced to some extent by his - age,” he replied. - </p> - <p> - “You would, however, keep your mind open to the evidence in the case and - render a verdict according to that evidence? You would not discharge him - solely because he is an old man?” - </p> - <p> - “I don't know where my sympathy would carry me,” said Sampson evasively. - </p> - <p> - “I see. Well, if you should be accepted by both sides as a juror to sit in - this case you would at least try to divide your sympathy as fairly as - possible between us, wouldn't you? You would not deny the long-suffering - State of New York a share of your sympathy, would you?” - </p> - <p> - Miss Hildebrand, at that juncture, touched her grandfather on the arm and - whispered something in his ear. For the first time the old man looked at - the talesman in the chair. Sampson was acutely aware of a sudden flash of - interest in the prisoner's eyes. Moreover, the young woman was regarding - him rather less impersonally. - </p> - <p> - Sampson assumed an air of extreme hauteur “If I am accepted by both sides - in this case, my sympathy will be, first of all, with myself, I am not - eager to serve. I shall, however, do my best to render an intelligent, - just verdict.” - </p> - <p> - “According to the evidence and the law as laid down by the honourable - Court?” - </p> - <p> - “According to the circumstances as I see them.” - </p> - <p> - “That is not a direct answer to my question, Mr. Sampson.” - </p> - <p> - “I am not willing to say that I will be governed entirely by the evidence. - I can only say, that I should render what I consider to be a just and - reasonable verdict, depending on circumstances.” - </p> - <p> - “Ahem! You are quite sure that you could render a just and reasonable - verdict?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “And yet you admit that you cannot answer for your sympathies?” - </p> - <p> - “Are you cross-examining me?” - </p> - <p> - “Not at all, Mr. Sampson,” responded the other smoothly. “I am merely - trying to ascertain whether you are competent to serve as a juror in this - case.” - </p> - <p> - Sampson was saying to himself: “Thank the Lord, he will never accept me.” - Aloud he said: “Pray, overlook my stupidity and proceed—” - </p> - <p> - The Court leaned forward and tapped smartly on the desk with a lead - pencil. “We are wasting time, gentlemen. Please omit the persiflage.” - </p> - <p> - “Have you ever served as a juror in a criminal case, Mr. Sampson?” - inquired the lawyer. Sampson had turned pink under the Court's mild irony. - </p> - <p> - “No,” he answered, and glanced at Miss Hildebrand, expecting to see a - gleam of amusement in her eyes. She was regarding him quite solemnly, - however. - </p> - <p> - “You are a Harvard man, I believe, Mr. Sampson?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “If it should be shown that this defendant is also a Harvard graduate, - would that fact serve to prejudice you in his favour?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly not,” said Sampson, warmly. This was <i>too</i> much! - </p> - <p> - “What is your business, Mr. Sampson?” - </p> - <p> - “I am connected with the Sampson Steamship and Navigation Company.” - </p> - <p> - “In what capacity?” - </p> - <p> - “I am its president.” - </p> - <p> - “You are, I believe, the son of the late Peter Stuyvesant Sampson, founder - of the company?” - </p> - <p> - “I am.” - </p> - <p> - “The only son?” - </p> - <p> - “And heir,” said Sampson curtly. “I inherited my job, if that's what you - are trying to get at. And it is more or less of an honorary position, if - that will help you any. I am president of the company because I happen to - own all but five shares of the capital stock, and not because I really - want to hold, or because I am in any sense competent to fill the office. - Now you know all that there is to know about my connection with the - company.” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks,” said the assistant district attorney, drily. “And now, Mr. - Sampson, could you sit as a juror in this case and give, on your honour as - a man, despite a very natural sympathy that may be aroused for this aged - defendant, a verdict in favour of the State if it is proved to you beyond - all doubt that he is guilty as charged?” - </p> - <p> - There was but one answer that Sampson could give. He felt exceedingly - sorry for himself. “Yes.” Then he made haste to qualify: “Provided, as I - said before, that there are no extenuating circumstances.” - </p> - <p> - “But you would not deliberately discharge a guilty man just because you - happened to feel sorry for him, would you? We, as individuals, are all - sorry for the person we are obliged to punish, Mr. Sampson. But the law is - never sorry. The mere fact that one man disregards the law is no reason - why the rest of us should do the same, is it?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course not,” said Sampson, feeling himself in a trap. - </p> - <p> - “The State asks no more of you than you would, as a citizen, ask of the - State, Mr. Sampson. The fact that this defendant, after five years, - voluntarily surrendered himself to the authorities—would that have - any effect on your feelings?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, it would. I should certainly take that into consideration. As a - citizen, I could not ask more of any man than that he surrender himself to - my State if it couldn't catch him.” - </p> - <p> - The Court tapped with his pencil, and a raucous voice from somewhere - called for order. - </p> - <p> - “Are you a married man, Mr. Sampson?” - </p> - <p> - “I am not.” - </p> - <p> - “The State is satisfied,” said the assistant district attorney, and sat - down. - </p> - <p> - Sampson caught his breath. Satisfied? It meant that he was acceptable to - the State! After all he had said, he was acceptable to the State. He could - hardly believe his ears. Landed! Landed, that's what it meant. The defence - would take him like a shot. A cold perspiration burst out all over him. - And while he was still wondering how the district attorney could have - entrusted the case to such an incompetent subordinate, counsel for the - defence began to ply him with questions—perfunctory, ponderous - questions that might have been omitted, for any one with half an eye could - see that Sampson was doomed the instant the State said it was satisfied. - </p> - <p> - His spirit was gone. He recognised the inevitable; in a dazed sort of way - he answered the questions, usually in monosyllables and utterly without - spunk. Miss Hildebrand was no longer resting her elbows on the table in - front of her in an attitude of suspense. She was leaning comfortably back - in her chair, her head cocked a little to one side, and she gazed serenely - at the topmost pane of glass in the tall window behind the jury box. She - appeared to be completely satisfied. - </p> - <p> - He saw the two lawyers lean across the table in consultation with the - prisoner and his granddaughter, their heads close together. They were - discussing him as if he were the criminal in the case. Miss Hildebrand - peered at him as she whispered something in her grandfather's ear, and - then he caught a fleeting, though friendly smile in her eyes. He was - reminded, in spite of his extreme discomfiture, that she was an amazingly - pretty girl. - </p> - <p> - “No challenge,” said the defendant's attorney, and Sampson was told to - take seat No. 3 in the jury box. - </p> - <p> - “Defendant, look upon the juror. Juror, look upon the defendant,” said the - clerk, and with his hand on the Bible Sampson took the oath to render a - true verdict according to the law and the evidence, all the while looking - straight into the eyes of the gaunt old man who stood and looked at him - wearily, drearily, as if from a distance that rendered his vision useless. - </p> - <p> - Then Sampson sank awkwardly into the third seat, and sighed so profoundly - that juror No. 2 chuckled. - </p> - <p> - He certainly was in for it now. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>ou needn't pack,” - said Sampson to his valet that evening. “I'm stuck.” - </p> - <p> - “Stuck, sir?” - </p> - <p> - “Caught on the jury, Turple. Landed at last. But,” he sighed, “I've given - 'em a good run though, haven't I?” - </p> - <p> - “You 'ave, sir. I dare say you will like it 'owever, now that you've been - stuck, as you say. My father, when he was alive, was very fond of serving - on the juries, sir. He was constantly being 'ad up in small cases, and it - was 'is greatest ham—ambition to get a whack at a good 'orrifying - murder trial. I 'ope as 'ow you 'ave been stuck on a murder case, sir. In - England we—” - </p> - <p> - “It isn't a murder case. Merely embezzlement. But I must not discuss the - case, Turple, not even with you.” - </p> - <p> - “What a pity, sir. You usually consult me about any think that—” - </p> - <p> - “Call up the New York Central office at Thirtieth Street and cancel my - reservations, and lay out a blue serge suit for to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - “Isn't it a bit coolish to be wearing a serge—” - </p> - <p> - “Those court-rooms are frightfully close, Turple. A blue serge.'' - </p> - <p> - “You look better in a blue serge than anythink you—” - </p> - <p> - “It is comfort, not looks, that I'm after, Turple,” explained Sampson, who - perhaps lied. - </p> - <p> - “Sets a man off as no other goods—I beg pardon, sir. I will call up - the booking office at once, sir. The blue serge, sir?” - </p> - <p> - “The blue serge,” said Sampson, brightly. “Anythink else, sir?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson grew facetious. “You might give me a shirt and a collar and a - necktie, Turple.” The man bowed gravely and retreated. His master, moved - by an increasing exhilaration, called after him: “I might also suggest a - pair of shoes and—well, you know what else I'm in the habit of - wearing in the daytime.” - </p> - <p> - Turple, knowing his master's feelings about jury service, was very much - amazed later on to hear him whistling cheerily as he made preparations for - a dinner engagement. The mere thought of a jury, heretofore, had created - in his master a mood provocative of blasphemy, and here he was—actually - “landed,” as he had put it himself—whistling as gaily as a meadow - lark. Turple shook his head, completely puzzled, for he also knew his - master to be a most abstemious man. In all his three years of association - with his employer he had never known him to take a nip during the daytime, - and that is what Turple called being most abstemious. - </p> - <p> - The next morning Sampson, instead of hanging back aggrievedly as was his - wont, was in the court-room bright and early—(half an hour ahead of - time, in fact)—and he never looked fresher, handsomer or more full - of the joy of living. He passed the time of day with the attendants, - chatted agreeably with No. 2, who also came in early, and subsequently - listened politely to the worries of No. 5, a chubby-faced bachelor who - couldn't for the life of him understand why the deuce manicurers persisted - in cutting the cuticle after having been warned not to do so. - </p> - <p> - He rather pitied No. 7, who appeared in a cutaway coat a trifle too small - for his person and a very high collar that attracted a great deal of - attention from its wearer if from no one else. No. 7, he recalled, had - been quite indifferently garbed the day before: a shiny, well-worn sack - coat, trousers that had not been pressed since the day they left the - department store, and a “turndown” collar that had been through the - “mangle” no less than a hundred times—and should have been in one at - that instant instead of around his neck. No. 7 was also minus a three - days' growth of beard. - </p> - <p> - Everybody seemed bright and cheerful. There were still two more jurors to - be secured when court convened. Never in all his experience had Sampson - seen a judge on the bench who behaved so beautifully as this one. He - looked as though he never had had a grouch in his life, and as if he - really enjoyed listening to the same old questions over and over again. - Occasionally he interjected a question or an interpolation that must have - been witty, for he graciously permitted his hearers to laugh with him; and - at no time was he cross or domineering. His hair, carefully brushed, was - sleekly plastered into an enduring neatness, and his moustache was never - so smartly trimmed and twisted as it was on this sprightly morning. One - might have been led into believing that it was not winter but early - spring. - </p> - <p> - The deputy clerk had taken too much pains in shaving himself that morning, - for in his desire to scrape closely in the laudable effort to curb the - sandy growth on his cheek and chin, he had managed to do something that - called for the application of a long strip of pale pink court-plaster - immediately in front of his left ear. He was particular about turning the - other cheek, however, so that unless you walked completely around him you - wouldn't have noticed the court-plaster. The attendants, noted for their - untidiness, were perceptibly spruced up. If any one of them was chewing - tobacco, he managed to disguise the fact. - </p> - <p> - The only person in the court-room, aside from the prisoner himself, who - had not changed for the better over night, was Miss Alexandra Hildebrand. - She could not have changed for the better if she had tried. When she took - her seat beside her grandfather, she was attired as on the day before. Her - cool, appraising eyes swept the jury box. More than one occupant of that - despised pen felt conscious of his sartorial rehabilitation. A faint smile - appeared at the corners of her adorable mouth. Even Sampson, the proud and - elegant Sampson, wondered what there was for her to smile at. - </p> - <p> - Being utterly disinterested in the composition of the jury of which he was - an integral part, Sampson paid not the slightest attention to the process - of rounding out the even dozen. While counsel struggled over the selection - of talesmen to fill the two vacant places, he devoted himself to the study - of Miss Hildebrand. This study was necessarily of a surreptitious - character, and was interrupted from time to time by the divergence of the - young lady's attention from the men who were being examined to those - already accepted. At such times, Sampson shifted his gaze quickly. In two - instances he was not quite swift enough, and she caught him at it. He was - very much annoyed with himself. Of course, she would put him in a class - with the other members of the jury, and that was a distinction not to be - coveted. They were very honest, reliable fellows, no doubt, but Heaven - knows they were not well-bred. No well-bred man would stare at Miss - Hildebrand as No. 4 was staring, and certainly No. 7 was the most - unmannerly person he bad ever seen. The fellow sat with his mouth open - half the time, his lips hanging limp in a fixed fatuous smile, bis gaze - never wavering. Sampson took the trouble to dissect No. 7's visage—in - some exasperation, it may be said. He found that he had a receding chin - and prominent upper teeth. Just the sort of a fellow, thought Sampson, who - was sure to consider himself attractive to women. - </p> - <p> - Miss Hildebrand was twenty-four or -five, he concluded. She was neither - tall nor short, nor was she what one would describe as fashionably - emaciated. Indeed, she was singularly without angles of any description. - Her hair was brown and naturally wavy—at least, so said Sampson, - poor simpleton—and it grew about her neck and temples in a most - alluring manner. Her eyes were clear and dark and amazingly intelligent. - Sampson repented at once of the word intelligent, but he couldn't think of - a satisfactory synonym. Intelligent, he reflected, is a word applied only - to the optics of dumb brutes—such as dogs, foxes, raccoons and the - like—and to homely young women with brains. Understanding—that - was the word he meant to use—she had understanding eyes, and they - were shaded by very long and beautiful lashes. - </p> - <p> - Her chin was firm and delicate, her mouth—well, it was a mouth that - would bear watching, it had so many imperilling charms. - </p> - <p> - Her nose? Sampson hadn't the faintest idea how to describe a nose. Noses, - he maintained, are industrial or economic devices provided by nature for - the sole purpose of harbouring colds, and are either lovely or horrid. - There is no intermediate class in noses. You either have a nose that is - fearfully noticeable or you have one that isn't. A noticeable nose is one - that completely and adequately describes itself, sparing you the effort, - while the other kind of a nose—such as Miss Hildebrand's—is - one that you wouldn't see at all unless you made an especial business of - it. That sort of a nose is simply a part of one's face. There are faces, - on the other hand, as you know, that are merely a part of one's nose. - </p> - <p> - His rather hasty analysis of yesterday was supported by the more - deliberate observations of to-day. She was a cool-headed, discerning young - woman, and not offensively clever as so many of her sex prove to be when - it is revealed to them that they possess the power to concentrate the - attention of men. Her interest in the proceedings was keen and extremely - one-sided. She was not at all interested in the men who failed to come up - to her notion of what a juror ought to be. It was always she who put the - final stamp of approval on the jurors selected. Two or three times she - unmistakably overcame the contentions of her grandfather's counsel, and - men got into the box who, without her support, would have been challenged—and - rightly, too, thought Sampson. No. 7 for instance. He certainly was not an - ideal juror for the defendant, thought Sampson. And the fat little - bachelor—why, he actually had admitted under oath that he knew the - district attorney and a number of his assistants, and was a graduate of - Yale. But Miss Hildebrand picked him as a satisfactory juror. - </p> - <p> - Sampson's reflections—or perhaps his ruminations—were brought - to an end by the completion of the jury. The last man accepted was a - callow young chap with eye-glasses, who confessed to being an automobile - salesman. - </p> - <p> - They were sworn immediately and then the senior counsel for the State - arose and announced that he had no desire to keep the jury confined during - the course of the trial; the State was satisfied to allow the members to - go to their own homes over night if the defence had no objections. - Promptly the attorneys for the defendant, evidently scenting something - unusual, put their heads together and whispered. A moment later one of - them got up and said that the defence would take the unusual course of - asking that the jury be put in charge of bailiffs. He did not get very far - in his remarks, however. Miss Hildebrand's eyes had swept the jury box - from end to end. She observed the look of dismay that leaped into the - faces of the entire dozen. Sampson had a queer notion that she looked at - him longer than at the others, and that her gaze was rather penetrating. - An instant later she was whispering in the ear of the second lawyer, and—well, - they were all in conference again. After a period of uncertainty for the - victims, the first lawyer, smiling benignly now, withdrew his motion to - confine the jury, and graciously signified that the defence was ready to - proceed. - </p> - <p> - The first witness for the State was a Mr. Stevens. Sampson was sure from - the beginning that he wasn't going to like Mr. Stevens. He was a prim, - rather precious gentleman of forty-five, with a fond look in his eye and a - way of putting the tips of his four fingers and two thumbs together that - greatly enhanced the value of the aforesaid look. In addition to these - mild charms of person, he had what Sampson always described as a “prissy” - manner of speaking. No. 4 made a friend of Sampson by whispering—against - the rules, and behind his hand, of course—that he'd like to “slap - the witness on the wrist.” Sampson whispered back that he'd probably break - his watch if he did. - </p> - <p> - Anyhow, Mr. Stevens was recognised at once as the principal witness for - the State. He was the head of the company that had suffered by the alleged - peculations of Mr. Hildebrand. Ably assisted by the district attorney, the - witness revealed the whole history of the Cornwallis Realty and Investment - Company. - </p> - <p> - James Hildebrand was its founder, some thirty years prior to his - surreptitious retirement, and for the first twenty years of its existence - he was its president. At the end of that period in the history of the - thriving and honourable business, Mr. Stevens became an active and - important member of the firm through the death of his father, who had long - been associated with Mr. Hildebrand as a partner. The other partners were - John L. Drew, Joseph Schoolcraft, Henry R. Kauffman and James Hildebrand, - Jr., the son of the president. The business, according to Mr. Stevens, was - then being conducted along “back number” lines. It became necessary and - expedient to introduce fresh, vigorous, up-to-date methods in order to - compete successfully with younger and more enterprising concerns. (On - cross-examination, Mr. Stevens admitted that the company was not making - money fast enough.) The defendant, it appears, was a conservative. He held - out stubbornly for the old, obsolete methods, and, the concern being - incorporated, it was the wisdom of the other members (Hildebrand, Jr., - dissenting) that a complete reorganisation be perfected. The witness was - made president, Mr. Drew vice-president, and Mr. Hildebrand secretary and - treasurer, without bond. His son withdrew from the company altogether, - repairing to Colorado for residence, dying there three years later. - </p> - <p> - The defendant, individually and apart from his holdings in the company, - owned considerable real-estate on Manhattan Island. His income, aside from - his salary and his share of profits in the business, was derived from - rentals and leaseholds on these several pieces of property. Values in - certain districts of New York fell off materially when business shifted - from old established centres and wended its fickle way northward. Mr. - Hildebrand was hard hit by the exodus. His investments became a burden - instead of a help and ultimately he was obliged to make serious - sacrifices. He sold his downtown property. The depreciation was - deplorable, Mr. Stevens admitted. - </p> - <p> - The former president of the company soon found himself in straitened - circumstances. He was no longer well-to-do and prosperous; instead, he was - confronted by conditions which made it extremely difficult for him to - retain his considerable interest in the business. The company at this - stage in the affairs of their secretary and treasurer, proffered help to - him in what Mr. Stevens considered an extremely liberal way. It was - proposed that Mr. Hildebrand sell out his interest in the company to the - witness and his brother-in-law, Mr. Drew, they agreeing to take all of his - stock at a figure little short of par, notwithstanding it was a very bad - year—1907, to be precise. - </p> - <p> - The defendant refused to sell. Subsequently he reconsidered, and they took - over his stock, excepting five shares which he retained for obvious - reasons, and he was paid in cash forty-four thousand dollars for the - remaining forty shares. Mr. Stevens already had purchased, at a much - higher price, the fifteen shares belonging to James Hildebrand, Jr. The - defendant was to retain the position of secretary and treasurer at a fixed - salary of six thousand dollars a year. - </p> - <p> - In brief—although the district attorney was a long time in getting - it all out of Mr. Stevens—it was not until 1908 that the bomb burst - and the company awoke to the fact that its treasury was being, or to put - it exactly, had been systematically robbed of a great many thousands of - dollars. Experts were secretly put to work on the books and after several - weeks they reported that at one time the total shortage had reached a - figure in excess of ninety-five thousand dollars, but that this amount had - been reduced by the restoration of approximately fifty thousand dollars - during a period covering the eleven months immediately preceding the - investigation. It was established beyond all question that the clerks and - bookkeepers in the office were absolutely guiltless, and, to the profound - distress of the directors, the detectives employed on the case declared in - no uncertain terms that there was but one man who could explain the - shortage. That man was the former president of this old and reliable - concern, James W. Hildebrand. - </p> - <p> - To avoid a scandal and also to spare if possible the man they all loved - and respected, Mr. Stevens was authorised by the other directors to effect - a compromise of some sort whereby the company might regain at least a - portion of the funds on the promise not to prosecute. The defendant, - however, had got wind of the discovery, and, to the utter dismay of his - friends, fled like a thief in the night. Mr. Stevens did not have the - chance to see him. - </p> - <p> - The defalcation was not made public for several weeks. An effort was made - to get in touch with the fugitive, in the hope that he could be induced to - return without being subjected to open disgrace, but he had vanished so - completely that at first it was feared he had made way with himself. He - was at the time a widower, his wife having died many years before. His son - James was the only child of that marriage, and he was living—or - rather dying, in Colorado. Private detectives watched the home and the - movements of the son for some weeks, hoping to obtain a clue to the old - man's whereabouts. - </p> - <p> - Then, out of a clear sky, as it were, came letters to each of the - stockholders, posted in Paris and written by the fugitive. In these - letters he made the most unfair charges against the witness and against - Mr. Drew. Without in any way attempting to explain, confess or express - regret for his own defection, he horrified both Mr. Stevens and Mr. Drew - with the staggering accusation that they had tricked him into selling - certain downtown property at an outrageously low figure, when they knew at - the time of the transaction that an insurance company had its eye on the - property with the view to erecting two mammoth office buildings on the - ground. Subsequent events, declared the writer, bore out his contention, - for it was on record that his two partners did sell to the insurance - company for nearly ten times the amount they had paid him for the - property; and, moreover, at that very moment two large buildings were - standing on the ground that had once been occupied by his ancient and - insignificant six story structures. - </p> - <p> - In so many words, this old defaulter (to use Mr. Stevens' surprisingly - acid words) deliberately sought to discredit them in the eyes of their - fellow-directors and stockholders. He accused them of foul methods and - actually had the effrontery to warn all those interested in the business - with them to be on their guard or they would be tricked as he had been. - (Note: One of these letters, now five years old, was introduced in - evidence as Exhibit A.) - </p> - <p> - Sampson afterwards found himself marvelling over the assistant district - attorney's stupidity in introducing this particular bit of evidence. It - was the cross-examination that opened his eyes to the atrocious mistake - the State had made in volunteering the evidence touching upon the - real-estate transaction. - </p> - <p> - This extraordinary behaviour on the part of the defendant quite naturally - irritated—(Mr. Stevens would not say infuriated, although Mr. - O'Brien, on cross-examination, tried his level best to make him use the - word)—both the witness and Mr. Drew, who felt that their honour had - been vilely attacked. They had no difficulty in convincing their partners - and other interested persons that the charge was ridiculous and made - solely for the purpose of enlisting their sympathy in behalf of one they - were now forced to describe as a cowardly criminal and no longer as a - misguided unfortunate. - </p> - <p> - It was then, and then only, that the witness and Mr. Drew took the matter - before the Grand Jury and obtained the indictment against the defendant. - </p> - <p> - Having covered the preliminary stages of the case pretty thoroughly, Mr. - Stevens was required to tell all that he knew about the actual - misappropriation of the funds. This he did with exceeding clarity and - sorrow. However, despite his mildness, he did not leave a shred of Mr. - Hildebrand's honour untouched; he had it in tatters by mid-afternoon and - at four o'clock, when court adjourned, there wasn't anything left of it at - all. - </p> - <p> - Sampson was gloomy that night. He did not go to sleep until long after - two, although he went to bed at eleven—an unspeakably early hour for - him. Things certainly looked black for the old man. If Stevens was to be - believed, James Hildebrand was a most stupendous rascal. And yet, to look - at him—to study his fine, gentle old face, his tired but unwavering - eyes, his singularly unrepentant mien—one could hardly be blamed for - doubting the man's capacity for doing the evil and reprehensible deed that - was laid at his door. Sampson hated to think of him as guilty. More than - that, he hated to have Miss Hildebrand think that he thought of him as - guilty. - </p> - <p> - He laid awake for three mortal hours trying to think what Miss Hildebrand - meant by looking at him as she did from time to time. Not once but a score - of times her gaze met bis—usually after a damaging reply by Mr. - Stevens, or some objectionable question by the district attorney—and - always she appeared to be intent on divining, if possible, just what its - effect would be on him. - </p> - <p> - Her clear, soft eyes looked straight into his for an instant, and he saw - something in them that he took for anxiety. That was all: just anxiety. It - couldn't, of course, be anything else—and, why shouldn't she be - anxious? Anybody would be under the circumstances. As a matter of fact, he - was a little anxious himself, and certainly he was not as vitally - interested as she in the welfare of James W. Hildebrand. But after - thinking it all over again, he wasn't so sure that it was anxiety. He was - forced to believe that she looked confident, almost serene—as if - there was not the slightest doubt in her mind that her grandfather - couldn't possibly have done a single one of the things that Mr. Stevens - accused him of doing. - </p> - <p> - Sampson was perturbed. He couldn't divest himself of the suspicion that - she expected him to also disbelieve every word that the witness uttered. - It was most upsetting. He made up his mind that he would not look at her - at all on the following day. But even that resolution didn't put him to - sleep. Not at all. The more he thought of it, the wider awake he became. - </p> - <p> - True, she had looked at the other jurors from time to time—especially - at the rehabilitated No. 7, the rubicund bachelor and the spectacled No. - 12. But he was sure that she did not look at them in the same way that she - looked at him, nor as often, nor as long. It seemed to him that even when - she looked at the others, she always allowed her glance to return to him - for an instant after its somewhat indifferent tour of inspection. He - remembered indulging in a rather close and critical inspection of the - countenances of his fellow jurors at one time, during a lull in the - proceedings, and that calculating but not unkind scrutiny convinced him of - one thing: they certainly were not much to look at. - </p> - <p> - The more he thought about it, the more it was revealed to him that the - expression in her eyes was of a questioning, inquiring nature, as one who - might be saying to herself: are these men—or this one, in particular—entirely - devoid of intelligence? - </p> - <p> - He was four minutes late in court the next morning, and it was all the - fault of the too indulgent Turple. Turple, being a sagacious and faithful - menial, respectfully neglected to disturb his master's slumber until after - nine o'clock, and as a result Sampson had to go without his breakfast and - almost without his shave in order to get down to the court-room in time. - Turple received emphatic orders to rout him out of bed at seven o'clock - every morning after that, no matter how bitterly he was abused for doing - so. - </p> - <p> - He was out of breath when he dropped into his chair in the jury box, - expecting and dreading a rebuke from the Court for his tardiness. He - glanced at Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, almost apologetically. It certainly - was not relief that he felt on discovering that she was paying no - attention whatever to him. She was engaged in consultation with the two - lawyers and did not even so much as glance in his direction when he popped - into his seat. - </p> - <p> - The justice was still on his good behaviour. He bowed politely to Sampson - and then looked at the clock. - </p> - <p> - The cross-examination of Mr. Stevens began. Sampson was agreeably - surprised by the astuteness, the suavity, the unexpected resourcefulness - of Mr. O'Brien, who questioned the witness. - </p> - <p> - “You say, Mr. Stevens, that James Hildebrand, Jr., retired from the - company about two years prior to the retirement of his father, the - defendant. Why did the younger Hildebrand retire?” - </p> - <p> - “He was not satisfied with the reorganisation.” - </p> - <p> - “Isn't it true that you and he were not on friendly terms and that he - refused to serve with you—” - </p> - <p> - “We object!” interrupted the district attorney. “The question is not—” - </p> - <p> - “Objection overruled,” said the Court testily. “Finish your question, Mr. - O'Brien, and then answer it, Mr. Witness.” - </p> - <p> - “We were not on friendly terms,” admitted Mr. Stevens, who looked vaguely - surprised on being addressed as “Mr. Witness.” - </p> - <p> - “And he preferred to get out of the company rather than to serve on the - board with you? Isn't that true?” - </p> - <p> - “I cannot answer that question. I can only say that he disposed of his - interests and retired.” - </p> - <p> - “Who purchased his stock?” - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Schoolcraft, one of the directors.” - </p> - <p> - “Who owns that stock to-day?” - </p> - <p> - “I do.” - </p> - <p> - “When did you purchase it of Mr. Schoolcraft?” - </p> - <p> - “I do not remember.” - </p> - <p> - “Was it a week, a month or a year after the original sale?” - </p> - <p> - “A couple of months, I suppose.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you know what Mr. Schoolcraft paid for that stock?” - </p> - <p> - “I do not.” - </p> - <p> - “You do know what you paid him for it, however?” - </p> - <p> - “I paid ninety-five and a fraction for it.” - </p> - <p> - “Didn't you buy twenty shares of Mr. Schoolcraft's stock at the same - time?” - </p> - <p> - “I did.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you pay ninety-five and a fraction for the Schoolcraft stock?” - </p> - <p> - “I think I paid a little more than that.” - </p> - <p> - “Didn't you pay one-twenty-seven for the Schoolcraft stock, Mr. Stevens?” - </p> - <p> - “I may have paid that much. Mr. Schoolcraft was not eager to sell. He held - out for a stiff price.” - </p> - <p> - “He owned the Hildebrand stock, didn't he? Why should he sell fifteen - shares at ninety-five and a fraction when he might just as well have had - one-twenty-seven?” - </p> - <p> - “We object,” said the district attorney mildly. - </p> - <p> - “State your objection,” said the Court. “Incompetent and irrevelant and - having no possible bearing on the subject—” - </p> - <p> - “Withdraw the question,” said Mr. O'Brien suavely. “Did you not offer - James Hildebrand, Jr., one-ten for his stock, Mr. Stevens, through his - father? I say 'through his father' because you were not on speaking terms - with the son?” - </p> - <p> - “I think I did.” - </p> - <p> - “And didn't young Hildebrand send word that he wouldn't sell to you at any - price?” - </p> - <p> - “Something of the sort. He was unreasonable.” - </p> - <p> - “You were, therefore, very much surprised and gratified to get it at - ninety-five and a fraction from Mr. Schoolcraft later on, were you not?” - </p> - <p> - “I was not surprised,” confessed Mr. Stevens, separating his finger tips - for the first time, and shifting his position so that he could fold his - arms comfortably. “Mr. Schoolcraft bought the stock for me. There was no - secret about it. Hildebrand must have known that Schoolcraft was acting - for me. I was fair enough to offer him one-ten. It is not my fault that he - was eventually forced to sell fifteen points lower. I was not to blame - because he was hard-pressed or pinched for ready money.” - </p> - <p> - “He was a sick man, wasn't he?” - </p> - <p> - “His health was poor.” - </p> - <p> - “He was ordered to Colorado by his physicians, wasn't he?” - </p> - <p> - “I believe so.” - </p> - <p> - “And wasn't that the real reason why he was forced to sell out, and not - because he objected to the reorganisation?” - </p> - <p> - “We object,” said the Stated attorney. “Objection sustained.” - </p> - <p> - Sampson looked at Miss Hildebrand. Her gaze shifted from the Court to him - almost in the same instant, and it seemed to express astonishment, even - incredulity—as if she were saying (although he was sure she would - not have expressed herself so vulgarly): “Well, can you beat that!” - </p> - <p> - “And now, Mr. Stevens,” went on Mr. O'Brien, after taking the usual - exception, “you testified in direct examination that you and Mr. Drew - purchased the defendant's Manhattan property. Did you buy it for the - Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, or for yourselves as - individuals?” - </p> - <p> - “We bought it for ourselves, as individuals.” - </p> - <p> - “The company was not interested in the transaction?” - </p> - <p> - “No.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you first give the company an opportunity to buy, or did you—” - </p> - <p> - “I said it was a private transaction. We have interests outside of the - company, sir—just as you have interests outside of your legal - business,” said the witness tartly. - </p> - <p> - “I see. Well, Mr. Hildebrand was pressed for money at the time of the - transaction, I believe you have said. This was some time before the - alleged defalcation took place, I understand.” - </p> - <p> - “A year and a half prior to our discovery of the theft,” corrected Mr. - Stevens. - </p> - <p> - “And you have testified that the so-called theft dated back even beyond - that, at its beginning.” - </p> - <p> - “So the expert accountants informed us. I have no means of knowing for - myself.'' - </p> - <p> - “And it was your conclusion that he sold his property in the effort to - rehabilitate himself before his misfortune was discovered?” - </p> - <p> - “I did not allude to it as a misfortune, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, then, his crime.” - </p> - <p> - “I have said that such was my conclusion.” - </p> - <p> - “Will you again, state just what you paid for the property in question?” - </p> - <p> - “We paid two hundred thousand dollars for the two pieces.” - </p> - <p> - “Cash?” - </p> - <p> - “Part in cash and part in an exchange for property in the Bronx. Sixty - thousand in cash. The Bronx property is in the shape of building lots, - valued at more than two hundred thousand dollars.” - </p> - <p> - “Then or now?” - </p> - <p> - “Then <i>and</i> now, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “State, if you know, does Mr. Hildebrand still own this Bronx property?” - </p> - <p> - “I believe it is in his name.” - </p> - <p> - “And it is still worth two hundred thousand dollars?” - </p> - <p> - “It is worth a great deal more, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “I see. Now, Mr. Stevens, you have testified that this defendant wrote - letters to the several members of your corporation, advising them that you - and Mr. Drew had sold this downtown property to an insurance company for - ten times as much as you paid him for it. Was Mr. Hildebrand uttering the - truth when he made that assertion?” - </p> - <p> - “Am I obliged to answer that question, your Honour?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes. It is a very simple question,” said the Court drily, giving his - moustache a gentle twist. - </p> - <p> - “We received one million eight hundred thousand for the property,” said - Mr. Stevens, defiantly. - </p> - <p> - “Cash?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “You didn't take any Bronx property in exchange?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly not.” - </p> - <p> - “How long was this after the time you purchased the property?” - </p> - <p> - “About two years.” - </p> - <p> - “Isn't it true that you were offered a million dollars for the property - two weeks after you bought it?” - </p> - <p> - “What has all this got to do with the case?” - </p> - <p> - “You can say yes or no, can't you, Mr. Stevens?” - </p> - <p> - “I shall say no, then. We were approached by persons representing the - insurance company, but they made no bona fide offer.” - </p> - <p> - “They asked you if a million would tempt you, though, didn't they?” - </p> - <p> - “I don't remember.” - </p> - <p> - “In any event, you told them that you held the property at two millions, - didn't you? That was your price?” - </p> - <p> - “It was our price, yes.” - </p> - <p> - “And you held off selling until they finally came to your terms—or - nearly up to them—and then you sold?” - </p> - <p> - “We sold when we were ready, Mr. O'Brien.” - </p> - <p> - “I see. Did you know before purchasing Mr. Hildebrand's property that this - insurance company was desirous of buying it for building purposes?” - </p> - <p> - “Object!” interposed the district attorney. “Objection sustained,” said - the Court. - </p> - <p> - Again Sampson, who was enjoying Mr. Stevens' discomfiture, looked at Miss - Hildebrand. Simultaneously eleven other gentlemen sitting in two parallel - rows, looked at her. She may have found it too difficult to look at all of - them at once, so she confined her gaze to Sampson, who felt in duty hound—as - a juror sworn to be fair and impartial—to look the other way as - quickly as possible. He was sorry that he was obliged to do this, for - there was something in her eyes that warranted quite a little time for - analysis. - </p> - <p> - The cross-examination proceeded. Sampson, resolutely directed his gaze out - of its natural channel and devoted a great deal more attention to the - witness than he felt that the witness deserved. He could not help feeling, - however, that he was treating Miss Hildebrand with unnecessary - boorishness. No doubt she looked at him from time to time, and she must - have felt a little bit hurt, not to say offended—by his somewhat - conspicuous indifference. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly he pricked up his ears. Mr. O'Brien had put to the witness a - question that had something of a personal interest in it. - </p> - <p> - “James Hildebrand, Jr., lost his wife in 1906, did he not, Mr. Stevens?” - </p> - <p> - “I don't remember the year.” - </p> - <p> - “You remember when he was married, however, do you not?” - </p> - <p> - “I can't say. I think it was in 1888.” The witness had turned a rather - sickly green. He spoke with an effort. - </p> - <p> - “The year after you and he graduated from college, wasn't it?” - </p> - <p> - “We were in the class of '87.” - </p> - <p> - “You are still unmarried, I believe, Mr. Stevens?” - </p> - <p> - “I am unmarried, sir,” said the witness, sitting up a little straighter in - the chair. - </p> - <p> - “Did you know Miss Katherine Alexander before she was married to James - Hildebrand?” - </p> - <p> - “I did,” said Stevens, his face set. - </p> - <p> - Sampson ventured a swift look at Alexandra Hildebrand. She was looking - down at the table, her face half averted. It struck him as exceedingly - brutal of Mr. O'Brien to drag this poor girl's dead mother into the public - light of—But the lawyer asked another question. - </p> - <p> - “You and young Mr. Hildebrand remained friends for a number of years after - his marriage, did you not?” - </p> - <p> - “I always thought so.” - </p> - <p> - “You never bore him any ill will?” - </p> - <p> - “What do you mean?” - </p> - <p> - “I withdraw the question. When was it that you and James Hildebrand, Jr., - ceased to be friends?” - </p> - <p> - “I—I don't know. I cannot go into that matter, Mr. O'Brien. I—” - Mr. Stevens was visibly distressed. - </p> - <p> - “Wasn't it in 1895 that you and he ceased to be friends?” persisted the - lawyer. - </p> - <p> - “There was a terrible misunderstanding, I—that is, I should say—” - </p> - <p> - “In 1895, wasn't it?” - </p> - <p> - “I think so.” Mr. Stevens was perspiring. He looked beseechingly at the - district attorney, who happened to be gazing pensively out of the window - at the time. - </p> - <p> - “You were a frequent and welcome visitor at young Hildebrand's home up to - 1895, weren't you?” - </p> - <p> - “It was through no fault of mine that the friendship was broken off. Mr. - Hildebrand behaved in a most outrageous manner toward me.” - </p> - <p> - “Isn't it true, Mr. Stevens, that Mr. Hildebrand ordered you out of his - house and told you that you were not to enter it again?” - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Hildebrand grievously misunderstood my—” - </p> - <p> - “Answer the question, please. Were you not ordered out of your friend's - house?” - </p> - <p> - “Am I obliged, your Honour, to answer—” - </p> - <p> - “Answer yes or no,” said the Court, leaning forward and fixing the witness - with a very severe stare. (Sampson regarded him as distinctly human, after - all.) Miss Hildebrand's, eyes were still lowered. The aged prisoner, - however, was looking a hole through the now miserable witness. - </p> - <p> - “He threatened to kill me,” exclaimed Stevens violently. “He acted like a - crazy man over a perfectly innocent—” - </p> - <p> - “He ordered you out, didn't he?” came the deadly question. - </p> - <p> - Mr. Stevens swallowed hard. “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “And you maintain that he took that step because he misunderstood - something or other, eh?” - </p> - <p> - “Most certainly.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, what was it he misunderstood?” - </p> - <p> - “I must decline to answer. I stand on my rights.” - </p> - <p> - “Wasn't it because Mrs. Hildebrand complained to him that you had been—er—unnecessarily - offensive to her?” - </p> - <p> - “I decline to answer.” - </p> - <p> - “In any event, you never entered his house again, and you never spoke to - him or his wife after that. Isn't that true?' - </p> - <p> - “I was justified in ignoring both of them. They insulted me most—” - </p> - <p> - “I understand, Mr. Stevens. We will drop the matter. I have no desire to - cause you unnecessary pain. Now will you be good enough to state when you - first noticed that there was something wrong with the books and accounts - of the defendant? What first caused you to suspect that the funds were - being juggled, as you put it in the direct examination?” - </p> - <p> - Mr. Stevens had an easier time of it after that. He resumed his placid, - kindly air, and maintained it to the end, although a keen observer might - have observed an uneasy respect for Mr. O'Brien. He appeared to be - relieved when the examination was concluded. - </p> - <p> - Sampson went out to luncheon in a more cheerful frame of mind. It was - quite clear to every one that Mr. Stevens was guilty, at least - circumstantially, of conduct unbecoming a gentleman. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>wo days went by. - Mr. Drew, Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. Kauffman were examined and - cross-examined, and after them came the first of the expert accountants - employed to go over the books. The situation continued to look black for - Mr. Hildebrand—if anything a little blacker, for neither of the - foregoing witnesses appeared to have been guilty of offending a lady to - such an extent that her husband had to order him out of the house. - </p> - <p> - Mr. Drew received considerable unpleasant attention from the defendant's - counsel, but he came through pretty comfortably. He admitted that he - “cleaned up more than half a million” on the deal with the insurance - company, and that he was the husband of Mr. Stevens' sister. He always had - been sorry for Mr. Hildebrand, and even now was without animus. Mr. - Schoolcraft acknowledged buying and selling the younger Hildebrand's - shares, but was positive that there had been no collusion with Mr. - Stevens. - </p> - <p> - The case began to drag. Sampson lost interest. He attended strictly and no - doubt diligently to the evidence, but when the expert accountants began to - testify he found himself considerably at sea. He was not good at figures. - They made him restless. The rest of the jury appeared to be similarly - afflicted. Politeness alone kept them from yawning. Afterwards it was - revealed that only one of the twelve was good at figures of any sort: the - automobile salesman. He was a perfect marvel at statistics. He could tell - you how many miles it is from New York to Oswego without even calculating, - and he knew to a fraction the difference in the upkeep of all the known - brands of automobiles in America. He made Sampson tired. - </p> - <p> - Despite the damaging testimony that seemed surely to be strangling her - grandfather's chances for escape, Miss Hildebrand revealed no sign of - despair, or defeat. She came in each morning as serene as a May evening, - and she left the court-room in the afternoon with a mien as untroubled as - when she entered it. . - </p> - <p> - There was quite a little flutter in the jury box—and outside of it, - for that matter—when, on the third morning, she appeared in a - complete change of costume—a greyish, modish sort of thing, Sampson - would have told you—very smart and trig and comforting to the - masculine eye. Sampson who knew more than any of his companions about such - things, remarked (to himself, of course)—that her furs were - chinchilla. Chinchilla is nothing if not convincing. - </p> - <p> - It struck him, as he took her in—(she was standing, straight and - slim, conversing with that beardless cub of an assistant-assistant - district attorney)—that she was, if such a thing were possible, even - lovelier than she was in the other gown. No doubt Sampson failed in his - sense of proportion. She was undeniably lovelier today than yesterday, and - she would continue to go on being prettier from day to day, no matter what - manner of gown she wore. - </p> - <p> - It also occurred to him that the young assistant-assistant was singularly - unprofessional, if not actually fresh, in dragging her into a conversation - that must have been distasteful to her. He wondered how she could smile so - agreeably and so enchantingly over the stupid things the fellow was - saying. - </p> - <p> - Near the close of the noon recess he was constrained to reprove No. 7 for - an act that might have created serious complications. He was standing in - the rotunda finishing his third cigarette, when Miss Hildebrand approached - on her way to the court-room. It had been his practice—and it was - commendable—to refrain from staring at her on occasions such as - this. A rather low order of intelligence prevented his fellow jurors from - according her the same consideration. They stared without blinking until - she disappeared from view. - </p> - <p> - Now, No. 7 meant no harm, and yet he so far forgot himself that he doffed - his hat to her as she passed. Fortunately she was not looking in his - direction. As a matter of fact, she never even so much as noticed the nine - or ten jurors who strewed her path. No. 7 was mistaken, there can be no - doubt about that. He thought she looked at him instead of through him, and - in his excitement he grabbed for his hat. Perhaps he hoped for a smile of - recognition, and, if not that, a smile of amusement. He would have been - grateful in either case. - </p> - <p> - “Don't do that,” whispered Sampson, gruffly. - </p> - <p> - “Why not?” demanded No. 7, blinking his eyes. “No harm in being a - gentleman, is there?” - </p> - <p> - “You must not be seen speaking to her—or to any one of the - interested parties, for that matter. Do you want to have her accused of - bribery or—er—complicity?” - </p> - <p> - “I thought she was going to speak to me,” stammered No. 7. - </p> - <p> - “Well, she wasn't. She has too much sense for that. Good Lord, if counsel - for the State saw you doing that sort of thing, they'd suspect something - in a second.” - </p> - <p> - “Haven't you read about those jury-fixing scandals?” exclaimed the chubby - bachelor, surprisingly red in the face. He had almost reached his own hat - when Sampson spoke. Four or five of the others glowered upon the offending - No. 7. “We can't even be seen bowing to anybody connected with the case.” - </p> - <p> - “I saw you throw your cigar away when she came in the door,” retorted No. - 7, in some exasperation. “What did you do that for?” - </p> - <p> - The chubby bachelor looked hurt. “Because I was through with it,” he said. - “I don't hang onto 'em till they burn my lips, you know.” He deemed it - advisable to resort to sarcasm. - </p> - <p> - “Just remember that you are a juror,” advised No. 4 in a friendly tone. - One might have thought he was compassionate. - </p> - <p> - “No harm done,” said No. 12. “She didn't even see you. I happen to know, - because she was lookin' right at me when you took off your lid. You didn't - notice me fiddling with my head-piece, did you? I guess not. She don't - expect us to, and so I didn't make any crack. I—” - </p> - <p> - “I'd suggest,” said Sampson, with dignity, “that we devote a certain - amount of respect to the ethics.” - </p> - <p> - It was a little puzzling. Ethics is a word that calls for reflection. - You've got to know just what it means, and after you know that much about - it, you've got to fix its connection. Several of the gentlemen nodded - profoundly, and two of them said: “Well, I should say so.” That night - Sampson sat alone in front of his fireplace, his brow clouded by uneasy, - disturbing thoughts. A woodfire crackled and simmered on the huge - Florentine andirons. Turple, coming in to inquire if he would speak with - Mrs. Fitzmorton on the telephone, was gruffly instructed to say that he - was not at home, and when Turple returned with the word that Mrs. - Fitzmorton was at home and still expecting him to dine at her house that - evening, notwithstanding the fact that her guests and her dinner had been - waiting for him since eight o'clock—and it was now 8:45—Sampson - groaned so dismally that his valet was alarmed. The groan was succeeded, - however, by a far from feeble expression of self-reproach, and a - tremendous scurrying into overcoat and hat. He reached Mrs. Fitzmorton's - house—it happened to be in the next block north—in less than - three minutes, and he was so engagingly contrite, and so terribly - good-looking, that she forgave him at once—which was more than the - male members of the party did. - </p> - <p> - They were all married men and they couldn't forgive anybody for being - late. They were always being implored, either pathetically or peevishly, - to stop complaining. - </p> - <p> - Sampson had cause for worry. He had been slow in arriving at the truth, - but that afternoon his conviction was established. Miss Hildebrand was - depending on him to swing that jury! - </p> - <p> - She was counting on his intelligence, his decision, his insight, his power - to see beyond the supposed facts in the case as presented by the witnesses - for the State. He was sure of it. There was nothing in the cool, frank - scrutiny that she gave him from time to time that could be described by - the most critical of minds as even suggestive of a purpose to influence - him, and yet he was sure that she depended on his good sense for a - solution of all that was going on. - </p> - <p> - What disturbed him most was this: there was no distinction between the - look she gave him when the State scored a point and when the condition was - reversed. The same confident, reasoning expression was in her lovely eyes, - as much as to say: “You must see through all this, No. 3—of course - you must, or you couldn't look me in the eye as you do.” - </p> - <p> - It was as clear as day to him: she was certain that her grandfather was - incapable of doing the thing he was charged with doing, and she could not - see how a man of his (Sampson's) perception could possibly think - otherwise. - </p> - <p> - The revelation caused him to forget all about his dinner engagement. Also - it caused him to pass an absolutely sleepless night. When he closed his - eyes she still looked into them—always the same clear, - understanding, undoubting gaze that he had come to know so well. When he - lay with them wide open, staring into the darkness, the vision took more - definite shape, so he closed them tightly again. - </p> - <p> - Turple noticed his haggardness the next morning and was solicitous. Now, - Turple, at his best, was not entitled to a stare of any description. But - Sampson's rapt gaze was so prolonged and so singularly detached from the - object upon which it rested—Turple's countenance—that the poor - fellow was alarmed. He had never seen his master look just like that - before. Later on, Sampson told him to go to the devil. Turple was - relieved. - </p> - <p> - The accountants, the detectives and two bookkeepers who formerly had - worked under Mr. Hildebrand testified and then the State rested. Through - it all the prisoner sat unmoved. Sampson wondered what was going on in the - mind of that gaunt, fine-faced old man. What would be his answer to the - damning evidence that stood arrayed against him? What <i>could</i> be his - defence! - </p> - <p> - He was sorry for him. He would have given a great deal to be able to rise - now from his seat in the jury box and announce candidly that he did not - feel that he could bring in a verdict against the old man, reminding the - Court and the district attorney that he had said in the beginning that he - could not answer for his sympathies. - </p> - <p> - During the noon recess he took account of his fellow jurors. They were a - glum, serious looking set of men. He knew where their sympathies lay and, - like himself, they were depressed. The justice—even he—had - lost much of the geniality that at the outset had warmed the atmosphere. - He no longer smiled; no more did he exploit his wit, and as for his brisk - moustache, it drooped. - </p> - <p> - To the amazement of every one, the defendant's counsel announced that they - had but one witness: the prisoner himself. And every one then knew that no - matter what the prisoner said in his own defence, his testimony would be - unsupported; it would have to stand alone against odds that were - overwhelming. - </p> - <p> - Slowly but surely it became evident to these more or less discerning men - that James Hildebrand's plea would be for sympathy and not for - vindication. By his own story of the dealings with Stevens and Drew and - the others he hoped to reach their hearts and through their hearts a - certain sense of justice that moves in all men's minds. - </p> - <p> - Sampson's heart sank. While he was convinced that the old man had been - cruelly tricked by his business associates, that they had squeezed him dry - in order to profit by his misery, that Stevens at least was actuated by a - personal grudge which found relief in crushing the father of the man he - hated, and that the others may have been innocently or pusillanimously - influenced by the designs of this one man who sought control, there still - remained the fact that Hildebrand, according to the evidence, had violated - the law and was a subject for punishment—if not for correction, as - the prison reformers would have it in these days. In no way could the old - man's act be legally or morally justified. Sampson, after hearing the - announcement of his counsel, realised that he would have a very unpleasant - duty to perform, and he knew that he was going to hate himself. - </p> - <p> - He had never spoken a word to Alexandra Hildebrand; he had not even heard - the sound of her voice—her conversation with counsel was carried on - in whispers or in subdued tones—And yet he was in love with her! He - was the victim of a glorious enchantment. - </p> - <p> - And he knew that No. 7 was in love with her—foolishly in love with - her; and so was the once supercilious No. 12; and the chubby bachelor; and - No. 9 who wanted to stay off the jury because he had to get married in - three weeks; and No. 8 who had two sons in the high school, one daughter - in Altman's and two wives in the cemetery; and the sombre-faced No. 1; and - all the rest of them! No. 2, who chewed gum resoundingly, no longer - chewed. His jaws were silenced. He had an impression that Miss Hildebrand - disapproved of gum-chewing, so he stopped. More than this, no man could - sacrifice. - </p> - <p> - The spruce young men from the district attorney's office were visibly - affected—(they really were quite sickening, thought Sampson); and - the deputy clerk, the court-room bailiffs, and the stripling who carried - messages from one given point to another with incredible speed, now that - he had something to keep him moving. - </p> - <p> - All of them, in a manner of speaking, were in love with her. And she was - not in love with any one of them. There could be no doubt about that. They - meant absolutely nothing to her. - </p> - <p> - Sampson wondered if she had a sweetheart, if there was some one with whom - she was in love, if those dear lips—and he sighed bleakly. He hated, - with unexampled venom, this purely suppositious male who harassed him from - morning till night. Common-sense told him that she must have a sweetheart. - It was inconceivable that she shouldn't possess the most natural thing in - the world. She just couldn't help having one. What sort of a fellow was - he? Of course, he didn't deserve her; that was clear enough, assuming that - the fellow actually existed. In his present frame of mind, Sampson could - think of only one man in the world who might possibly be deserving of her. - </p> - <p> - Nevertheless, he felt that he was behaving in a silly, amateurish manner, - falling in love with her like this. It was to be expected of ignorant, - common louts such as No. 7—a very ordinary jackass!—and the - other ten men in the box, to say nothing of the suddenly adolescent yet - middle-aged horde outside. It was just the sort of thing that they would - be certain to do. They were a fatuous—but there he stopped, scowling - within himself. What right had he to call these other men fools? He was no - better than they. Indeed, he was worse, for he always had believed himself - to be supremely above such nonsense as this. They made no pretentions. - They fell in love with her just as they would have fallen in love with any - pretty girl—and, Heaven knows, pretty girls are always being fallen - in love with. But that he, the unimpressionable, experienced Sampson, - should lose his heart—and head—over a girl who had never - spoken a word to him, whom he had never seen until six days before, and - who doubtless would go out of his life completely the instant the trial - was over—why, it ought to have been excruciatingly funny. But it - wasn't funny. - </p> - <p> - It was very far from funny. Putting one's self in a class with No. 7 and - No. 12 and the rest of them was certainly not Sampson's idea of something - to laugh at. So he scowled ominously every time he chanced to think of any - one of them—which happened only when Miss Hildebrand deigned to look - at that particular individual. - </p> - <p> - And he would have to send her beloved grandfather to the penitentiary. He - would have to hurt her; he would have to bring pain and despair and, worse - than these, astonishment to her beautiful eyes. He knew that he would be - haunted for the rest of his life by the look she would give him when the - verdict was announced. - </p> - <p> - James Hildebrand went <i>on</i> the stand on the afternoon of the sixth - day. A curious hush settled over the court-room. Men shifted in their - chairs and then slumped down dejectedly, as if oppressed by the utter - futility of the tale he would have to tell. Alexandra Hildebrand alone was - bright-eyed and eager. Her lips were slightly parted as the old man, grey - and erect, took the oath. She knew that the truth and nothing but the - truth could fall from the lips of this gentle old grandfather of hers. Now - they would have the truth! Now the case would crumble! She sent one swift, - reassuring look through the jury box, and, for the first time, gazed into - no man's eyes. She was puzzled. Every face was averted. Long afterwards - she may have recalled the queer little chill that entered her heart, and - stayed there for the briefest instant before passing. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0081.jpg" alt="0081 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0081.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - The defendant's voice was low, well-modulated, unemotional; his manner - simple and yet impressive. Throughout the entire story that he told, his - hearers listened with rapt attention. - </p> - <p> - She sent one swift, reassuring look through the jury box. - </p> - <p> - They were hoping that he could convince them. They watched his fine, - distinguished face; they watched his sombre, unflinching eyes; they - watched his steady hands as they rested on the arms of the chair; they - watched him with fear in their hearts: the fear that he would falter and - betray himself. - </p> - <p> - He entered a simple, direct denial of the accusation made against him. His - story was not a long one, and it would have to go uncorroborated, for, as - he said himself, there was no one upon whom he could call for support. In - the first place, he declared that he did not know that he was suspected of - having robbed his partners until after many months had passed. He was - aware of the investigation, but it had never entered his head that he - could be the person under suspicion. He admitted taking a hurried and - perhaps ill-advised departure from New York, and, in answer to a direct - question from his own counsel, declared that he would never reveal his - reason for leaving so secretly and in such haste. - </p> - <p> - Facing the jury he stated calmly, deliberately and in a most resolute - manner that he would go to prison for the rest of his days, that he would - suffer lasting ignominy and disgrace, before he would publicly account for - this action on his part. - </p> - <p> - When he learned that a true bill had been returned against him by the - Grand Jury, his first impulse was to return to his own country and fight - the charge. Reflection convinced him that he was safe as long as he - remained in his sequestered home in Switzerland, and he made up his mind - to remain there and die with unlifted disgrace bearing down upon his good - name rather than to return and face the probability of having to account - for his absence. That, and that alone, was responsible for his decision to - remain where he was. No one knew of his whereabouts, not even his own kith - and kin. He was as safe as if he were already dead. Then, in solemn, - unforgettable tones he declared that he had never taken a penny belonging - to the Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, that he was innocent of - the charge brought against him, notwithstanding the fact that appearances - were sufficient to convict. - </p> - <p> - Time brought a change in him. He decided to return and face his accusers. - He did not hope to convince them that he was innocent. He only wanted the - opportunity to stand before the world and proclaim his innocence. He had - no testimony to offer. He could only say that he had not done this - monstrous thing of which he was accused. - </p> - <p> - His testimony was given as a simple statement. He was allowed to tell his - brief story without the interpolation of a single question by his counsel. - Succinctly but with scant bitterness, he recited the story of his own - unfair treatment at the hands of his former partners. He touched very - casually upon that phase of the matter, as if it were of small consequence - to him now. There were no harsh words for the men who had tricked him. One - could not help having the feeling that he looked upon them as beneath his - notice. - </p> - <p> - He came home of his own free-will, after years of deliberation. He had - been influenced by no one in this singular crisis. He was alone in the - world. Except for his beloved granddaughter, there was no one else who - could suffer through the result of this trial. He was prepared to accept - the verdict of the twelve gentlemen who listened to him and who had - listened to the testimony of others before him. - </p> - <p> - There was not a sound in the court-room when he paused and drew a long - deep breath. Every eye was upon him. Then, in a clear, resonant voice he - said: - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen, I repeat that I am absolutely innocent of this charge. I ask - you to believe me when I say this to you. If you do not believe me, I must - be content to accept your judgment. I do not ask you to discredit the - testimony of the men who have appeared against me. They have told all they - know about the circumstances, I dare say, and I am convinced that they are - honest men. They have only shown you that there was a colossal theft, that - a large sum of money is unaccounted for in their business. They have not - shown you, however, that I am the man who took it. They have only shown - you that fifty thousand dollars is missing and unaccounted for. I admit I - was responsible as treasurer of the company for the safe-keeping and - guardianship of all that money. It disappeared. I can only say to you, - gentlemen, that I did not take it.” - </p> - <p> - His voice was husky. There was a long pause, and then he settled back in - his chair and turned wearily to the district attorney for - crossexamination. It was then that the crowd knew he had finished his - story. A deep breath came from the lips of every one, as if for many - minutes it had been withheld. - </p> - <p> - Sampson's gaze involuntarily sought Alexandra Hildebrand's face. He did - not mean to look at her. He could not resist the impulse, however. It was - stronger than the adamantine resolution he had made. The light of triumph - was in her glowing eyes, the flush of victory in the cheek. Her - grandfather had cleared himself! - </p> - <p> - Sampson's heart ached as it sank to depths from which it would never - rebound. He turned hopelessly to the man in the witness chair, and waited - for the district attorney to open his grilling cross-examination. He knew - what the State would demand: why did he go away? Who replaced a large - portion of the amount originally missing? Why did he sell his real-estate - and his interest in the business? A hundred vital questions would be - discharged at him, and he would—But, even as he delved in these - dismal reflections, the district attorney arose in his place and said, - clearly, distinctly—although no man at first believed his ears: - </p> - <p> - “No questions, your Honour.” - </p> - <p> - There was utter silence while this amazing announcement sank into the - minds of the listeners. Counsel for the defence sat rigid and - uncomprehending in their chairs; the justice leaned forward and stared; - the prisoner's eyes widened for a second and then slowly closed. His chin - fell; his attitude was one of acute humiliation. His story was not even - worthy of notice! No questions! The acme of derision! - </p> - <p> - Argument by counsel followed, the beardless “assistant-assistant” making - the opening address to the jury. He floundered badly. Sampson derived some - consolation from his futile, feeble arraignment. If the principal attorney - for the State didn't do a great deal better than his singularly - ineffectual confrere, there was still hope that the prisoner's counsel - might by impassioned pleas stir the hearts of twelve men to mercy. The - sympathies of all were—But even as he speculated on the probable - lengths to which sympathy would carry his companions in arriving at a - verdict, there suddenly flashed into his brain a vast illumination. James - W. Hildebrand was not guilty! He was shielding some one else! His - reluctance to tell why he left New York was explained. He could not tell - without betraying a secret that must forever remain inviolate! Sampson - breathed easier. Why, it was as plain as day to him! At least, it was - something on which to base a conclusion. It might come in very handy too - when the jury, in seclusion, began to grope for a favouring light. On - reflection they would all agree that no witness actually had sworn that - Hildebrand took the money. The evidence was decidedly circumstantial. By - deduction alone was he guilty. On the other hand he had solemnly sworn - that he didn't take it. And if he didn't take it, who did? That, said - Sampson, was a very simple thing to answer: Some person unknown to the - jury. - </p> - <p> - Miss Hildebrand's spirits undoubtedly fell after that significant move of - the State. There was an anxious, bewildered expression in her eyes, and a - rather pathetic droop at the corners of her adorable mouth. - </p> - <p> - The argument proceeded. Mr. O 'Brien made the closing speech for the - defendant. Her spirits revived under the eloquent, fervent plea of the now - brilliant Irishman. Sampson experienced a feeling of real affection for - the earnest, though unkempt orator, who more than once brought tears - almost to the surface of his eyes. He had great difficulty in suppressing - a desire to blubber, and, when he saw her velvety eyes swimming in tears, - he blew his nose so violently that he started an epidemic. No. 7, instead - of blowing his nose, sniffed so repeatedly and so audibly that every one - wished he'd blow, and have it over with. - </p> - <p> - And when her eyes flashed with indignation during the uncalled-for tirade - of the assistant district attorney, Sampson developed a bitter hatred for - the man. When she appeared crushed and bewildered by the vicious attacks - of the fellow, and shrank down in her chair like a frightened child, - Sampson wanted to take her in his strong, comforting arms and—But, - of course, there wasn't any use thinking about such a thing as that. It - was not one of his duties as a juror. - </p> - <p> - The case went to the jury at four o'clock that afternoon, after a somewhat - protracted and, to Sampson, totally unenlightening charge by the justice, - who advised the jurors that they must weigh the evidence as it was found - and forbear allowing their sympathies to overcome their sense of justice. - And so on and so forth. He made it very hard for the jurors. If they went - entirely by the evidence, there wasn't anything left for them to do but to - find the defendant guilty. Sampson had hoped for ameliorating suggestions - from the learned justice on which he could base a sensible doubt as to the - guilt of the defendant. - </p> - <p> - But, in so many words, the justice announced that the preponderance of the - evidence was in favour of the State. He told the jurors it was their duty - and privilege to take the defendant's unsupported testimony for what they - considered it to be worth and to place it in opposition to the evidence - produced by the State. It was then their duty to render a fair and - impartial verdict on the evidence. - </p> - <p> - As the twelve men filed out of the box on their way to the jury room, - Sampson shot a glance at Alexandra Hildebrand. He would not see her again - until he returned to the seat he had occupied for six days, and after that - she was to pass out of his life entirely. He hoped that she would not be - there when he came back with his verdict. It would be much easier for him. - He did not attempt to deceive himself any longer. If he lived up to his - notions of honour and integrity, there was but one verdict he could - return. (He wondered if his companions would prove to be as rigid in this - respect as he.) - </p> - <p> - She was looking in the opposite direction, her chin in her hand. She did - not meet his unhappy gaze. He was grateful for that. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>hatcheb say your - name was?” demanded No. 8, aggressively. - </p> - <p> - “I didn't say,” said Sampson coolly. “Call me No. 3, if you don't mind. - I'll answer to it.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, my name is Hooper, and that's what I want to be called.” - </p> - <p> - “I'm not going to call you anything,” said Sampson, turning away in his - loftiest manner. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I guess it's just as well you don't,” snorted No. 8, sticking out - his chest, and it wasn't a very obtrusive chest at that. Putting it back - to where it normally belonged was a much less arduous job for No. 8 than - sticking it out. He couldn't have stuck it out at all if he hadn't - possessed the backing of ten men. - </p> - <p> - In short, the jury had been out for seven hours and the last ballot stood - eleven to one for acquittal. Sampson was the unit. - </p> - <p> - No. 12 tried diplomacy. “Say, now, fellers, let's get together on this - thing. We don't get anywhere by knockin' Mr. Sampson. He's got a right to - think as he pleases, same as we have. So let's be calm and try to get - together.” - </p> - <p> - “My God,” groaned No. 1, “can you beat that? Eleven of us have been - together since five o'clock this afternoon, and you talk about being calm. - Now, as foreman of this jury, I think I've got some right to be heard. - You'll admit that, won't you, Mr. Sampson?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly. Up to this moment, I've had no difficulty in hearing you. It - isn't necessary to shout, either. I'm not deaf.” - </p> - <p> - “Now, let me talk,” went on the foreman. “Keep still a minute, you - fellers. Mr. Sampson is a gentleman. He's got as much sense, I suppose, as - any of us. He—” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks,” said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - “Well, here we are, 'leven to one. You admit that your sympathies are with - the old man, same as the rest of us. You say you'd sooner be shot than to - send him up. Well, now let's—wait a minute, Hooper! I'm talking. - Let's talk this thing over as friends. I apologise for what I said just - after supper. You've got a right to be pig-headed. You've got a legal - right to hang this jury. But is it right and fair? If 'leven of us are - willing to go on record as—er—as putting credence in the - testimony of Mr. Hildebrand, I can't see why you're afraid to come in with - us. Down in your soul you don't think he's guilty. You say that maybe he - is shielding some one else. If that's the way you feel, why not come out - like a man and give the poor old lad the benefit of the doubt? Lord knows - I'm a hard man. I don't want to see any guilty man escape. I believe in - putting 'em where they belong, and keeping 'em there. By Gosh, nobody - dares to say to my face that I'm easy on criminals. I'm as hard as nails. - My wife says I'm as hard as all get-out. And she ought to know. She's - heard me talk about crime here in New York for nearly fifteen years, and - she knows how I feel. Well, if I am willing to give the old man a chance, - it ought to stand for something, oughtn't it? Hard as I am? Just reason it - out for yourself, Mr. Sampson. Now, we all agree that the evidence against - him is pretty strong. But it is circumstantial. You said so yourself in - the beginning. It was you who said that it was circumstantial. You said—just - a minute, Hooper! You said that while everything pointed to him as the - guilty man, nobody actually swore that he saw him take the money. On the - other hand, he swears he didn't take it. He ought to know, oughtn't he? If - he knows who did take it, why that's his business. I don't believe in - squealers. I wouldn't have any mercy on a man who turned State's evidence - to save himself. Well, now, supposing old man Hildebrand knows who got - away with the stuff. He is too much of a man to squeal. We oughtn't to - send him up just because he won't squeal on the man—a friend, for - all we know—even though it might save him from going to the pen. I - leave it to you, Mr. Sampson: ought we?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course we oughtn't,” broke in the irrepressible Mr. Hooper. “Any damn' - fool ought to see that.” - </p> - <p> - Sampson eyed Mr. Hooper severely. “He's leaving it to me, Mr. Hooper; not - to you.” He leaned a little closer, his eyes narrowing. “And, by the way, - Mr. Hooper, before we go any farther, I should like to call your attention - to several facts entirely separate and apart from this trial. It may - interest you to know that I am six feet one in my stocking feet, that I - weigh one hundred and ninety-five pounds, that I am just under thirty - years of age, that I was one of the strongest men in college, and that up - to a certain point I am, and always have been, one of the gentlest and - best-natured individuals in the world.” - </p> - <p> - “What do you mean by that?” blustered No. 8. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen!” admonished the foreman. The automobile salesman stopped - picking his teeth. - </p> - <p> - “I am merely trying to convince you, Mr. Hooper, that there is a great - deal more to be said for circumstantial evidence than you might think. You - might go on forever thinking that I am a meek, spineless saphead, and on - the other hand you might have it proved to you that I'm not. Please - reflect on what I have just said. It can't do you any harm to reflect, Mr. - Hooper.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, piffle!” said Mr. Hooper, getting very red in the face. - </p> - <p> - “Sic 'em!” said No. 12, under his breath. - </p> - <p> - “Moreover,” went on Sampson, smiling—but mirthlessly—“I am - assuming that your exercises as a hat salesman are not such as one gets in - a first-class gymnasium. I hope you will pardon me for asking you to - repeat the word you just uttered. I think it was 'piffle.'” - </p> - <p> - Mr. Hooper grinned. He didn't feel like grinning but something - psychological told him to do it—and to do it as quickly as possible. - “Aw, don't get sore, old man. Forget it!” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly,” said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - The foreman seized the opportunity. “There, now, that's better. At last we - seem to Be getting together.” - </p> - <p> - No. 7 spoke up. “This might be a good time to take another ballot. It's - 'leven minutes to one by my watch. We stand 'leven to one. That's a good - sign. Say, do you know that's pretty darned smart, if I do say it myself - who—” - </p> - <p> - “Let's have Mr. Sampson's revised views on the subject and then take a - final ballot for tonight,” said the foreman, wearily. - </p> - <p> - “I haven't revised my views,” said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - There were several draughty sighs. “I've stated them five or six times - to-night, and I see no reason to alter them now. Deeply as I regret it, I - cannot conscientiously do anything but vote for a conviction.” - </p> - <p> - “Now, listen to me once more, Mr. Sampson,” began the chubby bachelor. - “I'll try to set you straight in—” - </p> - <p> - “See here,” said Sampson, arising and confronting his companions, “we may - just as well look this thing squarely in the face. I don't want to send - him up any more than the rest of you do. But I am going to be honest with - myself in this matter if I have to stay out here for six months. We've - heard all of the evidence. It seems pretty clear to all of us that the - defendant was responsible for the loss of that money, even if he didn't - take it himself. He was the treasurer of the concern. He had absolute - charge of the funds. So far as we are concerned the State has made out its - case. We are supposed to be impartial. We are supposed to render a verdict - according to the law and the evidence. We cannot be governed by sympathy - or conjecture. - </p> - <p> - “When I left the court-room with the rest of you gentlemen to deliberate - on a verdict, I will confess to you that I had in my heart a hope that you - men would do just what you have done all along: vote for acquittal. When I - came into this room seven hours ago, I was eager to vote just as you have - voted. Then I began to reflect. I asked myself this question: how can I go - back to that court-room and look the district attorney and the Court in - the face and say that James Hildebrand is not guilty? If I did that, - gentlemen, I am quite sure I could never look an honest man in the face - again. We have all been carried away by our sympathies—I quite as - much as the rest of you. I am convinced that there isn't a man among you - who can stand up here and say, on his honour, that the evidence warrants - the discharge of the defendant. - </p> - <p> - “God knows I want to set him free. I am inclined to believe his story. He - is not the sort of man who would steal. But, after all, we are bound, as - honest men, to carry out the requirements of the law. The Court clearly - stated the law in this case. Under the law, we can do nothing else but - convict, gentlemen. - </p> - <p> - “You, Mr. Foreman, have said that Hildebrand perhaps knows who took the - money. You will admit that you are guessing at it, just as I am guessing. - In his own testimony he was careful to say nothing that would lead us to - believe that he knows the guilty man. The State definitely charges him - with the crime and it produces evidence of an overwhelming nature to - support the charge. Against this evidence is his simple statement that he - did not take the money. He had already pleaded not guilty. Is it to be - expected of him, therefore, that he should say anything else but that he - did not rob his partners? - </p> - <p> - “Only the criminals who are caught redhanded confess that they are guilty. - The guiltiest of them go on the stand, as we all know, proclaiming their - innocence, and, not one, but all of the men who go to the chair after - making such pleas maintain with their last breath that they are innocent. - Gentlemen, this is the bitterest hour in all my life. I want to set this - old man free, but I cannot conscientiously do so. I took my oath to render - a fair and impartial verdict. You all know what a fair and impartial - verdict must be in this case. I shall have to vote, as I have voted from - the beginning, for conviction.” - </p> - <p> - He sat down. No. 7, who was directly opposite him across the long table, - leaned forward suddenly with an odd expression in his eyes. Then he - blinked them. - </p> - <p> - “Why, by jingo, he's—he's crying!” he exclaimed, something akin to - awe in his voice. “You got tears in your eyes, darn me if you haven't.” - </p> - <p> - There were tears in Sampson's eyes. He lowered his head. - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” he said gruffly; “and I am not ashamed of them.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, come now, old feller,” said Mr. Hooper, uncomfortably; “don't make a - scene. Pull yourself together. We're all friends here, and we're all good - fellers. Don't—” - </p> - <p> - “I'm all right,” said Sampson coldly. “You see I'm not as hard-hearted as - you thought. Now, gentlemen, I shall not attempt to argue with you. I - shall not attempt to persuade you to look at the case from my point of - view. As a matter of fact, I am rather well pleased with the attitude - you've taken. The trouble is that it isn't going to help the poor old man. - All we can do is to disagree, and that means he will have to be tried all - over again, perhaps after many months of confinement. I should like to ask - you—all of you—a few rather pointed questions, and I'd like to - have square and fair answers from you. What do you say to that?” - </p> - <p> - “Fire away,” said the foreman. - </p> - <p> - “It's one o'clock,” said No. 7. “Supposin' we wait till after breakfast.” - </p> - <p> - “Gawd, I'm sleepy,” groaned No. 12. - </p> - <p> - “No,” said the foreman firmly; “let's hear what Mr. Sampson has to say. - He's got a lot of good common sense and he won't ask foolish questions. - They'll be important, believe me.” - </p> - <p> - They all settled hack in their chairs, wearily, drearily. - </p> - <p> - “All right. Go ahead,” sighed the chubby bachelor. “I'll answer any - question except 'what'll you have to drink,' and I'll answer that - to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - Sampson hesitated. He was eyeing No. 7 in a retrospective sort of way. No. - 7 shifted in his chair and succeeded in banishing the dreamy, faraway look - in his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Assuming,” began the speaker, “that we were trying a low-browed, - undershot ruffian instead of James W. Hildebrand, and the evidence against - him was identical with that which we have been listening to, would you - disregard it and accept his statement instead?” - </p> - <p> - “The case ain't parallel,” said No. 8. “His face wouldn't be James W. - Hildebrand's, and you can bank a lot on a feller's face, Mr. Sampson.” - </p> - <p> - The others said, “That's so.” - </p> - <p> - “That establishes one fact very clearly, doesn't it? You all admit that - with a different sort of a face and manner, Mr. Hildebrand might be as - guilty as sin. Well, that point being settled, let me ask you another - question. If Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter who has faced us - for six working days, were a sour-visaged, watery-eyed damsel of uncertain - age and devoid of what is commonly called sex-appeal, would your - sympathies still be as happily placed as they are at present?” - </p> - <p> - No man responded. Each one seemed willing to allow his neighbour to answer - this perfectly unanswerable question. - </p> - <p> - “You do not answer,” went on Sampson, “so I will put it in another form. - Suppose that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand had not been there at all; suppose - that she had not been where we could look at her for six short consecutive - days—and consequently think of her for six long consecutive nights—or - where she couldn't possibly have looked at us out of eyes that revealed - the most holy trust in us—well, what then? I confess that Miss - Hildebrand exercised a tremendous influence over me. Did she have the same - effect upon you?” - </p> - <p> - Several of them cleared their throats, and then of one accord, as if moved - by a single magnetic impulse, all of them said, in a loud, almost - combative tone, “No!” - </p> - <p> - The chubby bachelor qualified his negative. “She didn't have an undue - influence, Mr. Sampson. Of course, I liked to look at her. She's easy to - look at, you know.” He blushed as his eyes swept the group with what he - intended to be defiance but was in reality embarrassment. - </p> - <p> - No. 7: “I was awfully sorry for her. I guess everybody was.” - </p> - <p> - No. 9; “She's devoted to the old man. I like that in her. I tell you - there's nothing finer than a young girl showing love and respect for—” - </p> - <p> - No. 12: “She's a square little scout. Take it from me, gents, she wasn't - thinking of me as a juror when she happened to turn her lamps on me. I'm - an old hand at the game. I can tell you a lot about women that you - wouldn't guess in—” - </p> - <p> - Sampson: “We may, therefore, eliminate Miss Hildebrand as the pernicious - force in our deliberations. She has nothing to do with our sense of - justice. We would be voting, I take it, just as we have been all along if - there were no such person as she. However, it occurs to me that each of - you gentlemen may have had the same impression that I had during the - trial. I had a feeling that Miss Hildebrand was depending on me to a - tremendous extent. You may be sure that I do not charge her with duplicity—God - knows I have the sincerest admiration for her—but I found it pretty - difficult to meet her honest, serene, trustful eyes without experiencing a - decided opinion that it was my bounden duty to acquit her grandfather. - Anybody else feel that way about it?” - </p> - <p> - There was a long silence. Again each man seemed to be waiting for the - other to break it. It was the foreman who spoke. - </p> - <p> - “I'll be perfectly honest, for one,” he said. “I thought and still think - that she looked upon me as a friendly juror. Nothing wrong about it, mind - you—not a thing. I wouldn't have you think that she deliberately—er—ahem! - What have you to say, No. 7?” - </p> - <p> - No. 7 blushed violently. “Not a word,” said he. “I profess to be a - gentleman.” - </p> - <p> - No. 8 snorted. “Well, then, act like one. Mr. Sampson's a gentleman. He - don't hesitate to say that he was—Say, Mr. Sampson, just what did - you say?” - </p> - <p> - “I said, without the slightest desire to create a wrong impression, that I - was deeply affected by the trust Miss Hildebrand appeared to place in me. - She believes her grandfather to be innocent, and I think she believes that - I agree with her. That's the long and the short of it.” No. 4 slammed his - fist upon the table. “By thunder, that's just exactly the fix I'm in. - Right from the start, I seemed to feel that I got on this jury because she - liked the looks of me. Not the way you think, Hooper, but because I looked - like a man who might give her grandfather a square trial and—” - </p> - <p> - Mr. Hooper interrupted him hotly: “What do you mean by 'not the way you - think'? That sounded kind of disparaging, my good man—disparaging to - her. Explain yourself.” Sampson interposed. “I think we all understand - each other, gentlemen. Miss Hildebrand practically picked the whole dozen - of us. She inspected us as we came up, she sized us up, and she had the - final word to say as to whether we were acceptable to the defence. She - believed in us, or we wouldn't be here to-night. What makes it all the - harder for us, gentlemen, individually and collectively, is that we - believe in her. Now, what are we to do? Live up to her estimate of us, or - live up to a prior estimate of ourselves?” - </p> - <p> - “Well, let's sleep over it,” said the foreman uneasily. “I guess we're all - tired and—” - </p> - <p> - “I guess we won't sleep much,” broke in No. 7 miserably. “Damn' if you'll - ever get me on a jury again. I'm a nervous man anyhow and now—I'm a - wreck. I don't know what to do about this business.” - </p> - <p> - “If it were not for Miss Hildebrand, gentlemen, we'd all know what to do,” - said Sampson. “Isn't that a fact?” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you seem to have made up your mind,” said No. 8 gloomily. “I - thought mine was made up, but, by gosh, I—I want to do what's right. - I took my oath to—” - </p> - <p> - “We will take a ballot before breakfast in the morning,” said No. 1 - decisively. “Now, let's sleep if we can.” - </p> - <p> - They disposed themselves in chairs, stretched out their legs and—waited - for an illuminating daybreak. - </p> - <p> - Sampson's decision was final. He would not stultify his honour. He would - not be swayed by the sweetest emotion that ever had assailed him. Besides, - he argued through the long, tedious hours before dawn, when all was said - and done, what could Alexandra Hildebrand ever be to him? She would go out - of his life the day that— - </p> - <p> - But there he was at it again! Why couldn't he put her out of his thoughts? - Why was he continually thinking of the day when he would see the last of - her? And what a conceited fool he had been! She had been most impartial - with her mute favours. Every man on the jury was figuratively and - literally in the same boat with him. Each one of them believed as he - believed: that he was the one special object of interest to her. - </p> - <p> - But still—he was quite sure—she <i>had</i> communed with him a - little more—was he justified in using the word?—intimately - than with the others? Surely he could not be mistaken in his belief that - she looked upon him as a trifle superior to—But some one was nudging - him violently. - </p> - <p> - “Wake up, Mr. Sampson,” a voice was saying—a voice that was vaguely - familiar. It was a coarse, unfeminine voice. “We're ready to take a ballot - before we go out to breakfast. Want to wash up first or will you—” - </p> - <p> - “What time is it?” muttered Sampson, starting up from his chair. Was it - the chair that creaked, or was it his bones? He was stiff and sore and - horribly unwieldy. - </p> - <p> - “Half past seven,” said the foreman. Then Sampson recognised the voice - that had interrupted his personal confession. Moreover, he recognised the - unshaven countenance. It was really quite a shock, coming so closely - upon... “You've been hitting it up pretty soundly. No. 7 says he didn't - sleep a wink. Afraid to risk it, he says.” - </p> - <p> - At eight o'clock an attendant rapped on the door and told them to get - ready to go out to breakfast. - </p> - <p> - “Go away!” shouted the foreman. He was in the midst of an argument with - No. 7 when the interruption came, and he was getting the better of it. - </p> - <p> - “I'm willing to go half way,” said No. 7 dreamily. “Hungry as I am, I'll - go half way. I've got the darnedest headache on earth. If I had a cup of - coffee maybe I'd—” - </p> - <p> - “What do you mean half way?” exploded Mr. Hooper. “You can't render a - half-way verdict, can you?” - </p> - <p> - The ballot had just been taken. It stood eleven to one for conviction! - This time No. 7 was the unit. - </p> - <p> - “No,” said the dreamy No. 7, unoffended. “What I want to do is to make it - as light for him as possible. Can't we find him guilty of embezzlement in - the third degree or—” Sampson interrupted. He too wanted his coffee. - “Let's have our breakfast. Afterwards we can discuss—” - </p> - <p> - “I want to settle it now,” roared Mr. Hooper. “It's all nonsense talking - about breakfast while—” - </p> - <p> - “Well, then,” said Sampson, “suppose we agree to find him guilty as - charged and recommend him to the mercy of the Court.” - </p> - <p> - This was hailed with acclaim. Even No. 7, emerging temporarily from his - mental siesta, agreed that that was “a corking idea.” - </p> - <p> - “Find him guilty,” he explained, satisfying himself at least, “and then - ask the Court to discharge him. Maybe a little lecture would do him good. - A few words of advice—” - </p> - <p> - “And now, gentlemen,” broke in Sampson crisply, “since we have reached the - conclusion that we are trying Mr. Hildebrand and not Miss Hildebrand, - perhaps we would better have our coffee.” - </p> - <p> - At ten o'clock the jury filed into the courtroom and took their places in - the box. Each was conscious of what he was sure must look like a ten days' - growth of beard, and each wore the stem, implacable look that is best - described as “hang-dog.” - </p> - <p> - A dozen pairs of eyes went on an uneasy journey in quest of an object of - dread. She was not there. There were a dozen sighs of relief. Good! If - they could only get it over with and escape before she appeared! What was - all this delay about? They were ready with their verdict; why should they - be kept waiting like this? No wonder men hated serving on juries. - </p> - <p> - The Court came in and took his seat. He looked very stern and forbidding. - He looked, thought Sampson, like a man who has been married a great many - years and is interested only in his profession. A few days earlier he - looked more or less like an unmarried man. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen of the jury,” began the Clerk after the roll-call, “have you - arrived at a verdict?” - </p> - <p> - “We have,” said No. 1, with an involuntary glance in the direction of the - door. - </p> - <p> - The verdict itself was clear and concise enough. “We, the jury, find the - defendant, James W. Hildebrand, guilty as charged.” - </p> - <p> - The old man's eyes fell. A quiver ran through his gaunt body. An instant - later, however, he sat erect and faced his judges, and a queer, - indescribable smile developed slowly at the corners of his mouth. Sampson - was watching him closely. Afterwards he thought of this smile as an - expression of supreme indulgence. He remembered feeling, at the moment, - very cheap and small. - </p> - <p> - Before the defendant's counsel could call for a poll of the jury, No. 1 - arose in his place and laboriously addressed the Court. He announced that - the jury had a communication to make and asked if this was the proper time - to present it. The Court signified his readiness to hear the - communication, and No. 1, nervously extracting from his pocket a sheet of - note paper, read the following recommendation:—“The jury, having - decided in its deliberations that the defendant, James W. Hildebrand, is - legally and morally guilty as charged in the indictment, craves the - permission of this honourable Court to be allowed to submit a - recommendation bearing upon the penalty to be inflicted as the result of - the verdict agreed upon. We would respectfully urge the Court to exercise - his prerogative and suspend sentence in the case of James W. Hildebrand. - The evidence against him is sufficient to warrant conviction, but there - are circumstances, we believe, which should operate to no small degree in - his favour. His age, his former high standing among men, and his bearing - during the course of this trial, commend him to us as worthy of this - informal appeal to your Honour's mercy. This communication is offered - regardless of our finding and is not meant to prejudice the verdict we - have returned. In leaving the defendant in the hands of this Court, we - humbly but earnestly petition your Honour to at least grant him the - minimum penalty in the event that you do not see fit to act upon our - suggestion to suspend sentence.” - </p> - <p> - The document, which was signed by the twelve jurors, had been prepared by - Sampson, and it was his foresight that rendered it entirely within the - law. He was smart enough not to incorporate it in the finding itself; it - was a supplementary instrument which could be accepted or disregarded as - the Court saw fit. - </p> - <p> - The Court gazed rather fixedly at the sheet of paper which was passed to - him by an attendant. His brow was ruffled. He pulled nervously at his - moustache. At last, clearing his throat, he said, addressing the counsel - for the defence: - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen, do you wish to poll the jury?” - </p> - <p> - Mr. O 'Brien waived this formality. He and his partner seemed to be rather - well pleased with the verdict. They eyed the Court anxiously, hopefully. - </p> - <p> - “The Court will pronounce sentence on Friday,” announced the justice, his - eye on the door. He acted very much like a man who was afraid of being - caught in the act of perpetrating something decidedly reprehensible. “I - wish to thank the jurors for the careful attention they have given the - case and to compliment them on the verdict they have returned in the face - of rather trying conditions. It speaks well for the integrity, the - soundness of our jury system. I may add, gentlemen, that I shall very - seriously consider the recommendation you have made. The prisoner is - remanded until next Friday at ten o'clock.” - </p> - <p> - Half an hour later Sampson found himself in the street. He had spent - twenty minutes or more loitering about the halls of the Criminal Courts - building, his eager gaze sweeping the throng that was forever changing. It - searched remote corners and mounted quadruple stairways; it raked the - balcony railings one, two and three flights up; it went down other steps - toward the street-level floor. And all the while his own gaze was - scouting, the anxious eyes of four other gentlemen were doing the same as - his: No. 7, No. 8, No. 6 and No. 12. They were all looking for the trim, - natty figure and the enchanting face of Miss Alexandra Hildebrand—vainly - looking, for she was nowhere to be seen. - </p> - <p> - And when Sampson found himself in the street—(a bitter gale was - blowing)—he was attended by two gentlemen who justly might have been - identified as his most intimate, bosom friends: the lovesick No. 7 and the - predatory No. 12. They had him between them as they wended their way - toward the Subway station at Worth Street, and they were smoking his - cigars (because he <i>couldn't</i> smoke theirs, notwithstanding their - divided hospitality)—and they were talking loudly against time. - Sampson had the feeling that they were aiming to attach themselves to him - for life. - </p> - <p> - They accepted him as their guiding light, their mentor, their firm - example. For all time they would look upon him as a leader of men, and - they would be proud to speak of him to older friends as a new friend worth - having, worth tying up to, so to say. They seemed only too ready to - glorify him, and in doing so gloried in the fact that he was a top-lofty, - superior sort of individual who looked down upon them with infinite though - gentle scorn. - </p> - <p> - Moreover, they thought, if they kept on the good side of Sampson they - might reasonably expect to obtain an occasional glimpse of Miss Alexandra - Hildebrand, for, with his keenness and determination, he was sure to - pursue an advantage that both of them reluctantly conceded. - </p> - <p> - In the Subway local No. 7 invited Sampson to have lunch with him. He - suggested the Vanderbilt, but he wasn't sure whether he'd entertain in the - main dining room or in the Della Robbia room. He seemed confused and - uncertain about it. No. 12 boisterously intervened. He knew of a nice - little place in Forty-second Street where you can get the best oysters in - New York. He not only invited Sampson to go there. They clung to him, - however, until they reached Times Square Station with him but - magnanimously included No. 7, which was more than No. 7 had done for him. - </p> - <p> - Sampson declined. They clung to him, however, until they reached Times - Square station. There he said good-bye to them as they left the kiosk. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0113.jpg" alt="0113 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0113.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - “Perhaps we may meet again,” he said pleasantly. No. 7 fumbled in his vest - pocket and brought forth a soiled business card. - </p> - <p> - “If you ever need anything in the way of electric fixtures or repairing, - remember me, Mr. Sampson,” he said. “Telephone and address as per card. - Keep it, please. I am in business for myself. The Trans-Continental - Electric Supply Emporium.' - </p> - <p> - “Here's my card, Mr. Sampson,” said No. 12. “I'd like to come around and - give you a little spiel on our new model some day soon. We're practically - sold up as far as December, but I think I can sneak you in ahead—what - say?” - </p> - <p> - “I have an automobile, thank you. Two of them, in fact.” He mentioned the - make of car that he owned. No. 12 was not disheartened. - </p> - <p> - “You could have fifteen of our cars for the price you paid for yours—one - for every other day in the month. Just bear that in mind. A brand new car - every second day. Let me see: your address is—” He paused - expectantly. - </p> - <p> - “The Harvard Club will reach me any time.” - </p> - <p> - No. 12 started to write it down but paused in the middle of “Harvard” to - grasp the extended hand of his new friend. “I fancy you can remember it - without writing it down,” went on Sampson, smilingly. - </p> - <p> - “Never trust to memory,” said No. 12 briskly. “This burg is full of clubs - and—well, so long!” - </p> - <p> - No. 7 was still troubled about luncheon. “I'm sorry you can't go to the - Vanderbilt and have a bite—a sandwich and a stein of beer, say.” No. - 12 turned to speak to a passing acquaintance, and No. 7 seized the - opportunity to whisper tensely: “She's staying there. I followed her three - times and she always went to the Vanderbilt. Got off the Subway at - Thirty-third Street and—” - </p> - <p> - “She? What she?” demanded Sampson, affecting perplexity. - </p> - <p> - No. 7 was staggered. It was a long time before he could say: “Well, holy - Smoke!” And then, as Sampson still waited: “Why, <i>her</i>, of course—who - else?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson appeared to understand at last. He said: “A ripping good hotel, - isn't it?” - </p> - <p> - “A peach,” said No. 7, and then they parted. - </p> - <p> - That evening Sampson dined at the Vanderbilt. At first, like No. 7, he - wasn't quite sure whether he would dine upstairs or in the Della Robbia - room. He went over the ground very thoroughly before deciding. At eight - o'clock he disconsolately selected the main dining-room and ate, without - appetite, a lonely but excellent dinner. - </p> - <p> - He wondered if No. 7 could have lied to him. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>e also dropped in - at the Vanderbilt for lunch on Thursday. - </p> - <p> - Friday morning he was in the court-room, ostensibly to hear sentence - pronounced. He sat outside the railing. Seven of his fellow-jurors - straggled in as the hour for convening court approached. Sampson found - himself flanked by No. 7 and No. 12, the former a trifle winded after a - long run from Worth Street. In a hoarse wheeze he informed Sampson that - “she'll be here in a minute,” and, sure enough, the words were barely out - of his mouth when Alexandra Hildebrand entered the court-room with Mr. O - 'Brien. - </p> - <p> - Sampson was shocked by her appearance. She was pale and tired-looking and - there were dark circles beneath her wonderful eyes. She looked ill and - worn. His heart went out to her. He longed to hold her close and whisper— - </p> - <p> - “My God!” oozed from No. 7's agonised lips. “She's—she's sick!” - </p> - <p> - Sampson kicked him violently on the shin. “She'll hear you, you blithering - idiot,” he grated out. - </p> - <p> - The courtesy of the Court was extended once more to Miss Hildebrand. She - was invited to have a seat inside the railing. If she recognised a single - one of the eight jurors who sat outside, she failed to betray the fact by - sign or deed. The prisoner, a troubled, anxious look in his eyes, entered - and took his accustomed seat instead of standing at the foot of the jury - box to await sentence. Miss Hildebrand put her arm over his shoulders and - brushed his lean old cheek with her lips. He was singularly unmoved by - this act of devotion. Sampson glowered. The old man might at least have - given her a look of gratitude, a pat of the hand—oh, anything gentle - and grandfatherly. But there he sat, as rigid as an oak, his gaze fixed on - the Court, his body hunched forward in an attitude of suspense. He was not - thinking of Alexandra. - </p> - <p> - Hildebrand arose when his name was called, and it was plain that he - maintained his composure only by the greatest exertion of the will. - Sampson watched him curiously. He had the feeling that the old man would - collapse if the Court's decision proved severe. - </p> - <p> - The customary questions and answers followed, the old man responding in a - voice barely audible to those close by. - </p> - <p> - “The Court, respecting the wishes of the jurors who tried and found you - guilty, James Hildebrand, is inclined to be merciful. It is the judgment - of this Court that the penalty in your case shall be fixed at two years' - imprisonment, but in view of the recommendation presented here and because - of your previous reputation for integrity and the fact that you - voluntarily surrendered yourself to justice, sentence is suspended.” - </p> - <p> - Other remarks by the Court followed, but Sampson did not hear them. His - whole attention was centred on Alexandra Hildebrand. Her slim body - straightened up, her eyes brightened, and a heavenly smile transfigured - her face. - </p> - <p> - Sampson felt like cheering! - </p> - <p> - A few minutes later she passed him in the rotunda. For an instant their - eyes met. There was a deep, searching expression in hers. Suddenly a deep - flush covered her smooth cheek and her eyes fell. She hurried past, and - he, stock-still with wonder and joy over this astounding exposition of - confusion on her part, failed utterly to pursue an advantage that would - have been seized upon with alacrity by the atavistic No. 12. He allowed - her to escape! - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0123.jpg" alt="0123 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0123.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - Aroused to action too late, he bolted after her, only to see her enter a - waiting taxi-cab and—yes, she <i>did</i> look back over her - shoulder. She knew he would follow! He raised his hat, and he was sure - that she smiled—faintly, it is true, but still she smiled. If he - hoped that she would condescend to alter her course, he was doomed to - disappointment. The driver obeyed his original instructions and shot off - in the direction of Lafayette Street. - </p> - <p> - The memory of her tribute—a blush and a fleeting smile—was to - linger with Sampson for many a weary, watchful day. - </p> - <p> - The taxi-cab—a noisy, ungentle abomination—was whirling her - corporeal loveliness out of his reach and vision with exasperating - swiftness, leaving him high and dry in an endless, barren desert. His - heart gave a tremendous jump when a traffic policeman stopped the car at - the corner above. He set forth as fast as his long legs could carry him - with dignity, hoping and praying that the officer would be as slow and as - stubborn about—But she must have looked into the fellow's eyes and - smiled, for, with surprising amiability, he signified that she was to - proceed. Apparently he was too dazzled to reprimand or caution the driver, - for the taxi went forward at an increased speed. - </p> - <p> - Some one touched Sampson's elbow. He withdrew his gaze from the vanishing - taxi-cab and allowed it to rest in sheer amazement upon the bleak - countenance of No. 7. - </p> - <p> - “She's going away,” said No. 7 in sepulchral tones. - </p> - <p> - “Evidently,” said Sampson. “Exceeding the speed limit while she is about - it, too.” - </p> - <p> - “I mean,” said the other, “she's going to take a long journey. She's - leaving New York! That taxi is full of satchels and valises and stuff, and - the driver has orders to get her to the Hudson tube by eleven o'clock. I - heard that much anyhow, hangin' around here. Say, do you know there is - another woman in that cab with her? There sure is. I saw her plain as day. - Kind of an old woman with two or three little satchels and one of them - dinky white dogs in her lap.” - </p> - <p> - “A lady's maid,” said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - “Where do you suppose she's going?” - </p> - <p> - “How should I know?” demanded Sampson severely. - </p> - <p> - “And why is she running away without grandpa? What's going to become of - the old man? Seems as though she'd ought to hang around until he's—” - </p> - <p> - “I daresay she knows what she is doing,” said Sampson, disturbed by the - same thoughts. - </p> - <p> - “Maybe he's going to join her later on?” hopefully. “Over in Jersey - somewhere.” - </p> - <p> - “Very likely. Good-bye.” Sampson wrung the limp hand of No. 7 and made off - toward Broadway. - </p> - <p> - He lunched with a friend at the Lawyers' Club. In the smoking room - afterwards, he came face to face with the assistant district attorney who - had prosecuted the case of James Hildebrand. His friend exclaimed: - </p> - <p> - “Hello, Wilks! You ought to know Mr. Sampson. He's been under your nose - for a week or ten days.” - </p> - <p> - Wilks grinned as he shook hands with the exjuror. “Glad to know you as Mr. - Sampson, sir, and not as No. 3. We had a rather interesting week, of it, - didn't we?” - </p> - <p> - Sampson was surprised to find that he rather liked the good-humoured - twinkle in Wilks's eyes. He had thoroughly disapproved of him up to this - instant. Now he appeared as a mild, pleasant-voiced young man with a far - from vindictive eye and a singularly engaging smile. Departing from his - rôle as prosecutor, Wilks succeeded in becoming an uncommonly decent - fellow. - </p> - <p> - “Interesting, to say the least,” replied Sampson. - </p> - <p> - Wilks had coffee with them, and a cigar. - </p> - <p> - “I must say, Mr. Sampson, that you jurors had something out of the - ordinary to contend with. There isn't the remotest doubt that old - Hildebrand is guilty, and yet there was a wave of sympathy for him that - extended to all of us, enveloped us, so to speak. At the outset, we were - disposed to go easy with him, realising that we had a dead open and shut - case against him. - </p> - <p> - “We awoke to our danger when the trial was half over. That is to say, we - awoke to the fact that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand was likely to upset the - whole pot of beans for us. You have no idea what we sometimes have to - contend with. There is nothing so difficult to fight against as the force - of feminine appeal. Men are simple things, you see. We boast about our - righteous strength of purpose, but along comes a gentle, frail bit of - womanhood and we find ourselves—well, up in the air! Miss Hildebrand - had a decidedly agreeable effect on all of us. It is only natural that she - should. We realised what it all meant to her, and I daresay there wasn't - one of us who relished the thought of hurting her. - </p> - <p> - “Her devotion was really quite beautiful,” observed Sampson, feeling that - he had to put himself on record. - </p> - <p> - “I understand how you jurors felt about her and, through her, about the - old man. The State is satisfied to let him off as you recommended. It is - more than likely that he was badly treated in those deals with Stevens and - Drew, and if he can rehabilitate himself I think we will have done well - not to oppose leniency. At any rate, his granddaughter has something to - rejoice over, even though she may have been shocked by your decision that - he is guilty.” - </p> - <p> - “What do you know about her, Mr. Wilks?” inquired Sampson. - </p> - <p> - “Nothing in particular. She is an orphan, as you know, and I understand - she has been residing with her grandfather in Switzerland. She returned to - this country with him at the time of his voluntary surrender three months - ago. His bail was fixed at twenty thousand dollars, and she tried to raise - it, but failed. She has been trying to sell his Bronx property, but, of - course, that sort of thing takes time. I understand that a deal is about - to be closed, however, thanks to her untiring efforts, and the old man may - realise handsomely after all. I suppose the Cornwallis Realty and - Investment Company will bring civil action to regain the fifty thousand - lost through his defection. If he is sensible he will restore the amount - and—well, that will be the end of it.” - </p> - <p> - “Why didn't he sell it long ago?” - </p> - <p> - “He couldn't very well manage it without coming to New York, and he was so - closely watched that he couldn't do that without running a very great - risk. Evidently she, believing absolutely in his innocence, induced him to - give himself up and have his name cleared of the stigma that was upon it. - This is mere conjecture, of course.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, she's a brick, at any rate,” said Sampson, with some enthusiasm. - </p> - <p> - Wilks smiled. “That verdict, at least, is universal. Justice, however, has - miscarried in more cases than I care to mention, simply because some - little woman proves herself to be a brick. No doubt you will recall any - number of such cases right here in New York. If we had had the remotest - idea what Miss Hildebrand was like, we would have put up a strenuous kick - against her sitting beside the prisoner where you all could see and be - seen. She made it hard for you to convict the old man, and she certainly - wormed the recommendation to the Court out of you. To tell you the truth, - we feared an acquittal. When the jury stayed out all night I said to - myself: 'We're licked, sure as shooting. 'The best we looked for was a - disagreement. I've been told that the first half dozen ballots stood - eleven to one for acquittal. So you see, I wasn't far off in my surmise. - It has taught me a lesson. There will be no more attractive, thoroughly - upsetting young ladies to cast spells over judge, jury, and lawyers if I - can help it. I hope you will pardon me for saying it, Mr. Sampson, but I - am firmly convinced if there had been no Miss Alexandra Hildebrand in the - case you gentlemen would have brought in your verdict in twenty minutes.” - </p> - <p> - “I suppose you know that I am the one who stood out against the eleven,” - said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - “I suspected as much. I don't mind saying that the State counted on you, - Mr. Sampson.” Sampson started. How was this? The State counted on him - also? Suddenly he flushed. - </p> - <p> - “I had a notion that Miss Hildebrand counted on me, Mr. Wilks.” - </p> - <p> - “She did,” said the lawyer. “I think she lost a little of her confidence, - however, as the trial progressed. She appeared to be devoting nearly all - of her energies to you. You, apparently, were the one who had to be - subdued, if you will forgive the term. She is the cleverest, shrewdest - young woman I've ever seen. She is the best judge of men that I've ever - encountered—far and away better than I or any one connected with our - office. When that jury was completed I realised, with a sort of shock, - that it was she who selected it. She made but one mistake—and that - was in you. There is where we were smarter than she. I knew that you would - do the right thing by us, in spite of your very palpable efforts to get - off. If there had been some one else in your place, Mr. Sampson, James - Hildebrand would have been acquitted.” - </p> - <p> - “Possibly,” said Sampson, with a sinking of the heart. He felt like a - Judas! She had made but one mistake, and it was fatal! - </p> - <p> - “As I was saying,” went on Wilks, blowing rings toward the ceiling, “women - play thunder with us sometimes. A friend of mine from Chicago dined with - me last night. He is in the State's Attorney's office out there and he's - down here on business. You ought to hear him on the subject of women - mixing up in criminal cases. He says it's fatal—if they're pretty - and appealing. Nine times out of ten they have more nerve, more character - and a good deal more intelligence than the average juryman, and Mr. Juror - is like wax in their hands. Take a case they had out there last fall—the - Brownley case—you read about it, perhaps. Young fellow from - Louisiana got into bad company in Chicago, and went all wrong. Gambled and - then had to rob his employers to get square with the world. His father and - sister came up from New Orleans and made a fight for him. They got the - best legal talent in town, and then little sister sat beside brother and - petted him from time to time. A cinch! The jury was out an hour. Not - guilty! See what I mean? And you remember the Paris case a year or two ago - when the detectives nabbed a couple of international card sharks and bunco - men after they had worked the Atlantic for two years straight without - being landed? French juries tried 'em separately. One of them got five - years and the other got off scot free. Why? Because his pretty young wife - turned up and—well, you know the French! Woman is lovely in her - place, but her place isn't in the court-room unless she favours the - prosecution.” - </p> - <p> - “They're like good-looking nurses,” said Sampson's friend. “They make a - chap forget everything else.” - </p> - <p> - “Same principle,” said Wilks. “Patients and juries are much the same. They - require careful nursing.” - </p> - <p> - Sampson was like a lost soul during the weeks that followed the trial. The - hundred and one distractions he sought in the feverish effort to drive - Alexandra Hildebrand out of his thoughts failed of their purpose. They - only left him more eager than before. He longed for a glimpse of her - adorable face, for a single look into her eyes, for the smile she had - promised as she rode away from him, for the sheer fragrance of her - unapproachable beauty. She filled his heart and brain, and she was lost to - him. - </p> - <p> - The most depressing fits of jealousy overtook him. He tried to reason with - himself. Why shouldn't she have a sweetheart? Why shouldn't she be in love - with some one? What else could he expect—in heaven's name, what - else? Of course there was one among all the hundreds who adored her that - she could adore in return. Still he was sick with jealousy. He hated even - the possibility that there was a man living who could claim her as his - own. - </p> - <p> - At the end of a month of resolute inactivity, he threw off all restraint - and inaugurated a determined though innocuous search for her. He made it - his business to stroll up and down Fifth Avenue during the fashionable - hours of the day, and so frantic were his efforts to discover her in the - shifting throngs that he always went home with a headache, bone-weary and - appetiteless. His alert, all-enveloping gaze swept the avenue from - Thirty-fourth Street to Fiftieth at least twice a day, and by night it - raked the theatres and restaurants with an assiduity that rendered him an - impossible companion for friends who were so unfortunate as to be involved - in his prowlings. His lack of concentration, except in one pursuit, was - woful. His friends were annoyed, and justly. No one likes inattention. - Half the time he didn't hear a word they were saying to him, and the other - half they were resentfully silent. - </p> - <p> - He invaded Altman's, McCreery's, Lord & Taylor's and the other big - shops, buying things that he did not want, and he entered no end of - fashionable millinery establishments—and once a prominent corset - concern—not for the sake of purchasing, of course, but always with - the manner of an irritated gentleman looking for an inconsiderate wife. - </p> - <p> - This determined effort to ferret out Miss Hildebrand was due to a report - from No. 7, on whom he called one day in regard to an electrical - disturbance in his apartment. No. 7 told him that No. 4, who was the - proprietor of a plumbing establishment in Amsterdam Avenue, had seen Miss - Hildebrand on top of a passing Fifth Avenue stage. By means of some - remarkable sprinting No. 4, fortunately an unmarried man, overtook the - stage at the corner above (Forty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue), and - climbed aboard. Just as he sat down, all out of breath, two seats behind - the young lady, she got off and entered Sloane's. No. 4 had a short - argument with the conductor about paying fare for a ride of two blocks, - but it was long enough to carry him to the corner above Sloane's, so that - when he got back to the big shop she was lost. - </p> - <p> - He was not discouraged. Saying that he was waiting for his wife he - continued to invest the approach to the elevators with such success that - after nearly an hour (and an hour as computed by plumbers is no small - matter) he was rewarded by the appearance of Miss Hildebrand. - </p> - <p> - Without notifying the floorwalkers that he couldn't wait any longer for - his wife, he made off after the young lady, leaving them to think, if they - thought at all, that his wife was a very beautiful person who had married - considerably beneath her station. Miss Hildebrand waited at the corner for - a stage. No. 4 already had squandered ten cents, but he didn't allow that - to stand in the way of further adventure. He had his dime ready when the - 'bus came along—in fact, he had two dimes ready, for it was his - secret hope that she would recognise him. But alas! There was room for but - one more passenger, and he was left standing on the curb, while she went - rattling up the avenue in what he reckoned to be the swiftest 'bus in the - service. - </p> - <p> - Sampson's deductions were clear. She wouldn't be shopping at Sloane's - unless she was buying furnishings of some sort for a house, and it was - reasonable to suppose that the house was somewhere within reach of the - stage line route. No. 4 had failed to note, however, whether she took a - Riverside Drive or a Fifth Avenue stage. Although Sampson was not in need - of a plumber's services, he looked up No. 4 and had him send men around to - inspect the drain in the kitchen sink. It cost him nearly twelve dollars - to have a five minutes' profitless interview with the master-plumber. - </p> - <p> - It was at this time that he began his pilgrimages up and down Fifth - Avenue, and it was also about this time that he acknowledged himself to be - a drivelling, silly, sentimental idiot—worse even than the drooping - No. 7. - </p> - <p> - In the course of his investigations he dropped in to see No. 8 at the hat - store; he talked insurance with No. 11 (and forever afterward had it - talked with him, despite all the pains he took to stop it); he ordered a - suit of clothes at the tailor shop of No. 6; and he even went so far as to - consult No. 1 about having his piano tuned, a proceeding which called for - the immediate acquisition of an instrument. (It occurred to him, however, - that it might prove to be money well spent, for any man who is thinking of - getting married ought to have a grand piano if he can afford it.) - </p> - <p> - One day, overcoming an aversion, he sauntered up to a place in Broadway - and inquired for No. 12. To his amazement, No. 12 seemed a bit hazy as to - the existence of such a person as Miss Hildebrand. It was some time before - the fellow could call her to mind, and then only when the trial was - mentioned. - </p> - <p> - “Ah, yes,” said he, rapping his brow soundly, “I get you now. The pretty - little thing we saw at the trial. Lord, man, how long ago was that? Two - months? Well, say, I've seen a couple or three since then that make her - look like a last year's bird's-nest. I'm demonstrating for a little cutey - in the Follies just at present and she has Miss Hildebrand lashed to the - mast. Yellow hair and eyes as blue as—What's your hurry? I'm not - busy—got all kinds of time.” - </p> - <p> - But Sampson “walked out on him,” raging inwardly. It was all he could do - to conquer an impulse to kick No. 12. Comparing Alexandra Hildebrand with - a “little cutey in the Follies”! And forgetting her, too! Unspeakable! - </p> - <p> - He discovered James Hildebrand a day or two later. The old man was living - in a small hotel just off Broadway, in the upper Forties. An actor friend - of Sampson's was living in the same hotel, and it was through him that he - learned that Hildebrand had been stopping there for nearly two months, - quite alone. A surprisingly pretty young woman had called to see him on - two or three occasions. According to Sampson's informant, the old - gentleman had just concluded a real estate deal running into the hundreds - of thousands and was soon to return to Europe. This was most regrettable, - lamented the actor, for he couldn't remember ever having seen a prettier - girl than Hildebrand's visitor—who, he had found out at the desk, - was a relative of some description. - </p> - <p> - A simple process would have been to interview old Mr. Hildebrand, but - Sampson's pride and good-breeding proved sufficiently strong and steadfast - in the crisis. He held himself aloof. - </p> - <p> - A week later he saw Mr. Hildebrand off on one of the trans-Atlantic - liners. Mr. Hildebrand was not aware of the fact that he was being seen - off by any one, however, and Sampson was quite positively certain that no - one else was there for the purpose. There was no sign of Alexandra. - </p> - <p> - He went abroad that summer.... Early in the autumn he was back in New - York, resolved to be a fool no longer. No doubt she had married the chap - she loved—and was living happily, contentedly in luxurious splendour - supplied by Sloane's—as long ago, no doubt, as the early spring it - may have happened. - </p> - <p> - His heart had once ached for her as an orphan, but all that would now be - altered if she had taken unto herself a husband. Somehow one ceases to be - an orphan the instant one marries. You never think of a fatherless and - motherless wife as an orphan. An orphan is some one you are expected to - feel sorry for. - </p> - <p> - He never had thought of himself as an orphan, although his father and - mother had been dead for years. No one ever had been sorry for him because - he was an orphan. What is it that supplies pity for one sex and not for - the other? - </p> - <p> - January found him in California. A year ago he had planned—Alas, his - thoughts were ever prone to leap backward to the events of a year ago—back - to the twentieth day of January. He would never forget it. On that day he - first looked upon the loveliest of all God's creatures. The year had not - dimmed his vision. He could see her still as plainly as on that memorable - January day when they “landed” him. - </p> - <p> - He wanted to see her once more, married or single, just to tell her that - it was conscience that caused him to fail her in her hour of need. He - wanted her to understand. He wanted her to believe that he couldn't help - being honest, and he wanted very much to hear her say that he did the only - thing an honourable gentleman could possibly do. - </p> - <p> - Wending his way northward, he came to San Francisco late in February, and - there fell into the open arms of several classmates whom he had not seen - since his college days. One of them was Jimmy Dorr, now a brilliant editor - and journalist. To him he related the story of the Hildebrand trial, and - the fruitless quest of the girl he still dreamed about. Jimmy was vastly - interested. He was a romanticist. His eyes glittered with excitement. - </p> - <p> - “By Jove, it's a corker!” he exclaimed, breathlessly. - </p> - <p> - “A corker?” repeated Sampson, staring. - </p> - <p> - “Corking idea for a novel, that's what I mean. Why, you couldn't beat it - if you sat down and thought day and night for ten years. Ideas, that's - what the novelists want. The only thing that has kept me from breaking - into the literary game is an absolute paucity of—ideas. And here you - are handing me one. I shall write a novel. I'll have you find her - imprisoned in a dungeon by the conniving grandparent—” - </p> - <p> - “Or by a rascally husband,” put in Sampson, gloomily. - </p> - <p> - Dorr became thoughtful. “By the way, we've been having a more or less - notable trial here for the past week and a half. Lot of interest in it all - over the country. Have you heard of the Rodriguez ease?” - </p> - <p> - “Not yet,” said Sampson, resignedly. “Fire away. I 'll listen.” - </p> - <p> - “The arguments to the jury will be concluded to-morrow morning and there - ought to be a verdict before night. How would you like to go around there - with me at ten o 'clock and hear the State's closing argument? I can - manage it easily, although it's hard to get tickets. In a word, it is the - most popular show in town. Standing room only. Come along, and I'll bet my - head you'll never forget the experience.” - </p> - <p> - “I hate a court-room,” said Sampson. - </p> - <p> - “Well, you won't hate this one. I've been dropping in every day for an - hour or so, and, by gad, it <i>is</i> interesting.” A faraway, dreamy look - came into Dorr's spectacled eyes. “Rodriguez is a wonderful character. You - see such chaps only in books and plays—seldom in plays, however, for - you couldn't find actors to look the part. He is a Spaniard, a native of - Mexico City, and as lofty as any grandee you'd find in old Granada itself. - Private detectives caught him in Tokio last summer, after a world-wide - search of three years. He is charged with forgery. Forged a deed to some - property in Berkeley and got away with the proceeds of the sale. He - stubbornly maintains that the deed was a bona-fide instrument, and is - fighting tooth and nail against the people who accuse him. I 'd like to - have you see him, Sampy.” - </p> - <p> - The next morning, a bit bored but conscious of a thrill of interest in - attending a trial in the capacity of spectator instead of talesman, - Sampson accompanied the editor to the court-room where the case of the - State vs. Victoriana Rodriguez was being heard. The corridors and - approaches were packed with people. A subdued buzz of excitement pervaded - the air. Every face in the throng revealed the ultimate of eagerness, each - body was charged with a muscular ambition to crowd past the obstructing - bodies before it. Sampson had never witnessed anything like this before. - He demurred. - </p> - <p> - “See here, Jimmy, I refuse to surge with a mob like this. Good-bye, old - man. See you—” - </p> - <p> - But Dorr conducted him to the private entrance to the judge's chambers, - and a few minutes later into the crowded court-room. They found places - behind the row of reporters and stood with their backs to the wall. - </p> - <p> - The jury was in the box, awaiting the opening of court. Sampson surveyed - them with some interest. They were a youngish lot of men and, to his way - of thinking, about as far from intelligent as the average New York jury. - They looked dazed, bewildered and distinctly uncomfortable. He knew how - they were feeling—no one knew better than he! - </p> - <p> - The prisoner entered, followed by his counsel, and took his seat. Sampson - favoured Dorr with a smile of derision. Rodriguez was a most ordinary - looking fellow—swarthy, unimposing and at least sixty years of age. - He was not at all Sampson's conception of a Spanish grandee. Certainly he - was not the sort of chap an author would put into a book with the - expectation of having his readers accept him as a hero. - </p> - <p> - “Good Lord, Jimmy, is <i>that</i> the marvellous character you've been - talking about!” whispered the New Yorker. “Why, he's just a plain, - ordinary greaser. Nothing lofty about him.” - </p> - <p> - But Jimmy didn't hear. He was gazing in rapt eagerness over the heads of - the seated throng outside the railing. Sampson leaned forward and - whispered something to the reporter from Dorr's paper. He repeated the - remark, receiving no response the first time. The young fellow's reply, - when it came, was what Sampson, from his vast experience in law courts, - summed up as “totally irrelevant and not pertinent to the case.” - </p> - <p> - Somewhat annoyed, he turned to Jimmy Dorr. That gentleman's gaze was - fixed, so Sampson followed it. A young woman had taken the seat beside the - prisoner. He could not see her face, but something told him that it was - attractive—and then he was suddenly interested in the way her dark - hair grew about her neck and ears. Dorr was whispering: - </p> - <p> - “She's the most wonderful thing you ever laid eyes on, Sampy. Wait till - you get a good peek at her face. You'll forget your old Miss Hill-obeans. - She landed here about a month ago, straight from Spain, where she has been - in a convent since she was fourteen. Doesn't speak a word of English—not - a syllable, the reporters say. She—Hey! Sh! What the devil's the - matter with you!” - </p> - <p> - Sampson had uttered a very audible exclamation. He was staring at her with - widespread, glazed, unbelieving eyes. She had turned to favour the - reporters with a wistful, shy, entrancing “good morning” smile, and he - looked once more upon the face he had never forgotten and would never - forget. - </p> - <p> - “My God!” he whispered, grasping Dorr's arm in a grip that caused his - friend to wince. “Why, it's—Not a word of English! A month ago! Out - of a convent!” He was babbling weakly. His brain was not working. - </p> - <p> - “Is it too hot in here for you, old man!” whispered Dorr, alarmed. “Shall - we get out! You look as though—” - </p> - <p> - “Who is she!” gasped Sampson. - </p> - <p> - Dorr looked triumphant. “I thought she'd bowl you over. But, my Lord, I - didn't dream she'd give you such a jolt as this. The whole damned bunch of - us has gone mad over her. She's old Rodriguez's daughter—the - Senorita Isabella Consuelo Maria Rodriguez.” - </p> - <h3> - THE END - </h3> - <div style="height: 6em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Light that Lies, by George Barr McCutcheon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT THAT LIES *** - -***** This file should be named 54098-h.htm or 54098-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/9/54098/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Light that Lies, by George Barr McCutcheon
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-Title: The Light that Lies
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-Author: George Barr McCutcheon
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-Release Date: February 3, 2017 [EBook #54098]
-Last Updated: March 12, 2018
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT THAT LIES ***
-
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-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
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-</pre>
-
- <div style="height: 8em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h1>
- THE LIGHT THAT LIES
- </h1>
- <h2>
- By George Barr McCutcheon
- </h2>
- <h4>
- The McClure Publications. Inc.
- </h4>
- <h3>
- 1916
- </h3>
- <h4>
- The Dodd Mead And Company, Inc.
- </h4>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0010.jpg" alt="0010 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0010.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0011.jpg" alt="0011 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0011.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- <b>CONTENTS</b>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER I
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">S</span>ampson had been
- uncommonly successful in evading jury service. By some hook or crook he
- always had managed to “get off,” and he had begun to regard his trips down
- to General or Special Sessions—coming with monotonous regularity
- about three times a year—as interruptions instead of annoyances.
- Wise men advised him to serve and get it over with for the time being, but
- he had been so steadfastly resourceful in confining his jury service to
- brief and uneventful “appearances,” and to occasional examinations as to
- his fitness to serve as a juror, that he preferred to trust to his
- smartness rather than to their wisdom. Others suggested that he get on the
- “sheriff's jury,” a quaintly distinguished method of serving the
- commonwealth in that the members perform their duty as citizens in such a
- luxurious and expensive way that they never appear in the newspapers as
- “twelve good men and true” but as contributors to somewhat compulsory
- festivities in which justice is done to the inner man alone. But Sampson,
- though rich, abhored the sheriff's jury. He preferred to invent excuses
- rather than to have them thrust upon him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Having escaped service on half-a-dozen murder trials by shrewd and
- original responses to important questions by counsel for one side or the
- other—(it really didn't matter to Sampson which side it was so long
- as he saw the loophole)—he found himself at last in the awkward
- position of having exhausted all reasonable excuses, and was obliged to
- confess one day in court that he had reconsidered his views in regard to
- capital punishment. This confession resulted, of course, in his name being
- dropped from the “special panel,” for the jury commissioner did not want
- any man in that august body who couldn't see his way clear to taking the
- life of another. He “got off” once on the ground that he was quite certain
- he could not convict on circumstantial evidence, despite the assurance of
- learned experts that it is the <i>best</i> evidence of all, and he escaped
- another time because he did not consider insanity a defence in homicidal
- cases.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then they drew him for Special Sessions and eventually for the humiliating
- lower courts, the result being that his resourcefulness was under a
- constant and ever increasing strain. Where once he had experienced a
- rather pleasing interest in “getting off” in important cases, he now found
- himself very hard put to escape service in the most trifling of criminal
- trials.
- </p>
- <p>
- He began to complain bitterly of the injustice to himself, an honest,
- upright citizen who was obliged to live in a constant state of
- apprehension. He felt like a hunted animal. He was no sooner safely out of
- one case when he was called for another.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was all wrong. Why should he be hounded like this when the city was
- full of men eager to earn two dollars a day and who would not in the least
- mind sitting cross-legged and idle all day long in a jury box—snoozing
- perhaps—in order to do their duty as citizens? Moreover, there were
- men who actually <i>needed</i> the money, and there were lots of them who
- were quite as honest as the prisoners on trial or even the witnesses who
- testified.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was quite sure that if he ever was sworn in as a juror, his entire
- sympathy would be with the prisoner at the bar, for he would have a fellow
- feeling for the unhappy wretch who also was there because he couldn't help
- it. The jury system was all wrong, claimed Sampson. For example, said he,
- a man is supposed to be tried by twelve of his peers. That being the case,
- a ruffian from the lower East Side should be tried by his moral and mental
- equals and not by his superiors. By the same argument, a brainy,
- intelligent bank or railway president, an editor, or a college professor,
- should not be tried by twelve incompetent though perfectly honest
- window-washers. Any way you looked at it, the jury system was all wrong.
- The more Sampson thought about it the more fully convinced was he that
- something ought to be done about it.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had been obliged to miss two weddings, a private-car jaunt to Aiken,
- one of the Harvard-Yale football matches, the docking of the <i>Olympic</i>
- when she carried at least one precious passenger, the sailing of the <i>Cedric</i>
- when she carried an equally precious but more exacting object of interest,
- a chance to meet the Princess Pat, and a lot of other things that he
- wouldn't have missed for anything in the world notwithstanding the fact
- that he couldn't remember, off hand, just what they were. Suffice it to
- say, this miserable business of “getting off” juries kept Sampson so
- occupied that he found it extremely difficult to get on with anything
- else.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was above trying to “fix” any one. Other men, he knew, had some one
- downtown who could get them off with a word to the proper person, and
- others were of sufficient importance politically to make it impossible for
- them to be in contempt of court. That's what he called “fixing things.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Shortly after the holidays he was served with a notice to appear and be
- examined as to his fitness to serve as juror in the case of the State vs.
- James W. Hildebrand. Now, he had made all his arrangements for a trip to
- California. In fact, he planned to leave New York on the twenty-first of
- January, and here he was being called into court on the twentieth.
- Something told him that the presiding justice was sure to be one of those
- who had witnessed one or more of his escapes from service on previous
- occasions, and that the honourable gentleman in the long black gown would
- smile sadly and shake his head if he protested that he was obliged to get
- off because he had to go to California for his health. The stupidest judge
- on earth would know at a glance that Sampson didn't have to go anywhere
- for his health. He really had more of it than was good for him.
- </p>
- <p>
- If he hadn't been so healthy he might have relished an occasional
- fortnight of indolence in a drowsy, stuffy, little court-room with
- absolutely nothing to do but to look at the clock and wonder, with the
- rest of the jurors, how on earth the judge contrived to wake up from a
- sound sleep whenever a point came up for decision and always to settle it
- so firmly, so confidently, so promptly that even the lawyers were fooled
- into believing that he had been awake all the time.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson entered the little court-room at 9:50 o'clock on the morning of
- the twentieth.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was never to forget the morning of the twentieth.
- </p>
- <p>
- Fifteen or twenty uneasy, sour-faced men, of all ages, sizes and condition
- sat outside the railing, trying to look unconcerned. They couldn't fool
- him. He knew what they were and he knew that in the soul of each lurked
- the selfish, cruel prayer that twelve men would be snatched from among
- them and stuffed into the jury box to stay before the clerk could draw his
- own dreaded name from the little box at his elbow.
- </p>
- <p>
- Other men came in and shuffled into chairs. The deputy clerk of the court
- emerged from somewhere and began fussing with the papers on his desk.
- Every man there envied him. He had a nice job, and he looked as though he
- rather liked being connected with an inhuman enterprise. He was immune. He
- was like the man who already has had smallpox. Lazy court attendants in
- well-worn uniforms ambled about freely. They too were envied. They were
- thoroughly court-broken. A couple of blithe, alert looking young men from
- the district attorney's office came and, with their hands in their
- pockets, stared blandly at the waiting group, very much as the judges at a
- live-stock show stare at the prize pigs, sheep and cattle. They seemed to
- be appraising the supply on hand and, to judge by their manner, they were
- not at all favourably impressed with the material. Indeed, they looked
- unmistakably annoyed. It was bad enough to have to select a jury in any
- event, but to have to select one from <i>this</i> collection of
- ignoramuses was—well, it was <i>too</i> much!
- </p>
- <p>
- The hour hand on the clock said ten o'clock, but everybody was watching
- the minute hand. It had to touch twelve before anything, could happen.
- Then the judge would steal out of his lair and mount the bench, while
- every one stood and listened to the unintelligible barking of the
- attendant who began with something that sounded suspiciously like
- “Oy-yoy!” notwithstanding the fact that he was an Irish and not a Jewish
- comedian.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two uninteresting, anxious-eyed, middle-aged men, who looked a trifle
- scared and uncertain as to their right to be there, appeared suddenly
- inside the railing, and no one doubted for an instant that they were the
- defendant's lawyers. Sampson always had wondered why the men from the
- district attorney's office were so confident, so cocky, and so spruce
- looking while their opponents invariably appeared to be a seedy, harassed
- lot, somewhat furtive in their movements and usually labouring under the
- strain of an inward shyness that caused a greasy polish of perspiration to
- spread over their countenances.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was to find that these timid, incompetent looking individuals had
- every reason in the world to be perspiring even so early in the
- proceedings. They turned out to be what is known in rhetorical circles as
- “fire-eaters” The judge took his seat and the clerk at once called the
- case of the State vs. James W. Hildebrand. Sampson speculated. What had
- Hildebrand done to get himself into a mess of this sort? Was it grand or
- petit larceny, or was it house-breaking, entering, safe-cracking, or—Two
- burly attendants came up the side aisle and between them walked a gaunt,
- grey, stooped old man, his smooth shaven face blanched by weeks of sunless
- existence.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson had expected to see a sullen-faced, slouching young fellow, shaved
- and brushed and combed into an unnatural state of comeliness for the
- purpose of hoodwinking the jury into the belief that his life was as clean
- as his cheek. He could not deny himself a stare of incredulity on
- beholding this well-dressed, even ascetic looking man who strode
- haltingly, almost timidly through the little gate and sank into the chair
- designated by his counsel. Once seated, he barely glanced at his lawyers,
- and then allowed his eyes to fall as if shame was the drawing power.
- Somehow, in that instant, Sampson experienced the sudden conviction that
- this man James W. Hildebrand was no ordinary person, for it was borne in
- upon him that he despised the men who were employed to defend him. It was
- as if he were more ashamed of being seen with them than he was of being
- haled into a court of justice charged with crime.
- </p>
- <p>
- The assistant district attorney in charge of the case addressed the
- waiting talesmen, briefly outlining the case against the defendant, and
- for the first time in his experience Sampson listened with a show of
- interest.
- </p>
- <p>
- James W. Hildebrand was charged with embezzlement. Judging by the efforts
- of his counsel to have the case set over for at least ten days and the
- Court's refusal to grant a delay, together with certain significant
- observations as to the time that would probably be required to produce and
- present the evidence—a week or more—Sampson realised that this
- was a case of considerable magnitude. He racked his brain in the futile
- effort to recall any mention of it in the newspapers. It was his practice
- to read every line of the criminal news printed, for this was the only
- means he had of justifying the declaration that he had formed an opinion.
- Nothing escaped him—or at least he thought so—and yet here was
- a case, evidently important, that had slipped through without having made
- the slightest impression on him. It was most disturbing. This should not
- have happened.
- </p>
- <p>
- His heart sank as he thought of the California reservations uptown. He was
- expected to take up the transportation and Pullman that very afternoon.
- </p>
- <p>
- The old man—he was seventy—was accused of having
- misappropriated something like fifty thousand dollars of the funds
- belonging to a real-estate and investment concern in which he was not only
- a partner but also its secretary and treasurer. The alleged crime had been
- committed some five years prior to the day on which he was brought to
- trial.
- </p>
- <p>
- After having evaded capture for four years and a half by secluding himself
- in Europe, he voluntarily had returned to the States, giving himself up to
- the authorities. Sampson abused himself secretly for having allowed such a
- theatric incident as this to get by without notice on his part. Other
- prospective jurors sitting nearby appeared to know all about the case, for
- he caught sundry whispered comments that enlightened him considerably. He
- realised that he had been singularly and criminally negligent.
- </p>
- <p>
- A protracted and confidential confab took place between the Court and the
- counsel for both sides. Every juror there hoped that they were discussing
- some secret and imperative reason for indefinitely postponing the case
- after all—or, perhaps, better than that, the prisoner was going to
- plead guilty and save all of them!
- </p>
- <p>
- Finally the little group before the bench broke up and one of the
- attorneys for Hildebrand approached the rail and held open the gate. A
- woman entered and took a seat beside the prisoner. Sampson, with scant
- interest in the woman herself—except to note that she was slender
- and quite smartly attired—was at once aware of a surprising
- politeness and deference on the part of the transmogrified lawyers, both
- of whom smirked and scraped and beamed with what they evidently intended
- to be gallantry.
- </p>
- <p>
- The attorneys for the state regarded the lady with a very direct interest,
- and smiled upon her, not condescendingly or derisively as is their wont,
- but with unmistakable pleasure. A close observer would have detected a
- somewhat significant attentiveness on the part of the justice, a
- middle-aged gentleman whose business it was to look severe and ungenial.
- He gave his iron-grey moustache a tender twist at each end and placed an
- elbow on the desk in front of him, revealing by that act that he was as
- human as any one else.
- </p>
- <p>
- I have neglected to state that Sampson was thirty, smooth-faced,
- good-looking, a consistent member of an athletic club and a Harvard man
- who had won two H's and a <i>cum laude</i> with equal ease. You will
- discover later on that he was unmarried.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was the seventeenth talesman called. Two jurors had been secured. The
- other fourteen had been challenged for cause and, for the life of him, he
- couldn't see why. They all looked pretty satisfactory to him. He garnered
- a little hope for himself in the profligate waste of good material. If he
- could sustain his customary look of intelligence there was a splendid
- chance that he too would be rejected.
- </p>
- <p>
- It seemed to him that the attendant in announcing his name and place “of
- residence after the oath vociferated with unusual vehemence. Never before
- had he heard his name uttered with such amazing gusto.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have heard the statement concerning the charge against the defendant,
- Mr. Sampson,” said the assistant district attorney, taking his stand
- directly in front of him. “Before going any farther, I will ask if you
- know of any reason why you cannot act as a juror in this case?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson had always been honest in his responses. He never had lied in
- order to “get off.” Subterfuges and tricks, yes—but never deliberate
- falsehood.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,” he answered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you heard of this case before?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,” admitted Sampson, distinctly mortified.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you have formed no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the
- defendant?”
- </p>
-<p>
- “No.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you acquainted with the defendant, James W. Hildebrand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you had any business dealings with either of his counsel, Mr. Abrams
- or Mr. O'Brien?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you acquainted with either of his former partners, the gentlemen who
- are to appear as witnesses against him, Thomas Stevens and John L. Drew?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's face brightened. “I know a John Drew,” he said. The lawyer shook
- his head and smiled. “But he's not in the loan business,” he added.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter of this
- defendant? The lady sitting beside him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0029.jpg" alt="0029 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0029.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- For the first time, Sampson directed his attention to the woman. His
- glance, instead of being casual and perfunctory, as he had expected it
- would be, developed into a prolonged stare that left him shy and confused.
- She was looking into his eyes, calmly, seriously, and, he thought, a bit
- speculatively, as if she were estimating his mental displacement. As a
- matter of fact, she was merely detaching him from the others who had gone
- before. He had the strange, uncomfortable feeling that he was being
- appraised by a most uncompromising judge. His stare was not due to
- resentment on his part because of her cool inspection. It was the result
- of suddenly being confronted by the loveliest girl he had ever seen—unquestionably
- the loveliest.
- </p>
- <p>
- It seemed an affront to this beautiful, clear-eyed creature to say that he
- did not know her. To say it to her face, too—with her eyes upon him—why,
- it was incomprehensibly rude and ungallant. He ought to have been spared
- this unnecessary humiliation, he thought. How would she feel when he
- deliberately, coldly insulted her by uttering a bald, harsh negative to
- the question that had been asked?
- </p>
- <p>
- “I—I am afraid not,” he managed to qualify, hoping for a slight
- smile of acknowledgement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would you be inclined to favour the defendant because of his age, Mr.
- Sampson?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson hesitated. Here was his chance. He looked again at Miss Alexandra
- Hildebrand. She was still regarding him coolly, impersonally. After all,
- he was nothing to her but a juror—just an ordinary, unwholesome
- specimen undergoing examination. If he was rejected, he would pass out of
- her mind on the instant and never again would he be permitted to enter. He
- felt very small and inconsequential.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, naturally, I suppose, I should be influenced to some extent by his
- age,” he replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You would, however, keep your mind open to the evidence in the case and
- render a verdict according to that evidence? You would not discharge him
- solely because he is an old man?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don't know where my sympathy would carry me,” said Sampson evasively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see. Well, if you should be accepted by both sides as a juror to sit in
- this case you would at least try to divide your sympathy as fairly as
- possible between us, wouldn't you? You would not deny the long-suffering
- State of New York a share of your sympathy, would you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Miss Hildebrand, at that juncture, touched her grandfather on the arm and
- whispered something in his ear. For the first time the old man looked at
- the talesman in the chair. Sampson was acutely aware of a sudden flash of
- interest in the prisoner's eyes. Moreover, the young woman was regarding
- him rather less impersonally.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson assumed an air of extreme hauteur “If I am accepted by both sides
- in this case, my sympathy will be, first of all, with myself, I am not
- eager to serve. I shall, however, do my best to render an intelligent,
- just verdict.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “According to the evidence and the law as laid down by the honourable
- Court?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “According to the circumstances as I see them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That is not a direct answer to my question, Mr. Sampson.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am not willing to say that I will be governed entirely by the evidence.
- I can only say, that I should render what I consider to be a just and
- reasonable verdict, depending on circumstances.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ahem! You are quite sure that you could render a just and reasonable
- verdict?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And yet you admit that you cannot answer for your sympathies?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you cross-examining me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not at all, Mr. Sampson,” responded the other smoothly. “I am merely
- trying to ascertain whether you are competent to serve as a juror in this
- case.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was saying to himself: “Thank the Lord, he will never accept me.”
- Aloud he said: “Pray, overlook my stupidity and proceed—”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Court leaned forward and tapped smartly on the desk with a lead
- pencil. “We are wasting time, gentlemen. Please omit the persiflage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you ever served as a juror in a criminal case, Mr. Sampson?”
- inquired the lawyer. Sampson had turned pink under the Court's mild irony.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,” he answered, and glanced at Miss Hildebrand, expecting to see a
- gleam of amusement in her eyes. She was regarding him quite solemnly,
- however.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are a Harvard man, I believe, Mr. Sampson?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If it should be shown that this defendant is also a Harvard graduate,
- would that fact serve to prejudice you in his favour?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly not,” said Sampson, warmly. This was <i>too</i> much!
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is your business, Mr. Sampson?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am connected with the Sampson Steamship and Navigation Company.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In what capacity?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am its president.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are, I believe, the son of the late Peter Stuyvesant Sampson, founder
- of the company?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The only son?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And heir,” said Sampson curtly. “I inherited my job, if that's what you
- are trying to get at. And it is more or less of an honorary position, if
- that will help you any. I am president of the company because I happen to
- own all but five shares of the capital stock, and not because I really
- want to hold, or because I am in any sense competent to fill the office.
- Now you know all that there is to know about my connection with the
- company.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks,” said the assistant district attorney, drily. “And now, Mr.
- Sampson, could you sit as a juror in this case and give, on your honour as
- a man, despite a very natural sympathy that may be aroused for this aged
- defendant, a verdict in favour of the State if it is proved to you beyond
- all doubt that he is guilty as charged?”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was but one answer that Sampson could give. He felt exceedingly
- sorry for himself. “Yes.” Then he made haste to qualify: “Provided, as I
- said before, that there are no extenuating circumstances.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But you would not deliberately discharge a guilty man just because you
- happened to feel sorry for him, would you? We, as individuals, are all
- sorry for the person we are obliged to punish, Mr. Sampson. But the law is
- never sorry. The mere fact that one man disregards the law is no reason
- why the rest of us should do the same, is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course not,” said Sampson, feeling himself in a trap.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The State asks no more of you than you would, as a citizen, ask of the
- State, Mr. Sampson. The fact that this defendant, after five years,
- voluntarily surrendered himself to the authorities—would that have
- any effect on your feelings?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, it would. I should certainly take that into consideration. As a
- citizen, I could not ask more of any man than that he surrender himself to
- my State if it couldn't catch him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Court tapped with his pencil, and a raucous voice from somewhere
- called for order.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you a married man, Mr. Sampson?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am not.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The State is satisfied,” said the assistant district attorney, and sat
- down.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson caught his breath. Satisfied? It meant that he was acceptable to
- the State! After all he had said, he was acceptable to the State. He could
- hardly believe his ears. Landed! Landed, that's what it meant. The defence
- would take him like a shot. A cold perspiration burst out all over him.
- And while he was still wondering how the district attorney could have
- entrusted the case to such an incompetent subordinate, counsel for the
- defence began to ply him with questions—perfunctory, ponderous
- questions that might have been omitted, for any one with half an eye could
- see that Sampson was doomed the instant the State said it was satisfied.
- </p>
- <p>
- His spirit was gone. He recognised the inevitable; in a dazed sort of way
- he answered the questions, usually in monosyllables and utterly without
- spunk. Miss Hildebrand was no longer resting her elbows on the table in
- front of her in an attitude of suspense. She was leaning comfortably back
- in her chair, her head cocked a little to one side, and she gazed serenely
- at the topmost pane of glass in the tall window behind the jury box. She
- appeared to be completely satisfied.
- </p>
- <p>
- He saw the two lawyers lean across the table in consultation with the
- prisoner and his granddaughter, their heads close together. They were
- discussing him as if he were the criminal in the case. Miss Hildebrand
- peered at him as she whispered something in her grandfather's ear, and
- then he caught a fleeting, though friendly smile in her eyes. He was
- reminded, in spite of his extreme discomfiture, that she was an amazingly
- pretty girl.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No challenge,” said the defendant's attorney, and Sampson was told to
- take seat No. 3 in the jury box.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Defendant, look upon the juror. Juror, look upon the defendant,” said the
- clerk, and with his hand on the Bible Sampson took the oath to render a
- true verdict according to the law and the evidence, all the while looking
- straight into the eyes of the gaunt old man who stood and looked at him
- wearily, drearily, as if from a distance that rendered his vision useless.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then Sampson sank awkwardly into the third seat, and sighed so profoundly
- that juror No. 2 chuckled.
- </p>
- <p>
- He certainly was in for it now.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER II
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>ou needn't pack,”
- said Sampson to his valet that evening. “I'm stuck.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stuck, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Caught on the jury, Turple. Landed at last. But,” he sighed, “I've given
- 'em a good run though, haven't I?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You 'ave, sir. I dare say you will like it 'owever, now that you've been
- stuck, as you say. My father, when he was alive, was very fond of serving
- on the juries, sir. He was constantly being 'ad up in small cases, and it
- was 'is greatest ham—ambition to get a whack at a good 'orrifying
- murder trial. I 'ope as 'ow you 'ave been stuck on a murder case, sir. In
- England we—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It isn't a murder case. Merely embezzlement. But I must not discuss the
- case, Turple, not even with you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a pity, sir. You usually consult me about any think that—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Call up the New York Central office at Thirtieth Street and cancel my
- reservations, and lay out a blue serge suit for to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn't it a bit coolish to be wearing a serge—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Those court-rooms are frightfully close, Turple. A blue serge.''
- </p>
- <p>
- “You look better in a blue serge than anythink you—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is comfort, not looks, that I'm after, Turple,” explained Sampson, who
- perhaps lied.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sets a man off as no other goods—I beg pardon, sir. I will call up
- the booking office at once, sir. The blue serge, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The blue serge,” said Sampson, brightly. “Anythink else, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson grew facetious. “You might give me a shirt and a collar and a
- necktie, Turple.” The man bowed gravely and retreated. His master, moved
- by an increasing exhilaration, called after him: “I might also suggest a
- pair of shoes and—well, you know what else I'm in the habit of
- wearing in the daytime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Turple, knowing his master's feelings about jury service, was very much
- amazed later on to hear him whistling cheerily as he made preparations for
- a dinner engagement. The mere thought of a jury, heretofore, had created
- in his master a mood provocative of blasphemy, and here he was—actually
- “landed,” as he had put it himself—whistling as gaily as a meadow
- lark. Turple shook his head, completely puzzled, for he also knew his
- master to be a most abstemious man. In all his three years of association
- with his employer he had never known him to take a nip during the daytime,
- and that is what Turple called being most abstemious.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning Sampson, instead of hanging back aggrievedly as was his
- wont, was in the court-room bright and early—(half an hour ahead of
- time, in fact)—and he never looked fresher, handsomer or more full
- of the joy of living. He passed the time of day with the attendants,
- chatted agreeably with No. 2, who also came in early, and subsequently
- listened politely to the worries of No. 5, a chubby-faced bachelor who
- couldn't for the life of him understand why the deuce manicurers persisted
- in cutting the cuticle after having been warned not to do so.
- </p>
- <p>
- He rather pitied No. 7, who appeared in a cutaway coat a trifle too small
- for his person and a very high collar that attracted a great deal of
- attention from its wearer if from no one else. No. 7, he recalled, had
- been quite indifferently garbed the day before: a shiny, well-worn sack
- coat, trousers that had not been pressed since the day they left the
- department store, and a “turndown” collar that had been through the
- “mangle” no less than a hundred times—and should have been in one at
- that instant instead of around his neck. No. 7 was also minus a three
- days' growth of beard.
- </p>
- <p>
- Everybody seemed bright and cheerful. There were still two more jurors to
- be secured when court convened. Never in all his experience had Sampson
- seen a judge on the bench who behaved so beautifully as this one. He
- looked as though he never had had a grouch in his life, and as if he
- really enjoyed listening to the same old questions over and over again.
- Occasionally he interjected a question or an interpolation that must have
- been witty, for he graciously permitted his hearers to laugh with him; and
- at no time was he cross or domineering. His hair, carefully brushed, was
- sleekly plastered into an enduring neatness, and his moustache was never
- so smartly trimmed and twisted as it was on this sprightly morning. One
- might have been led into believing that it was not winter but early
- spring.
- </p>
- <p>
- The deputy clerk had taken too much pains in shaving himself that morning,
- for in his desire to scrape closely in the laudable effort to curb the
- sandy growth on his cheek and chin, he had managed to do something that
- called for the application of a long strip of pale pink court-plaster
- immediately in front of his left ear. He was particular about turning the
- other cheek, however, so that unless you walked completely around him you
- wouldn't have noticed the court-plaster. The attendants, noted for their
- untidiness, were perceptibly spruced up. If any one of them was chewing
- tobacco, he managed to disguise the fact.
- </p>
- <p>
- The only person in the court-room, aside from the prisoner himself, who
- had not changed for the better over night, was Miss Alexandra Hildebrand.
- She could not have changed for the better if she had tried. When she took
- her seat beside her grandfather, she was attired as on the day before. Her
- cool, appraising eyes swept the jury box. More than one occupant of that
- despised pen felt conscious of his sartorial rehabilitation. A faint smile
- appeared at the corners of her adorable mouth. Even Sampson, the proud and
- elegant Sampson, wondered what there was for her to smile at.
- </p>
- <p>
- Being utterly disinterested in the composition of the jury of which he was
- an integral part, Sampson paid not the slightest attention to the process
- of rounding out the even dozen. While counsel struggled over the selection
- of talesmen to fill the two vacant places, he devoted himself to the study
- of Miss Hildebrand. This study was necessarily of a surreptitious
- character, and was interrupted from time to time by the divergence of the
- young lady's attention from the men who were being examined to those
- already accepted. At such times, Sampson shifted his gaze quickly. In two
- instances he was not quite swift enough, and she caught him at it. He was
- very much annoyed with himself. Of course, she would put him in a class
- with the other members of the jury, and that was a distinction not to be
- coveted. They were very honest, reliable fellows, no doubt, but Heaven
- knows they were not well-bred. No well-bred man would stare at Miss
- Hildebrand as No. 4 was staring, and certainly No. 7 was the most
- unmannerly person he bad ever seen. The fellow sat with his mouth open
- half the time, his lips hanging limp in a fixed fatuous smile, bis gaze
- never wavering. Sampson took the trouble to dissect No. 7's visage—in
- some exasperation, it may be said. He found that he had a receding chin
- and prominent upper teeth. Just the sort of a fellow, thought Sampson, who
- was sure to consider himself attractive to women.
- </p>
- <p>
- Miss Hildebrand was twenty-four or -five, he concluded. She was neither
- tall nor short, nor was she what one would describe as fashionably
- emaciated. Indeed, she was singularly without angles of any description.
- Her hair was brown and naturally wavy—at least, so said Sampson,
- poor simpleton—and it grew about her neck and temples in a most
- alluring manner. Her eyes were clear and dark and amazingly intelligent.
- Sampson repented at once of the word intelligent, but he couldn't think of
- a satisfactory synonym. Intelligent, he reflected, is a word applied only
- to the optics of dumb brutes—such as dogs, foxes, raccoons and the
- like—and to homely young women with brains. Understanding—that
- was the word he meant to use—she had understanding eyes, and they
- were shaded by very long and beautiful lashes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her chin was firm and delicate, her mouth—well, it was a mouth that
- would bear watching, it had so many imperilling charms.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her nose? Sampson hadn't the faintest idea how to describe a nose. Noses,
- he maintained, are industrial or economic devices provided by nature for
- the sole purpose of harbouring colds, and are either lovely or horrid.
- There is no intermediate class in noses. You either have a nose that is
- fearfully noticeable or you have one that isn't. A noticeable nose is one
- that completely and adequately describes itself, sparing you the effort,
- while the other kind of a nose—such as Miss Hildebrand's—is
- one that you wouldn't see at all unless you made an especial business of
- it. That sort of a nose is simply a part of one's face. There are faces,
- on the other hand, as you know, that are merely a part of one's nose.
- </p>
- <p>
- His rather hasty analysis of yesterday was supported by the more
- deliberate observations of to-day. She was a cool-headed, discerning young
- woman, and not offensively clever as so many of her sex prove to be when
- it is revealed to them that they possess the power to concentrate the
- attention of men. Her interest in the proceedings was keen and extremely
- one-sided. She was not at all interested in the men who failed to come up
- to her notion of what a juror ought to be. It was always she who put the
- final stamp of approval on the jurors selected. Two or three times she
- unmistakably overcame the contentions of her grandfather's counsel, and
- men got into the box who, without her support, would have been challenged—and
- rightly, too, thought Sampson. No. 7 for instance. He certainly was not an
- ideal juror for the defendant, thought Sampson. And the fat little
- bachelor—why, he actually had admitted under oath that he knew the
- district attorney and a number of his assistants, and was a graduate of
- Yale. But Miss Hildebrand picked him as a satisfactory juror.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's reflections—or perhaps his ruminations—were brought
- to an end by the completion of the jury. The last man accepted was a
- callow young chap with eye-glasses, who confessed to being an automobile
- salesman.
- </p>
- <p>
- They were sworn immediately and then the senior counsel for the State
- arose and announced that he had no desire to keep the jury confined during
- the course of the trial; the State was satisfied to allow the members to
- go to their own homes over night if the defence had no objections.
- Promptly the attorneys for the defendant, evidently scenting something
- unusual, put their heads together and whispered. A moment later one of
- them got up and said that the defence would take the unusual course of
- asking that the jury be put in charge of bailiffs. He did not get very far
- in his remarks, however. Miss Hildebrand's eyes had swept the jury box
- from end to end. She observed the look of dismay that leaped into the
- faces of the entire dozen. Sampson had a queer notion that she looked at
- him longer than at the others, and that her gaze was rather penetrating.
- An instant later she was whispering in the ear of the second lawyer, and—well,
- they were all in conference again. After a period of uncertainty for the
- victims, the first lawyer, smiling benignly now, withdrew his motion to
- confine the jury, and graciously signified that the defence was ready to
- proceed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The first witness for the State was a Mr. Stevens. Sampson was sure from
- the beginning that he wasn't going to like Mr. Stevens. He was a prim,
- rather precious gentleman of forty-five, with a fond look in his eye and a
- way of putting the tips of his four fingers and two thumbs together that
- greatly enhanced the value of the aforesaid look. In addition to these
- mild charms of person, he had what Sampson always described as a “prissy”
- manner of speaking. No. 4 made a friend of Sampson by whispering—against
- the rules, and behind his hand, of course—that he'd like to “slap
- the witness on the wrist.” Sampson whispered back that he'd probably break
- his watch if he did.
- </p>
- <p>
- Anyhow, Mr. Stevens was recognised at once as the principal witness for
- the State. He was the head of the company that had suffered by the alleged
- peculations of Mr. Hildebrand. Ably assisted by the district attorney, the
- witness revealed the whole history of the Cornwallis Realty and Investment
- Company.
- </p>
- <p>
- James Hildebrand was its founder, some thirty years prior to his
- surreptitious retirement, and for the first twenty years of its existence
- he was its president. At the end of that period in the history of the
- thriving and honourable business, Mr. Stevens became an active and
- important member of the firm through the death of his father, who had long
- been associated with Mr. Hildebrand as a partner. The other partners were
- John L. Drew, Joseph Schoolcraft, Henry R. Kauffman and James Hildebrand,
- Jr., the son of the president. The business, according to Mr. Stevens, was
- then being conducted along “back number” lines. It became necessary and
- expedient to introduce fresh, vigorous, up-to-date methods in order to
- compete successfully with younger and more enterprising concerns. (On
- cross-examination, Mr. Stevens admitted that the company was not making
- money fast enough.) The defendant, it appears, was a conservative. He held
- out stubbornly for the old, obsolete methods, and, the concern being
- incorporated, it was the wisdom of the other members (Hildebrand, Jr.,
- dissenting) that a complete reorganisation be perfected. The witness was
- made president, Mr. Drew vice-president, and Mr. Hildebrand secretary and
- treasurer, without bond. His son withdrew from the company altogether,
- repairing to Colorado for residence, dying there three years later.
- </p>
- <p>
- The defendant, individually and apart from his holdings in the company,
- owned considerable real-estate on Manhattan Island. His income, aside from
- his salary and his share of profits in the business, was derived from
- rentals and leaseholds on these several pieces of property. Values in
- certain districts of New York fell off materially when business shifted
- from old established centres and wended its fickle way northward. Mr.
- Hildebrand was hard hit by the exodus. His investments became a burden
- instead of a help and ultimately he was obliged to make serious
- sacrifices. He sold his downtown property. The depreciation was
- deplorable, Mr. Stevens admitted.
- </p>
- <p>
- The former president of the company soon found himself in straitened
- circumstances. He was no longer well-to-do and prosperous; instead, he was
- confronted by conditions which made it extremely difficult for him to
- retain his considerable interest in the business. The company at this
- stage in the affairs of their secretary and treasurer, proffered help to
- him in what Mr. Stevens considered an extremely liberal way. It was
- proposed that Mr. Hildebrand sell out his interest in the company to the
- witness and his brother-in-law, Mr. Drew, they agreeing to take all of his
- stock at a figure little short of par, notwithstanding it was a very bad
- year—1907, to be precise.
- </p>
- <p>
- The defendant refused to sell. Subsequently he reconsidered, and they took
- over his stock, excepting five shares which he retained for obvious
- reasons, and he was paid in cash forty-four thousand dollars for the
- remaining forty shares. Mr. Stevens already had purchased, at a much
- higher price, the fifteen shares belonging to James Hildebrand, Jr. The
- defendant was to retain the position of secretary and treasurer at a fixed
- salary of six thousand dollars a year.
- </p>
- <p>
- In brief—although the district attorney was a long time in getting
- it all out of Mr. Stevens—it was not until 1908 that the bomb burst
- and the company awoke to the fact that its treasury was being, or to put
- it exactly, had been systematically robbed of a great many thousands of
- dollars. Experts were secretly put to work on the books and after several
- weeks they reported that at one time the total shortage had reached a
- figure in excess of ninety-five thousand dollars, but that this amount had
- been reduced by the restoration of approximately fifty thousand dollars
- during a period covering the eleven months immediately preceding the
- investigation. It was established beyond all question that the clerks and
- bookkeepers in the office were absolutely guiltless, and, to the profound
- distress of the directors, the detectives employed on the case declared in
- no uncertain terms that there was but one man who could explain the
- shortage. That man was the former president of this old and reliable
- concern, James W. Hildebrand.
- </p>
- <p>
- To avoid a scandal and also to spare if possible the man they all loved
- and respected, Mr. Stevens was authorised by the other directors to effect
- a compromise of some sort whereby the company might regain at least a
- portion of the funds on the promise not to prosecute. The defendant,
- however, had got wind of the discovery, and, to the utter dismay of his
- friends, fled like a thief in the night. Mr. Stevens did not have the
- chance to see him.
- </p>
- <p>
- The defalcation was not made public for several weeks. An effort was made
- to get in touch with the fugitive, in the hope that he could be induced to
- return without being subjected to open disgrace, but he had vanished so
- completely that at first it was feared he had made way with himself. He
- was at the time a widower, his wife having died many years before. His son
- James was the only child of that marriage, and he was living—or
- rather dying, in Colorado. Private detectives watched the home and the
- movements of the son for some weeks, hoping to obtain a clue to the old
- man's whereabouts.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, out of a clear sky, as it were, came letters to each of the
- stockholders, posted in Paris and written by the fugitive. In these
- letters he made the most unfair charges against the witness and against
- Mr. Drew. Without in any way attempting to explain, confess or express
- regret for his own defection, he horrified both Mr. Stevens and Mr. Drew
- with the staggering accusation that they had tricked him into selling
- certain downtown property at an outrageously low figure, when they knew at
- the time of the transaction that an insurance company had its eye on the
- property with the view to erecting two mammoth office buildings on the
- ground. Subsequent events, declared the writer, bore out his contention,
- for it was on record that his two partners did sell to the insurance
- company for nearly ten times the amount they had paid him for the
- property; and, moreover, at that very moment two large buildings were
- standing on the ground that had once been occupied by his ancient and
- insignificant six story structures.
- </p>
- <p>
- In so many words, this old defaulter (to use Mr. Stevens' surprisingly
- acid words) deliberately sought to discredit them in the eyes of their
- fellow-directors and stockholders. He accused them of foul methods and
- actually had the effrontery to warn all those interested in the business
- with them to be on their guard or they would be tricked as he had been.
- (Note: One of these letters, now five years old, was introduced in
- evidence as Exhibit A.)
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson afterwards found himself marvelling over the assistant district
- attorney's stupidity in introducing this particular bit of evidence. It
- was the cross-examination that opened his eyes to the atrocious mistake
- the State had made in volunteering the evidence touching upon the
- real-estate transaction.
- </p>
- <p>
- This extraordinary behaviour on the part of the defendant quite naturally
- irritated—(Mr. Stevens would not say infuriated, although Mr.
- O'Brien, on cross-examination, tried his level best to make him use the
- word)—both the witness and Mr. Drew, who felt that their honour had
- been vilely attacked. They had no difficulty in convincing their partners
- and other interested persons that the charge was ridiculous and made
- solely for the purpose of enlisting their sympathy in behalf of one they
- were now forced to describe as a cowardly criminal and no longer as a
- misguided unfortunate.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was then, and then only, that the witness and Mr. Drew took the matter
- before the Grand Jury and obtained the indictment against the defendant.
- </p>
- <p>
- Having covered the preliminary stages of the case pretty thoroughly, Mr.
- Stevens was required to tell all that he knew about the actual
- misappropriation of the funds. This he did with exceeding clarity and
- sorrow. However, despite his mildness, he did not leave a shred of Mr.
- Hildebrand's honour untouched; he had it in tatters by mid-afternoon and
- at four o'clock, when court adjourned, there wasn't anything left of it at
- all.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was gloomy that night. He did not go to sleep until long after
- two, although he went to bed at eleven—an unspeakably early hour for
- him. Things certainly looked black for the old man. If Stevens was to be
- believed, James Hildebrand was a most stupendous rascal. And yet, to look
- at him—to study his fine, gentle old face, his tired but unwavering
- eyes, his singularly unrepentant mien—one could hardly be blamed for
- doubting the man's capacity for doing the evil and reprehensible deed that
- was laid at his door. Sampson hated to think of him as guilty. More than
- that, he hated to have Miss Hildebrand think that he thought of him as
- guilty.
- </p>
- <p>
- He laid awake for three mortal hours trying to think what Miss Hildebrand
- meant by looking at him as she did from time to time. Not once but a score
- of times her gaze met bis—usually after a damaging reply by Mr.
- Stevens, or some objectionable question by the district attorney—and
- always she appeared to be intent on divining, if possible, just what its
- effect would be on him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her clear, soft eyes looked straight into his for an instant, and he saw
- something in them that he took for anxiety. That was all: just anxiety. It
- couldn't, of course, be anything else—and, why shouldn't she be
- anxious? Anybody would be under the circumstances. As a matter of fact, he
- was a little anxious himself, and certainly he was not as vitally
- interested as she in the welfare of James W. Hildebrand. But after
- thinking it all over again, he wasn't so sure that it was anxiety. He was
- forced to believe that she looked confident, almost serene—as if
- there was not the slightest doubt in her mind that her grandfather
- couldn't possibly have done a single one of the things that Mr. Stevens
- accused him of doing.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was perturbed. He couldn't divest himself of the suspicion that
- she expected him to also disbelieve every word that the witness uttered.
- It was most upsetting. He made up his mind that he would not look at her
- at all on the following day. But even that resolution didn't put him to
- sleep. Not at all. The more he thought of it, the wider awake he became.
- </p>
- <p>
- True, she had looked at the other jurors from time to time—especially
- at the rehabilitated No. 7, the rubicund bachelor and the spectacled No.
- 12. But he was sure that she did not look at them in the same way that she
- looked at him, nor as often, nor as long. It seemed to him that even when
- she looked at the others, she always allowed her glance to return to him
- for an instant after its somewhat indifferent tour of inspection. He
- remembered indulging in a rather close and critical inspection of the
- countenances of his fellow jurors at one time, during a lull in the
- proceedings, and that calculating but not unkind scrutiny convinced him of
- one thing: they certainly were not much to look at.
- </p>
- <p>
- The more he thought about it, the more it was revealed to him that the
- expression in her eyes was of a questioning, inquiring nature, as one who
- might be saying to herself: are these men—or this one, in particular—entirely
- devoid of intelligence?
- </p>
- <p>
- He was four minutes late in court the next morning, and it was all the
- fault of the too indulgent Turple. Turple, being a sagacious and faithful
- menial, respectfully neglected to disturb his master's slumber until after
- nine o'clock, and as a result Sampson had to go without his breakfast and
- almost without his shave in order to get down to the court-room in time.
- Turple received emphatic orders to rout him out of bed at seven o'clock
- every morning after that, no matter how bitterly he was abused for doing
- so.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was out of breath when he dropped into his chair in the jury box,
- expecting and dreading a rebuke from the Court for his tardiness. He
- glanced at Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, almost apologetically. It certainly
- was not relief that he felt on discovering that she was paying no
- attention whatever to him. She was engaged in consultation with the two
- lawyers and did not even so much as glance in his direction when he popped
- into his seat.
- </p>
- <p>
- The justice was still on his good behaviour. He bowed politely to Sampson
- and then looked at the clock.
- </p>
- <p>
- The cross-examination of Mr. Stevens began. Sampson was agreeably
- surprised by the astuteness, the suavity, the unexpected resourcefulness
- of Mr. O'Brien, who questioned the witness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You say, Mr. Stevens, that James Hildebrand, Jr., retired from the
- company about two years prior to the retirement of his father, the
- defendant. Why did the younger Hildebrand retire?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He was not satisfied with the reorganisation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn't it true that you and he were not on friendly terms and that he
- refused to serve with you—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We object!” interrupted the district attorney. “The question is not—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Objection overruled,” said the Court testily. “Finish your question, Mr.
- O'Brien, and then answer it, Mr. Witness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We were not on friendly terms,” admitted Mr. Stevens, who looked vaguely
- surprised on being addressed as “Mr. Witness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And he preferred to get out of the company rather than to serve on the
- board with you? Isn't that true?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I cannot answer that question. I can only say that he disposed of his
- interests and retired.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who purchased his stock?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Schoolcraft, one of the directors.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who owns that stock to-day?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When did you purchase it of Mr. Schoolcraft?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do not remember.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it a week, a month or a year after the original sale?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A couple of months, I suppose.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know what Mr. Schoolcraft paid for that stock?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do not.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You do know what you paid him for it, however?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I paid ninety-five and a fraction for it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Didn't you buy twenty shares of Mr. Schoolcraft's stock at the same
- time?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I did.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you pay ninety-five and a fraction for the Schoolcraft stock?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think I paid a little more than that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Didn't you pay one-twenty-seven for the Schoolcraft stock, Mr. Stevens?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I may have paid that much. Mr. Schoolcraft was not eager to sell. He held
- out for a stiff price.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He owned the Hildebrand stock, didn't he? Why should he sell fifteen
- shares at ninety-five and a fraction when he might just as well have had
- one-twenty-seven?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We object,” said the district attorney mildly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “State your objection,” said the Court. “Incompetent and irrevelant and
- having no possible bearing on the subject—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Withdraw the question,” said Mr. O'Brien suavely. “Did you not offer
- James Hildebrand, Jr., one-ten for his stock, Mr. Stevens, through his
- father? I say 'through his father' because you were not on speaking terms
- with the son?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think I did.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And didn't young Hildebrand send word that he wouldn't sell to you at any
- price?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Something of the sort. He was unreasonable.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You were, therefore, very much surprised and gratified to get it at
- ninety-five and a fraction from Mr. Schoolcraft later on, were you not?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was not surprised,” confessed Mr. Stevens, separating his finger tips
- for the first time, and shifting his position so that he could fold his
- arms comfortably. “Mr. Schoolcraft bought the stock for me. There was no
- secret about it. Hildebrand must have known that Schoolcraft was acting
- for me. I was fair enough to offer him one-ten. It is not my fault that he
- was eventually forced to sell fifteen points lower. I was not to blame
- because he was hard-pressed or pinched for ready money.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He was a sick man, wasn't he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “His health was poor.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He was ordered to Colorado by his physicians, wasn't he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I believe so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And wasn't that the real reason why he was forced to sell out, and not
- because he objected to the reorganisation?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We object,” said the Stated attorney. “Objection sustained.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson looked at Miss Hildebrand. Her gaze shifted from the Court to him
- almost in the same instant, and it seemed to express astonishment, even
- incredulity—as if she were saying (although he was sure she would
- not have expressed herself so vulgarly): “Well, can you beat that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now, Mr. Stevens,” went on Mr. O'Brien, after taking the usual
- exception, “you testified in direct examination that you and Mr. Drew
- purchased the defendant's Manhattan property. Did you buy it for the
- Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, or for yourselves as
- individuals?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We bought it for ourselves, as individuals.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The company was not interested in the transaction?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you first give the company an opportunity to buy, or did you—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I said it was a private transaction. We have interests outside of the
- company, sir—just as you have interests outside of your legal
- business,” said the witness tartly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see. Well, Mr. Hildebrand was pressed for money at the time of the
- transaction, I believe you have said. This was some time before the
- alleged defalcation took place, I understand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A year and a half prior to our discovery of the theft,” corrected Mr.
- Stevens.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you have testified that the so-called theft dated back even beyond
- that, at its beginning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So the expert accountants informed us. I have no means of knowing for
- myself.''
- </p>
- <p>
- “And it was your conclusion that he sold his property in the effort to
- rehabilitate himself before his misfortune was discovered?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I did not allude to it as a misfortune, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, then, his crime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have said that such was my conclusion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you again, state just what you paid for the property in question?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We paid two hundred thousand dollars for the two pieces.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cash?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Part in cash and part in an exchange for property in the Bronx. Sixty
- thousand in cash. The Bronx property is in the shape of building lots,
- valued at more than two hundred thousand dollars.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then or now?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then <i>and</i> now, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “State, if you know, does Mr. Hildebrand still own this Bronx property?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I believe it is in his name.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And it is still worth two hundred thousand dollars?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is worth a great deal more, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see. Now, Mr. Stevens, you have testified that this defendant wrote
- letters to the several members of your corporation, advising them that you
- and Mr. Drew had sold this downtown property to an insurance company for
- ten times as much as you paid him for it. Was Mr. Hildebrand uttering the
- truth when he made that assertion?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I obliged to answer that question, your Honour?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes. It is a very simple question,” said the Court drily, giving his
- moustache a gentle twist.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We received one million eight hundred thousand for the property,” said
- Mr. Stevens, defiantly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cash?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You didn't take any Bronx property in exchange?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly not.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How long was this after the time you purchased the property?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “About two years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn't it true that you were offered a million dollars for the property
- two weeks after you bought it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What has all this got to do with the case?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You can say yes or no, can't you, Mr. Stevens?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I shall say no, then. We were approached by persons representing the
- insurance company, but they made no bona fide offer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They asked you if a million would tempt you, though, didn't they?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don't remember.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In any event, you told them that you held the property at two millions,
- didn't you? That was your price?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was our price, yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you held off selling until they finally came to your terms—or
- nearly up to them—and then you sold?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We sold when we were ready, Mr. O'Brien.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see. Did you know before purchasing Mr. Hildebrand's property that this
- insurance company was desirous of buying it for building purposes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Object!” interposed the district attorney. “Objection sustained,” said
- the Court.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again Sampson, who was enjoying Mr. Stevens' discomfiture, looked at Miss
- Hildebrand. Simultaneously eleven other gentlemen sitting in two parallel
- rows, looked at her. She may have found it too difficult to look at all of
- them at once, so she confined her gaze to Sampson, who felt in duty hound—as
- a juror sworn to be fair and impartial—to look the other way as
- quickly as possible. He was sorry that he was obliged to do this, for
- there was something in her eyes that warranted quite a little time for
- analysis.
- </p>
- <p>
- The cross-examination proceeded. Sampson, resolutely directed his gaze out
- of its natural channel and devoted a great deal more attention to the
- witness than he felt that the witness deserved. He could not help feeling,
- however, that he was treating Miss Hildebrand with unnecessary
- boorishness. No doubt she looked at him from time to time, and she must
- have felt a little bit hurt, not to say offended—by his somewhat
- conspicuous indifference.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly he pricked up his ears. Mr. O'Brien had put to the witness a
- question that had something of a personal interest in it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “James Hildebrand, Jr., lost his wife in 1906, did he not, Mr. Stevens?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don't remember the year.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You remember when he was married, however, do you not?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can't say. I think it was in 1888.” The witness had turned a rather
- sickly green. He spoke with an effort.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The year after you and he graduated from college, wasn't it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We were in the class of '87.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are still unmarried, I believe, Mr. Stevens?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am unmarried, sir,” said the witness, sitting up a little straighter in
- the chair.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you know Miss Katherine Alexander before she was married to James
- Hildebrand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I did,” said Stevens, his face set.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson ventured a swift look at Alexandra Hildebrand. She was looking
- down at the table, her face half averted. It struck him as exceedingly
- brutal of Mr. O'Brien to drag this poor girl's dead mother into the public
- light of—But the lawyer asked another question.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You and young Mr. Hildebrand remained friends for a number of years after
- his marriage, did you not?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I always thought so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You never bore him any ill will?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you mean?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I withdraw the question. When was it that you and James Hildebrand, Jr.,
- ceased to be friends?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I—I don't know. I cannot go into that matter, Mr. O'Brien. I—”
- Mr. Stevens was visibly distressed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wasn't it in 1895 that you and he ceased to be friends?” persisted the
- lawyer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There was a terrible misunderstanding, I—that is, I should say—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In 1895, wasn't it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think so.” Mr. Stevens was perspiring. He looked beseechingly at the
- district attorney, who happened to be gazing pensively out of the window
- at the time.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You were a frequent and welcome visitor at young Hildebrand's home up to
- 1895, weren't you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was through no fault of mine that the friendship was broken off. Mr.
- Hildebrand behaved in a most outrageous manner toward me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn't it true, Mr. Stevens, that Mr. Hildebrand ordered you out of his
- house and told you that you were not to enter it again?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Hildebrand grievously misunderstood my—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Answer the question, please. Were you not ordered out of your friend's
- house?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I obliged, your Honour, to answer—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Answer yes or no,” said the Court, leaning forward and fixing the witness
- with a very severe stare. (Sampson regarded him as distinctly human, after
- all.) Miss Hildebrand's, eyes were still lowered. The aged prisoner,
- however, was looking a hole through the now miserable witness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He threatened to kill me,” exclaimed Stevens violently. “He acted like a
- crazy man over a perfectly innocent—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He ordered you out, didn't he?” came the deadly question.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Stevens swallowed hard. “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you maintain that he took that step because he misunderstood
- something or other, eh?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Most certainly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, what was it he misunderstood?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must decline to answer. I stand on my rights.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wasn't it because Mrs. Hildebrand complained to him that you had been—er—unnecessarily
- offensive to her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I decline to answer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In any event, you never entered his house again, and you never spoke to
- him or his wife after that. Isn't that true?'
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was justified in ignoring both of them. They insulted me most—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I understand, Mr. Stevens. We will drop the matter. I have no desire to
- cause you unnecessary pain. Now will you be good enough to state when you
- first noticed that there was something wrong with the books and accounts
- of the defendant? What first caused you to suspect that the funds were
- being juggled, as you put it in the direct examination?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Stevens had an easier time of it after that. He resumed his placid,
- kindly air, and maintained it to the end, although a keen observer might
- have observed an uneasy respect for Mr. O'Brien. He appeared to be
- relieved when the examination was concluded.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson went out to luncheon in a more cheerful frame of mind. It was
- quite clear to every one that Mr. Stevens was guilty, at least
- circumstantially, of conduct unbecoming a gentleman.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER III
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>wo days went by.
- Mr. Drew, Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. Kauffman were examined and
- cross-examined, and after them came the first of the expert accountants
- employed to go over the books. The situation continued to look black for
- Mr. Hildebrand—if anything a little blacker, for neither of the
- foregoing witnesses appeared to have been guilty of offending a lady to
- such an extent that her husband had to order him out of the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Drew received considerable unpleasant attention from the defendant's
- counsel, but he came through pretty comfortably. He admitted that he
- “cleaned up more than half a million” on the deal with the insurance
- company, and that he was the husband of Mr. Stevens' sister. He always had
- been sorry for Mr. Hildebrand, and even now was without animus. Mr.
- Schoolcraft acknowledged buying and selling the younger Hildebrand's
- shares, but was positive that there had been no collusion with Mr.
- Stevens.
- </p>
- <p>
- The case began to drag. Sampson lost interest. He attended strictly and no
- doubt diligently to the evidence, but when the expert accountants began to
- testify he found himself considerably at sea. He was not good at figures.
- They made him restless. The rest of the jury appeared to be similarly
- afflicted. Politeness alone kept them from yawning. Afterwards it was
- revealed that only one of the twelve was good at figures of any sort: the
- automobile salesman. He was a perfect marvel at statistics. He could tell
- you how many miles it is from New York to Oswego without even calculating,
- and he knew to a fraction the difference in the upkeep of all the known
- brands of automobiles in America. He made Sampson tired.
- </p>
- <p>
- Despite the damaging testimony that seemed surely to be strangling her
- grandfather's chances for escape, Miss Hildebrand revealed no sign of
- despair, or defeat. She came in each morning as serene as a May evening,
- and she left the court-room in the afternoon with a mien as untroubled as
- when she entered it. .
- </p>
- <p>
- There was quite a little flutter in the jury box—and outside of it,
- for that matter—when, on the third morning, she appeared in a
- complete change of costume—a greyish, modish sort of thing, Sampson
- would have told you—very smart and trig and comforting to the
- masculine eye. Sampson who knew more than any of his companions about such
- things, remarked (to himself, of course)—that her furs were
- chinchilla. Chinchilla is nothing if not convincing.
- </p>
- <p>
- It struck him, as he took her in—(she was standing, straight and
- slim, conversing with that beardless cub of an assistant-assistant
- district attorney)—that she was, if such a thing were possible, even
- lovelier than she was in the other gown. No doubt Sampson failed in his
- sense of proportion. She was undeniably lovelier today than yesterday, and
- she would continue to go on being prettier from day to day, no matter what
- manner of gown she wore.
- </p>
- <p>
- It also occurred to him that the young assistant-assistant was singularly
- unprofessional, if not actually fresh, in dragging her into a conversation
- that must have been distasteful to her. He wondered how she could smile so
- agreeably and so enchantingly over the stupid things the fellow was
- saying.
- </p>
- <p>
- Near the close of the noon recess he was constrained to reprove No. 7 for
- an act that might have created serious complications. He was standing in
- the rotunda finishing his third cigarette, when Miss Hildebrand approached
- on her way to the court-room. It had been his practice—and it was
- commendable—to refrain from staring at her on occasions such as
- this. A rather low order of intelligence prevented his fellow jurors from
- according her the same consideration. They stared without blinking until
- she disappeared from view.
- </p>
- <p>
- Now, No. 7 meant no harm, and yet he so far forgot himself that he doffed
- his hat to her as she passed. Fortunately she was not looking in his
- direction. As a matter of fact, she never even so much as noticed the nine
- or ten jurors who strewed her path. No. 7 was mistaken, there can be no
- doubt about that. He thought she looked at him instead of through him, and
- in his excitement he grabbed for his hat. Perhaps he hoped for a smile of
- recognition, and, if not that, a smile of amusement. He would have been
- grateful in either case.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don't do that,” whispered Sampson, gruffly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why not?” demanded No. 7, blinking his eyes. “No harm in being a
- gentleman, is there?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You must not be seen speaking to her—or to any one of the
- interested parties, for that matter. Do you want to have her accused of
- bribery or—er—complicity?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought she was going to speak to me,” stammered No. 7.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, she wasn't. She has too much sense for that. Good Lord, if counsel
- for the State saw you doing that sort of thing, they'd suspect something
- in a second.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Haven't you read about those jury-fixing scandals?” exclaimed the chubby
- bachelor, surprisingly red in the face. He had almost reached his own hat
- when Sampson spoke. Four or five of the others glowered upon the offending
- No. 7. “We can't even be seen bowing to anybody connected with the case.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I saw you throw your cigar away when she came in the door,” retorted No.
- 7, in some exasperation. “What did you do that for?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The chubby bachelor looked hurt. “Because I was through with it,” he said.
- “I don't hang onto 'em till they burn my lips, you know.” He deemed it
- advisable to resort to sarcasm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just remember that you are a juror,” advised No. 4 in a friendly tone.
- One might have thought he was compassionate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No harm done,” said No. 12. “She didn't even see you. I happen to know,
- because she was lookin' right at me when you took off your lid. You didn't
- notice me fiddling with my head-piece, did you? I guess not. She don't
- expect us to, and so I didn't make any crack. I—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I'd suggest,” said Sampson, with dignity, “that we devote a certain
- amount of respect to the ethics.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a little puzzling. Ethics is a word that calls for reflection.
- You've got to know just what it means, and after you know that much about
- it, you've got to fix its connection. Several of the gentlemen nodded
- profoundly, and two of them said: “Well, I should say so.” That night
- Sampson sat alone in front of his fireplace, his brow clouded by uneasy,
- disturbing thoughts. A woodfire crackled and simmered on the huge
- Florentine andirons. Turple, coming in to inquire if he would speak with
- Mrs. Fitzmorton on the telephone, was gruffly instructed to say that he
- was not at home, and when Turple returned with the word that Mrs.
- Fitzmorton was at home and still expecting him to dine at her house that
- evening, notwithstanding the fact that her guests and her dinner had been
- waiting for him since eight o'clock—and it was now 8:45—Sampson
- groaned so dismally that his valet was alarmed. The groan was succeeded,
- however, by a far from feeble expression of self-reproach, and a
- tremendous scurrying into overcoat and hat. He reached Mrs. Fitzmorton's
- house—it happened to be in the next block north—in less than
- three minutes, and he was so engagingly contrite, and so terribly
- good-looking, that she forgave him at once—which was more than the
- male members of the party did.
- </p>
- <p>
- They were all married men and they couldn't forgive anybody for being
- late. They were always being implored, either pathetically or peevishly,
- to stop complaining.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson had cause for worry. He had been slow in arriving at the truth,
- but that afternoon his conviction was established. Miss Hildebrand was
- depending on him to swing that jury!
- </p>
- <p>
- She was counting on his intelligence, his decision, his insight, his power
- to see beyond the supposed facts in the case as presented by the witnesses
- for the State. He was sure of it. There was nothing in the cool, frank
- scrutiny that she gave him from time to time that could be described by
- the most critical of minds as even suggestive of a purpose to influence
- him, and yet he was sure that she depended on his good sense for a
- solution of all that was going on.
- </p>
- <p>
- What disturbed him most was this: there was no distinction between the
- look she gave him when the State scored a point and when the condition was
- reversed. The same confident, reasoning expression was in her lovely eyes,
- as much as to say: “You must see through all this, No. 3—of course
- you must, or you couldn't look me in the eye as you do.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was as clear as day to him: she was certain that her grandfather was
- incapable of doing the thing he was charged with doing, and she could not
- see how a man of his (Sampson's) perception could possibly think
- otherwise.
- </p>
- <p>
- The revelation caused him to forget all about his dinner engagement. Also
- it caused him to pass an absolutely sleepless night. When he closed his
- eyes she still looked into them—always the same clear,
- understanding, undoubting gaze that he had come to know so well. When he
- lay with them wide open, staring into the darkness, the vision took more
- definite shape, so he closed them tightly again.
- </p>
- <p>
- Turple noticed his haggardness the next morning and was solicitous. Now,
- Turple, at his best, was not entitled to a stare of any description. But
- Sampson's rapt gaze was so prolonged and so singularly detached from the
- object upon which it rested—Turple's countenance—that the poor
- fellow was alarmed. He had never seen his master look just like that
- before. Later on, Sampson told him to go to the devil. Turple was
- relieved.
- </p>
- <p>
- The accountants, the detectives and two bookkeepers who formerly had
- worked under Mr. Hildebrand testified and then the State rested. Through
- it all the prisoner sat unmoved. Sampson wondered what was going on in the
- mind of that gaunt, fine-faced old man. What would be his answer to the
- damning evidence that stood arrayed against him? What <i>could</i> be his
- defence!
- </p>
- <p>
- He was sorry for him. He would have given a great deal to be able to rise
- now from his seat in the jury box and announce candidly that he did not
- feel that he could bring in a verdict against the old man, reminding the
- Court and the district attorney that he had said in the beginning that he
- could not answer for his sympathies.
- </p>
- <p>
- During the noon recess he took account of his fellow jurors. They were a
- glum, serious looking set of men. He knew where their sympathies lay and,
- like himself, they were depressed. The justice—even he—had
- lost much of the geniality that at the outset had warmed the atmosphere.
- He no longer smiled; no more did he exploit his wit, and as for his brisk
- moustache, it drooped.
- </p>
- <p>
- To the amazement of every one, the defendant's counsel announced that they
- had but one witness: the prisoner himself. And every one then knew that no
- matter what the prisoner said in his own defence, his testimony would be
- unsupported; it would have to stand alone against odds that were
- overwhelming.
- </p>
- <p>
- Slowly but surely it became evident to these more or less discerning men
- that James Hildebrand's plea would be for sympathy and not for
- vindication. By his own story of the dealings with Stevens and Drew and
- the others he hoped to reach their hearts and through their hearts a
- certain sense of justice that moves in all men's minds.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's heart sank. While he was convinced that the old man had been
- cruelly tricked by his business associates, that they had squeezed him dry
- in order to profit by his misery, that Stevens at least was actuated by a
- personal grudge which found relief in crushing the father of the man he
- hated, and that the others may have been innocently or pusillanimously
- influenced by the designs of this one man who sought control, there still
- remained the fact that Hildebrand, according to the evidence, had violated
- the law and was a subject for punishment—if not for correction, as
- the prison reformers would have it in these days. In no way could the old
- man's act be legally or morally justified. Sampson, after hearing the
- announcement of his counsel, realised that he would have a very unpleasant
- duty to perform, and he knew that he was going to hate himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had never spoken a word to Alexandra Hildebrand; he had not even heard
- the sound of her voice—her conversation with counsel was carried on
- in whispers or in subdued tones—And yet he was in love with her! He
- was the victim of a glorious enchantment.
- </p>
- <p>
- And he knew that No. 7 was in love with her—foolishly in love with
- her; and so was the once supercilious No. 12; and the chubby bachelor; and
- No. 9 who wanted to stay off the jury because he had to get married in
- three weeks; and No. 8 who had two sons in the high school, one daughter
- in Altman's and two wives in the cemetery; and the sombre-faced No. 1; and
- all the rest of them! No. 2, who chewed gum resoundingly, no longer
- chewed. His jaws were silenced. He had an impression that Miss Hildebrand
- disapproved of gum-chewing, so he stopped. More than this, no man could
- sacrifice.
- </p>
- <p>
- The spruce young men from the district attorney's office were visibly
- affected—(they really were quite sickening, thought Sampson); and
- the deputy clerk, the court-room bailiffs, and the stripling who carried
- messages from one given point to another with incredible speed, now that
- he had something to keep him moving.
- </p>
- <p>
- All of them, in a manner of speaking, were in love with her. And she was
- not in love with any one of them. There could be no doubt about that. They
- meant absolutely nothing to her.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson wondered if she had a sweetheart, if there was some one with whom
- she was in love, if those dear lips—and he sighed bleakly. He hated,
- with unexampled venom, this purely suppositious male who harassed him from
- morning till night. Common-sense told him that she must have a sweetheart.
- It was inconceivable that she shouldn't possess the most natural thing in
- the world. She just couldn't help having one. What sort of a fellow was
- he? Of course, he didn't deserve her; that was clear enough, assuming that
- the fellow actually existed. In his present frame of mind, Sampson could
- think of only one man in the world who might possibly be deserving of her.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nevertheless, he felt that he was behaving in a silly, amateurish manner,
- falling in love with her like this. It was to be expected of ignorant,
- common louts such as No. 7—a very ordinary jackass!—and the
- other ten men in the box, to say nothing of the suddenly adolescent yet
- middle-aged horde outside. It was just the sort of thing that they would
- be certain to do. They were a fatuous—but there he stopped, scowling
- within himself. What right had he to call these other men fools? He was no
- better than they. Indeed, he was worse, for he always had believed himself
- to be supremely above such nonsense as this. They made no pretentions.
- They fell in love with her just as they would have fallen in love with any
- pretty girl—and, Heaven knows, pretty girls are always being fallen
- in love with. But that he, the unimpressionable, experienced Sampson,
- should lose his heart—and head—over a girl who had never
- spoken a word to him, whom he had never seen until six days before, and
- who doubtless would go out of his life completely the instant the trial
- was over—why, it ought to have been excruciatingly funny. But it
- wasn't funny.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was very far from funny. Putting one's self in a class with No. 7 and
- No. 12 and the rest of them was certainly not Sampson's idea of something
- to laugh at. So he scowled ominously every time he chanced to think of any
- one of them—which happened only when Miss Hildebrand deigned to look
- at that particular individual.
- </p>
- <p>
- And he would have to send her beloved grandfather to the penitentiary. He
- would have to hurt her; he would have to bring pain and despair and, worse
- than these, astonishment to her beautiful eyes. He knew that he would be
- haunted for the rest of his life by the look she would give him when the
- verdict was announced.
- </p>
- <p>
- James Hildebrand went <i>on</i> the stand on the afternoon of the sixth
- day. A curious hush settled over the court-room. Men shifted in their
- chairs and then slumped down dejectedly, as if oppressed by the utter
- futility of the tale he would have to tell. Alexandra Hildebrand alone was
- bright-eyed and eager. Her lips were slightly parted as the old man, grey
- and erect, took the oath. She knew that the truth and nothing but the
- truth could fall from the lips of this gentle old grandfather of hers. Now
- they would have the truth! Now the case would crumble! She sent one swift,
- reassuring look through the jury box, and, for the first time, gazed into
- no man's eyes. She was puzzled. Every face was averted. Long afterwards
- she may have recalled the queer little chill that entered her heart, and
- stayed there for the briefest instant before passing.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0081.jpg" alt="0081 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0081.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- The defendant's voice was low, well-modulated, unemotional; his manner
- simple and yet impressive. Throughout the entire story that he told, his
- hearers listened with rapt attention.
- </p>
- <p>
- She sent one swift, reassuring look through the jury box.
- </p>
- <p>
- They were hoping that he could convince them. They watched his fine,
- distinguished face; they watched his sombre, unflinching eyes; they
- watched his steady hands as they rested on the arms of the chair; they
- watched him with fear in their hearts: the fear that he would falter and
- betray himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- He entered a simple, direct denial of the accusation made against him. His
- story was not a long one, and it would have to go uncorroborated, for, as
- he said himself, there was no one upon whom he could call for support. In
- the first place, he declared that he did not know that he was suspected of
- having robbed his partners until after many months had passed. He was
- aware of the investigation, but it had never entered his head that he
- could be the person under suspicion. He admitted taking a hurried and
- perhaps ill-advised departure from New York, and, in answer to a direct
- question from his own counsel, declared that he would never reveal his
- reason for leaving so secretly and in such haste.
- </p>
- <p>
- Facing the jury he stated calmly, deliberately and in a most resolute
- manner that he would go to prison for the rest of his days, that he would
- suffer lasting ignominy and disgrace, before he would publicly account for
- this action on his part.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he learned that a true bill had been returned against him by the
- Grand Jury, his first impulse was to return to his own country and fight
- the charge. Reflection convinced him that he was safe as long as he
- remained in his sequestered home in Switzerland, and he made up his mind
- to remain there and die with unlifted disgrace bearing down upon his good
- name rather than to return and face the probability of having to account
- for his absence. That, and that alone, was responsible for his decision to
- remain where he was. No one knew of his whereabouts, not even his own kith
- and kin. He was as safe as if he were already dead. Then, in solemn,
- unforgettable tones he declared that he had never taken a penny belonging
- to the Cornwallis Realty and Investment Company, that he was innocent of
- the charge brought against him, notwithstanding the fact that appearances
- were sufficient to convict.
- </p>
- <p>
- Time brought a change in him. He decided to return and face his accusers.
- He did not hope to convince them that he was innocent. He only wanted the
- opportunity to stand before the world and proclaim his innocence. He had
- no testimony to offer. He could only say that he had not done this
- monstrous thing of which he was accused.
- </p>
- <p>
- His testimony was given as a simple statement. He was allowed to tell his
- brief story without the interpolation of a single question by his counsel.
- Succinctly but with scant bitterness, he recited the story of his own
- unfair treatment at the hands of his former partners. He touched very
- casually upon that phase of the matter, as if it were of small consequence
- to him now. There were no harsh words for the men who had tricked him. One
- could not help having the feeling that he looked upon them as beneath his
- notice.
- </p>
- <p>
- He came home of his own free-will, after years of deliberation. He had
- been influenced by no one in this singular crisis. He was alone in the
- world. Except for his beloved granddaughter, there was no one else who
- could suffer through the result of this trial. He was prepared to accept
- the verdict of the twelve gentlemen who listened to him and who had
- listened to the testimony of others before him.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was not a sound in the court-room when he paused and drew a long
- deep breath. Every eye was upon him. Then, in a clear, resonant voice he
- said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen, I repeat that I am absolutely innocent of this charge. I ask
- you to believe me when I say this to you. If you do not believe me, I must
- be content to accept your judgment. I do not ask you to discredit the
- testimony of the men who have appeared against me. They have told all they
- know about the circumstances, I dare say, and I am convinced that they are
- honest men. They have only shown you that there was a colossal theft, that
- a large sum of money is unaccounted for in their business. They have not
- shown you, however, that I am the man who took it. They have only shown
- you that fifty thousand dollars is missing and unaccounted for. I admit I
- was responsible as treasurer of the company for the safe-keeping and
- guardianship of all that money. It disappeared. I can only say to you,
- gentlemen, that I did not take it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His voice was husky. There was a long pause, and then he settled back in
- his chair and turned wearily to the district attorney for
- crossexamination. It was then that the crowd knew he had finished his
- story. A deep breath came from the lips of every one, as if for many
- minutes it had been withheld.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's gaze involuntarily sought Alexandra Hildebrand's face. He did
- not mean to look at her. He could not resist the impulse, however. It was
- stronger than the adamantine resolution he had made. The light of triumph
- was in her glowing eyes, the flush of victory in the cheek. Her
- grandfather had cleared himself!
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's heart ached as it sank to depths from which it would never
- rebound. He turned hopelessly to the man in the witness chair, and waited
- for the district attorney to open his grilling cross-examination. He knew
- what the State would demand: why did he go away? Who replaced a large
- portion of the amount originally missing? Why did he sell his real-estate
- and his interest in the business? A hundred vital questions would be
- discharged at him, and he would—But, even as he delved in these
- dismal reflections, the district attorney arose in his place and said,
- clearly, distinctly—although no man at first believed his ears:
- </p>
- <p>
- “No questions, your Honour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was utter silence while this amazing announcement sank into the
- minds of the listeners. Counsel for the defence sat rigid and
- uncomprehending in their chairs; the justice leaned forward and stared;
- the prisoner's eyes widened for a second and then slowly closed. His chin
- fell; his attitude was one of acute humiliation. His story was not even
- worthy of notice! No questions! The acme of derision!
- </p>
- <p>
- Argument by counsel followed, the beardless “assistant-assistant” making
- the opening address to the jury. He floundered badly. Sampson derived some
- consolation from his futile, feeble arraignment. If the principal attorney
- for the State didn't do a great deal better than his singularly
- ineffectual confrere, there was still hope that the prisoner's counsel
- might by impassioned pleas stir the hearts of twelve men to mercy. The
- sympathies of all were—But even as he speculated on the probable
- lengths to which sympathy would carry his companions in arriving at a
- verdict, there suddenly flashed into his brain a vast illumination. James
- W. Hildebrand was not guilty! He was shielding some one else! His
- reluctance to tell why he left New York was explained. He could not tell
- without betraying a secret that must forever remain inviolate! Sampson
- breathed easier. Why, it was as plain as day to him! At least, it was
- something on which to base a conclusion. It might come in very handy too
- when the jury, in seclusion, began to grope for a favouring light. On
- reflection they would all agree that no witness actually had sworn that
- Hildebrand took the money. The evidence was decidedly circumstantial. By
- deduction alone was he guilty. On the other hand he had solemnly sworn
- that he didn't take it. And if he didn't take it, who did? That, said
- Sampson, was a very simple thing to answer: Some person unknown to the
- jury.
- </p>
- <p>
- Miss Hildebrand's spirits undoubtedly fell after that significant move of
- the State. There was an anxious, bewildered expression in her eyes, and a
- rather pathetic droop at the corners of her adorable mouth.
- </p>
- <p>
- The argument proceeded. Mr. O 'Brien made the closing speech for the
- defendant. Her spirits revived under the eloquent, fervent plea of the now
- brilliant Irishman. Sampson experienced a feeling of real affection for
- the earnest, though unkempt orator, who more than once brought tears
- almost to the surface of his eyes. He had great difficulty in suppressing
- a desire to blubber, and, when he saw her velvety eyes swimming in tears,
- he blew his nose so violently that he started an epidemic. No. 7, instead
- of blowing his nose, sniffed so repeatedly and so audibly that every one
- wished he'd blow, and have it over with.
- </p>
- <p>
- And when her eyes flashed with indignation during the uncalled-for tirade
- of the assistant district attorney, Sampson developed a bitter hatred for
- the man. When she appeared crushed and bewildered by the vicious attacks
- of the fellow, and shrank down in her chair like a frightened child,
- Sampson wanted to take her in his strong, comforting arms and—But,
- of course, there wasn't any use thinking about such a thing as that. It
- was not one of his duties as a juror.
- </p>
- <p>
- The case went to the jury at four o'clock that afternoon, after a somewhat
- protracted and, to Sampson, totally unenlightening charge by the justice,
- who advised the jurors that they must weigh the evidence as it was found
- and forbear allowing their sympathies to overcome their sense of justice.
- And so on and so forth. He made it very hard for the jurors. If they went
- entirely by the evidence, there wasn't anything left for them to do but to
- find the defendant guilty. Sampson had hoped for ameliorating suggestions
- from the learned justice on which he could base a sensible doubt as to the
- guilt of the defendant.
- </p>
- <p>
- But, in so many words, the justice announced that the preponderance of the
- evidence was in favour of the State. He told the jurors it was their duty
- and privilege to take the defendant's unsupported testimony for what they
- considered it to be worth and to place it in opposition to the evidence
- produced by the State. It was then their duty to render a fair and
- impartial verdict on the evidence.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the twelve men filed out of the box on their way to the jury room,
- Sampson shot a glance at Alexandra Hildebrand. He would not see her again
- until he returned to the seat he had occupied for six days, and after that
- she was to pass out of his life entirely. He hoped that she would not be
- there when he came back with his verdict. It would be much easier for him.
- He did not attempt to deceive himself any longer. If he lived up to his
- notions of honour and integrity, there was but one verdict he could
- return. (He wondered if his companions would prove to be as rigid in this
- respect as he.)
- </p>
- <p>
- She was looking in the opposite direction, her chin in her hand. She did
- not meet his unhappy gaze. He was grateful for that.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IV
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>hatcheb say your
- name was?” demanded No. 8, aggressively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I didn't say,” said Sampson coolly. “Call me No. 3, if you don't mind.
- I'll answer to it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, my name is Hooper, and that's what I want to be called.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I'm not going to call you anything,” said Sampson, turning away in his
- loftiest manner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I guess it's just as well you don't,” snorted No. 8, sticking out
- his chest, and it wasn't a very obtrusive chest at that. Putting it back
- to where it normally belonged was a much less arduous job for No. 8 than
- sticking it out. He couldn't have stuck it out at all if he hadn't
- possessed the backing of ten men.
- </p>
- <p>
- In short, the jury had been out for seven hours and the last ballot stood
- eleven to one for acquittal. Sampson was the unit.
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 12 tried diplomacy. “Say, now, fellers, let's get together on this
- thing. We don't get anywhere by knockin' Mr. Sampson. He's got a right to
- think as he pleases, same as we have. So let's be calm and try to get
- together.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God,” groaned No. 1, “can you beat that? Eleven of us have been
- together since five o'clock this afternoon, and you talk about being calm.
- Now, as foreman of this jury, I think I've got some right to be heard.
- You'll admit that, won't you, Mr. Sampson?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly. Up to this moment, I've had no difficulty in hearing you. It
- isn't necessary to shout, either. I'm not deaf.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, let me talk,” went on the foreman. “Keep still a minute, you
- fellers. Mr. Sampson is a gentleman. He's got as much sense, I suppose, as
- any of us. He—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks,” said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, here we are, 'leven to one. You admit that your sympathies are with
- the old man, same as the rest of us. You say you'd sooner be shot than to
- send him up. Well, now let's—wait a minute, Hooper! I'm talking.
- Let's talk this thing over as friends. I apologise for what I said just
- after supper. You've got a right to be pig-headed. You've got a legal
- right to hang this jury. But is it right and fair? If 'leven of us are
- willing to go on record as—er—as putting credence in the
- testimony of Mr. Hildebrand, I can't see why you're afraid to come in with
- us. Down in your soul you don't think he's guilty. You say that maybe he
- is shielding some one else. If that's the way you feel, why not come out
- like a man and give the poor old lad the benefit of the doubt? Lord knows
- I'm a hard man. I don't want to see any guilty man escape. I believe in
- putting 'em where they belong, and keeping 'em there. By Gosh, nobody
- dares to say to my face that I'm easy on criminals. I'm as hard as nails.
- My wife says I'm as hard as all get-out. And she ought to know. She's
- heard me talk about crime here in New York for nearly fifteen years, and
- she knows how I feel. Well, if I am willing to give the old man a chance,
- it ought to stand for something, oughtn't it? Hard as I am? Just reason it
- out for yourself, Mr. Sampson. Now, we all agree that the evidence against
- him is pretty strong. But it is circumstantial. You said so yourself in
- the beginning. It was you who said that it was circumstantial. You said—just
- a minute, Hooper! You said that while everything pointed to him as the
- guilty man, nobody actually swore that he saw him take the money. On the
- other hand, he swears he didn't take it. He ought to know, oughtn't he? If
- he knows who did take it, why that's his business. I don't believe in
- squealers. I wouldn't have any mercy on a man who turned State's evidence
- to save himself. Well, now, supposing old man Hildebrand knows who got
- away with the stuff. He is too much of a man to squeal. We oughtn't to
- send him up just because he won't squeal on the man—a friend, for
- all we know—even though it might save him from going to the pen. I
- leave it to you, Mr. Sampson: ought we?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course we oughtn't,” broke in the irrepressible Mr. Hooper. “Any damn'
- fool ought to see that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson eyed Mr. Hooper severely. “He's leaving it to me, Mr. Hooper; not
- to you.” He leaned a little closer, his eyes narrowing. “And, by the way,
- Mr. Hooper, before we go any farther, I should like to call your attention
- to several facts entirely separate and apart from this trial. It may
- interest you to know that I am six feet one in my stocking feet, that I
- weigh one hundred and ninety-five pounds, that I am just under thirty
- years of age, that I was one of the strongest men in college, and that up
- to a certain point I am, and always have been, one of the gentlest and
- best-natured individuals in the world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you mean by that?” blustered No. 8.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen!” admonished the foreman. The automobile salesman stopped
- picking his teeth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am merely trying to convince you, Mr. Hooper, that there is a great
- deal more to be said for circumstantial evidence than you might think. You
- might go on forever thinking that I am a meek, spineless saphead, and on
- the other hand you might have it proved to you that I'm not. Please
- reflect on what I have just said. It can't do you any harm to reflect, Mr.
- Hooper.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, piffle!” said Mr. Hooper, getting very red in the face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sic 'em!” said No. 12, under his breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Moreover,” went on Sampson, smiling—but mirthlessly—“I am
- assuming that your exercises as a hat salesman are not such as one gets in
- a first-class gymnasium. I hope you will pardon me for asking you to
- repeat the word you just uttered. I think it was 'piffle.'”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Hooper grinned. He didn't feel like grinning but something
- psychological told him to do it—and to do it as quickly as possible.
- “Aw, don't get sore, old man. Forget it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly,” said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- The foreman seized the opportunity. “There, now, that's better. At last we
- seem to Be getting together.”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 7 spoke up. “This might be a good time to take another ballot. It's
- 'leven minutes to one by my watch. We stand 'leven to one. That's a good
- sign. Say, do you know that's pretty darned smart, if I do say it myself
- who—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let's have Mr. Sampson's revised views on the subject and then take a
- final ballot for tonight,” said the foreman, wearily.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I haven't revised my views,” said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- There were several draughty sighs. “I've stated them five or six times
- to-night, and I see no reason to alter them now. Deeply as I regret it, I
- cannot conscientiously do anything but vote for a conviction.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, listen to me once more, Mr. Sampson,” began the chubby bachelor.
- “I'll try to set you straight in—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “See here,” said Sampson, arising and confronting his companions, “we may
- just as well look this thing squarely in the face. I don't want to send
- him up any more than the rest of you do. But I am going to be honest with
- myself in this matter if I have to stay out here for six months. We've
- heard all of the evidence. It seems pretty clear to all of us that the
- defendant was responsible for the loss of that money, even if he didn't
- take it himself. He was the treasurer of the concern. He had absolute
- charge of the funds. So far as we are concerned the State has made out its
- case. We are supposed to be impartial. We are supposed to render a verdict
- according to the law and the evidence. We cannot be governed by sympathy
- or conjecture.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When I left the court-room with the rest of you gentlemen to deliberate
- on a verdict, I will confess to you that I had in my heart a hope that you
- men would do just what you have done all along: vote for acquittal. When I
- came into this room seven hours ago, I was eager to vote just as you have
- voted. Then I began to reflect. I asked myself this question: how can I go
- back to that court-room and look the district attorney and the Court in
- the face and say that James Hildebrand is not guilty? If I did that,
- gentlemen, I am quite sure I could never look an honest man in the face
- again. We have all been carried away by our sympathies—I quite as
- much as the rest of you. I am convinced that there isn't a man among you
- who can stand up here and say, on his honour, that the evidence warrants
- the discharge of the defendant.
- </p>
- <p>
- “God knows I want to set him free. I am inclined to believe his story. He
- is not the sort of man who would steal. But, after all, we are bound, as
- honest men, to carry out the requirements of the law. The Court clearly
- stated the law in this case. Under the law, we can do nothing else but
- convict, gentlemen.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You, Mr. Foreman, have said that Hildebrand perhaps knows who took the
- money. You will admit that you are guessing at it, just as I am guessing.
- In his own testimony he was careful to say nothing that would lead us to
- believe that he knows the guilty man. The State definitely charges him
- with the crime and it produces evidence of an overwhelming nature to
- support the charge. Against this evidence is his simple statement that he
- did not take the money. He had already pleaded not guilty. Is it to be
- expected of him, therefore, that he should say anything else but that he
- did not rob his partners?
- </p>
- <p>
- “Only the criminals who are caught redhanded confess that they are guilty.
- The guiltiest of them go on the stand, as we all know, proclaiming their
- innocence, and, not one, but all of the men who go to the chair after
- making such pleas maintain with their last breath that they are innocent.
- Gentlemen, this is the bitterest hour in all my life. I want to set this
- old man free, but I cannot conscientiously do so. I took my oath to render
- a fair and impartial verdict. You all know what a fair and impartial
- verdict must be in this case. I shall have to vote, as I have voted from
- the beginning, for conviction.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat down. No. 7, who was directly opposite him across the long table,
- leaned forward suddenly with an odd expression in his eyes. Then he
- blinked them.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, by jingo, he's—he's crying!” he exclaimed, something akin to
- awe in his voice. “You got tears in your eyes, darn me if you haven't.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There were tears in Sampson's eyes. He lowered his head.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” he said gruffly; “and I am not ashamed of them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, come now, old feller,” said Mr. Hooper, uncomfortably; “don't make a
- scene. Pull yourself together. We're all friends here, and we're all good
- fellers. Don't—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I'm all right,” said Sampson coldly. “You see I'm not as hard-hearted as
- you thought. Now, gentlemen, I shall not attempt to argue with you. I
- shall not attempt to persuade you to look at the case from my point of
- view. As a matter of fact, I am rather well pleased with the attitude
- you've taken. The trouble is that it isn't going to help the poor old man.
- All we can do is to disagree, and that means he will have to be tried all
- over again, perhaps after many months of confinement. I should like to ask
- you—all of you—a few rather pointed questions, and I'd like to
- have square and fair answers from you. What do you say to that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fire away,” said the foreman.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It's one o'clock,” said No. 7. “Supposin' we wait till after breakfast.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gawd, I'm sleepy,” groaned No. 12.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,” said the foreman firmly; “let's hear what Mr. Sampson has to say.
- He's got a lot of good common sense and he won't ask foolish questions.
- They'll be important, believe me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They all settled hack in their chairs, wearily, drearily.
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right. Go ahead,” sighed the chubby bachelor. “I'll answer any
- question except 'what'll you have to drink,' and I'll answer that
- to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson hesitated. He was eyeing No. 7 in a retrospective sort of way. No.
- 7 shifted in his chair and succeeded in banishing the dreamy, faraway look
- in his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Assuming,” began the speaker, “that we were trying a low-browed,
- undershot ruffian instead of James W. Hildebrand, and the evidence against
- him was identical with that which we have been listening to, would you
- disregard it and accept his statement instead?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The case ain't parallel,” said No. 8. “His face wouldn't be James W.
- Hildebrand's, and you can bank a lot on a feller's face, Mr. Sampson.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The others said, “That's so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That establishes one fact very clearly, doesn't it? You all admit that
- with a different sort of a face and manner, Mr. Hildebrand might be as
- guilty as sin. Well, that point being settled, let me ask you another
- question. If Miss Alexandra Hildebrand, the granddaughter who has faced us
- for six working days, were a sour-visaged, watery-eyed damsel of uncertain
- age and devoid of what is commonly called sex-appeal, would your
- sympathies still be as happily placed as they are at present?”
- </p>
- <p>
- No man responded. Each one seemed willing to allow his neighbour to answer
- this perfectly unanswerable question.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You do not answer,” went on Sampson, “so I will put it in another form.
- Suppose that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand had not been there at all; suppose
- that she had not been where we could look at her for six short consecutive
- days—and consequently think of her for six long consecutive nights—or
- where she couldn't possibly have looked at us out of eyes that revealed
- the most holy trust in us—well, what then? I confess that Miss
- Hildebrand exercised a tremendous influence over me. Did she have the same
- effect upon you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Several of them cleared their throats, and then of one accord, as if moved
- by a single magnetic impulse, all of them said, in a loud, almost
- combative tone, “No!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The chubby bachelor qualified his negative. “She didn't have an undue
- influence, Mr. Sampson. Of course, I liked to look at her. She's easy to
- look at, you know.” He blushed as his eyes swept the group with what he
- intended to be defiance but was in reality embarrassment.
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 7: “I was awfully sorry for her. I guess everybody was.”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 9; “She's devoted to the old man. I like that in her. I tell you
- there's nothing finer than a young girl showing love and respect for—”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 12: “She's a square little scout. Take it from me, gents, she wasn't
- thinking of me as a juror when she happened to turn her lamps on me. I'm
- an old hand at the game. I can tell you a lot about women that you
- wouldn't guess in—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson: “We may, therefore, eliminate Miss Hildebrand as the pernicious
- force in our deliberations. She has nothing to do with our sense of
- justice. We would be voting, I take it, just as we have been all along if
- there were no such person as she. However, it occurs to me that each of
- you gentlemen may have had the same impression that I had during the
- trial. I had a feeling that Miss Hildebrand was depending on me to a
- tremendous extent. You may be sure that I do not charge her with duplicity—God
- knows I have the sincerest admiration for her—but I found it pretty
- difficult to meet her honest, serene, trustful eyes without experiencing a
- decided opinion that it was my bounden duty to acquit her grandfather.
- Anybody else feel that way about it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a long silence. Again each man seemed to be waiting for the
- other to break it. It was the foreman who spoke.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I'll be perfectly honest, for one,” he said. “I thought and still think
- that she looked upon me as a friendly juror. Nothing wrong about it, mind
- you—not a thing. I wouldn't have you think that she deliberately—er—ahem!
- What have you to say, No. 7?”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 7 blushed violently. “Not a word,” said he. “I profess to be a
- gentleman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 8 snorted. “Well, then, act like one. Mr. Sampson's a gentleman. He
- don't hesitate to say that he was—Say, Mr. Sampson, just what did
- you say?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I said, without the slightest desire to create a wrong impression, that I
- was deeply affected by the trust Miss Hildebrand appeared to place in me.
- She believes her grandfather to be innocent, and I think she believes that
- I agree with her. That's the long and the short of it.” No. 4 slammed his
- fist upon the table. “By thunder, that's just exactly the fix I'm in.
- Right from the start, I seemed to feel that I got on this jury because she
- liked the looks of me. Not the way you think, Hooper, but because I looked
- like a man who might give her grandfather a square trial and—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Hooper interrupted him hotly: “What do you mean by 'not the way you
- think'? That sounded kind of disparaging, my good man—disparaging to
- her. Explain yourself.” Sampson interposed. “I think we all understand
- each other, gentlemen. Miss Hildebrand practically picked the whole dozen
- of us. She inspected us as we came up, she sized us up, and she had the
- final word to say as to whether we were acceptable to the defence. She
- believed in us, or we wouldn't be here to-night. What makes it all the
- harder for us, gentlemen, individually and collectively, is that we
- believe in her. Now, what are we to do? Live up to her estimate of us, or
- live up to a prior estimate of ourselves?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, let's sleep over it,” said the foreman uneasily. “I guess we're all
- tired and—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I guess we won't sleep much,” broke in No. 7 miserably. “Damn' if you'll
- ever get me on a jury again. I'm a nervous man anyhow and now—I'm a
- wreck. I don't know what to do about this business.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If it were not for Miss Hildebrand, gentlemen, we'd all know what to do,”
- said Sampson. “Isn't that a fact?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you seem to have made up your mind,” said No. 8 gloomily. “I
- thought mine was made up, but, by gosh, I—I want to do what's right.
- I took my oath to—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will take a ballot before breakfast in the morning,” said No. 1
- decisively. “Now, let's sleep if we can.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They disposed themselves in chairs, stretched out their legs and—waited
- for an illuminating daybreak.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's decision was final. He would not stultify his honour. He would
- not be swayed by the sweetest emotion that ever had assailed him. Besides,
- he argued through the long, tedious hours before dawn, when all was said
- and done, what could Alexandra Hildebrand ever be to him? She would go out
- of his life the day that—
- </p>
- <p>
- But there he was at it again! Why couldn't he put her out of his thoughts?
- Why was he continually thinking of the day when he would see the last of
- her? And what a conceited fool he had been! She had been most impartial
- with her mute favours. Every man on the jury was figuratively and
- literally in the same boat with him. Each one of them believed as he
- believed: that he was the one special object of interest to her.
- </p>
- <p>
- But still—he was quite sure—she <i>had</i> communed with him a
- little more—was he justified in using the word?—intimately
- than with the others? Surely he could not be mistaken in his belief that
- she looked upon him as a trifle superior to—But some one was nudging
- him violently.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wake up, Mr. Sampson,” a voice was saying—a voice that was vaguely
- familiar. It was a coarse, unfeminine voice. “We're ready to take a ballot
- before we go out to breakfast. Want to wash up first or will you—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What time is it?” muttered Sampson, starting up from his chair. Was it
- the chair that creaked, or was it his bones? He was stiff and sore and
- horribly unwieldy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Half past seven,” said the foreman. Then Sampson recognised the voice
- that had interrupted his personal confession. Moreover, he recognised the
- unshaven countenance. It was really quite a shock, coming so closely
- upon... “You've been hitting it up pretty soundly. No. 7 says he didn't
- sleep a wink. Afraid to risk it, he says.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At eight o'clock an attendant rapped on the door and told them to get
- ready to go out to breakfast.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go away!” shouted the foreman. He was in the midst of an argument with
- No. 7 when the interruption came, and he was getting the better of it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I'm willing to go half way,” said No. 7 dreamily. “Hungry as I am, I'll
- go half way. I've got the darnedest headache on earth. If I had a cup of
- coffee maybe I'd—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you mean half way?” exploded Mr. Hooper. “You can't render a
- half-way verdict, can you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The ballot had just been taken. It stood eleven to one for conviction!
- This time No. 7 was the unit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,” said the dreamy No. 7, unoffended. “What I want to do is to make it
- as light for him as possible. Can't we find him guilty of embezzlement in
- the third degree or—” Sampson interrupted. He too wanted his coffee.
- “Let's have our breakfast. Afterwards we can discuss—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I want to settle it now,” roared Mr. Hooper. “It's all nonsense talking
- about breakfast while—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, then,” said Sampson, “suppose we agree to find him guilty as
- charged and recommend him to the mercy of the Court.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This was hailed with acclaim. Even No. 7, emerging temporarily from his
- mental siesta, agreed that that was “a corking idea.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Find him guilty,” he explained, satisfying himself at least, “and then
- ask the Court to discharge him. Maybe a little lecture would do him good.
- A few words of advice—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now, gentlemen,” broke in Sampson crisply, “since we have reached the
- conclusion that we are trying Mr. Hildebrand and not Miss Hildebrand,
- perhaps we would better have our coffee.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At ten o'clock the jury filed into the courtroom and took their places in
- the box. Each was conscious of what he was sure must look like a ten days'
- growth of beard, and each wore the stem, implacable look that is best
- described as “hang-dog.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A dozen pairs of eyes went on an uneasy journey in quest of an object of
- dread. She was not there. There were a dozen sighs of relief. Good! If
- they could only get it over with and escape before she appeared! What was
- all this delay about? They were ready with their verdict; why should they
- be kept waiting like this? No wonder men hated serving on juries.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Court came in and took his seat. He looked very stern and forbidding.
- He looked, thought Sampson, like a man who has been married a great many
- years and is interested only in his profession. A few days earlier he
- looked more or less like an unmarried man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen of the jury,” began the Clerk after the roll-call, “have you
- arrived at a verdict?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We have,” said No. 1, with an involuntary glance in the direction of the
- door.
- </p>
- <p>
- The verdict itself was clear and concise enough. “We, the jury, find the
- defendant, James W. Hildebrand, guilty as charged.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The old man's eyes fell. A quiver ran through his gaunt body. An instant
- later, however, he sat erect and faced his judges, and a queer,
- indescribable smile developed slowly at the corners of his mouth. Sampson
- was watching him closely. Afterwards he thought of this smile as an
- expression of supreme indulgence. He remembered feeling, at the moment,
- very cheap and small.
- </p>
- <p>
- Before the defendant's counsel could call for a poll of the jury, No. 1
- arose in his place and laboriously addressed the Court. He announced that
- the jury had a communication to make and asked if this was the proper time
- to present it. The Court signified his readiness to hear the
- communication, and No. 1, nervously extracting from his pocket a sheet of
- note paper, read the following recommendation:—“The jury, having
- decided in its deliberations that the defendant, James W. Hildebrand, is
- legally and morally guilty as charged in the indictment, craves the
- permission of this honourable Court to be allowed to submit a
- recommendation bearing upon the penalty to be inflicted as the result of
- the verdict agreed upon. We would respectfully urge the Court to exercise
- his prerogative and suspend sentence in the case of James W. Hildebrand.
- The evidence against him is sufficient to warrant conviction, but there
- are circumstances, we believe, which should operate to no small degree in
- his favour. His age, his former high standing among men, and his bearing
- during the course of this trial, commend him to us as worthy of this
- informal appeal to your Honour's mercy. This communication is offered
- regardless of our finding and is not meant to prejudice the verdict we
- have returned. In leaving the defendant in the hands of this Court, we
- humbly but earnestly petition your Honour to at least grant him the
- minimum penalty in the event that you do not see fit to act upon our
- suggestion to suspend sentence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The document, which was signed by the twelve jurors, had been prepared by
- Sampson, and it was his foresight that rendered it entirely within the
- law. He was smart enough not to incorporate it in the finding itself; it
- was a supplementary instrument which could be accepted or disregarded as
- the Court saw fit.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Court gazed rather fixedly at the sheet of paper which was passed to
- him by an attendant. His brow was ruffled. He pulled nervously at his
- moustache. At last, clearing his throat, he said, addressing the counsel
- for the defence:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen, do you wish to poll the jury?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. O 'Brien waived this formality. He and his partner seemed to be rather
- well pleased with the verdict. They eyed the Court anxiously, hopefully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Court will pronounce sentence on Friday,” announced the justice, his
- eye on the door. He acted very much like a man who was afraid of being
- caught in the act of perpetrating something decidedly reprehensible. “I
- wish to thank the jurors for the careful attention they have given the
- case and to compliment them on the verdict they have returned in the face
- of rather trying conditions. It speaks well for the integrity, the
- soundness of our jury system. I may add, gentlemen, that I shall very
- seriously consider the recommendation you have made. The prisoner is
- remanded until next Friday at ten o'clock.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Half an hour later Sampson found himself in the street. He had spent
- twenty minutes or more loitering about the halls of the Criminal Courts
- building, his eager gaze sweeping the throng that was forever changing. It
- searched remote corners and mounted quadruple stairways; it raked the
- balcony railings one, two and three flights up; it went down other steps
- toward the street-level floor. And all the while his own gaze was
- scouting, the anxious eyes of four other gentlemen were doing the same as
- his: No. 7, No. 8, No. 6 and No. 12. They were all looking for the trim,
- natty figure and the enchanting face of Miss Alexandra Hildebrand—vainly
- looking, for she was nowhere to be seen.
- </p>
- <p>
- And when Sampson found himself in the street—(a bitter gale was
- blowing)—he was attended by two gentlemen who justly might have been
- identified as his most intimate, bosom friends: the lovesick No. 7 and the
- predatory No. 12. They had him between them as they wended their way
- toward the Subway station at Worth Street, and they were smoking his
- cigars (because he <i>couldn't</i> smoke theirs, notwithstanding their
- divided hospitality)—and they were talking loudly against time.
- Sampson had the feeling that they were aiming to attach themselves to him
- for life.
- </p>
- <p>
- They accepted him as their guiding light, their mentor, their firm
- example. For all time they would look upon him as a leader of men, and
- they would be proud to speak of him to older friends as a new friend worth
- having, worth tying up to, so to say. They seemed only too ready to
- glorify him, and in doing so gloried in the fact that he was a top-lofty,
- superior sort of individual who looked down upon them with infinite though
- gentle scorn.
- </p>
- <p>
- Moreover, they thought, if they kept on the good side of Sampson they
- might reasonably expect to obtain an occasional glimpse of Miss Alexandra
- Hildebrand, for, with his keenness and determination, he was sure to
- pursue an advantage that both of them reluctantly conceded.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the Subway local No. 7 invited Sampson to have lunch with him. He
- suggested the Vanderbilt, but he wasn't sure whether he'd entertain in the
- main dining room or in the Della Robbia room. He seemed confused and
- uncertain about it. No. 12 boisterously intervened. He knew of a nice
- little place in Forty-second Street where you can get the best oysters in
- New York. He not only invited Sampson to go there. They clung to him,
- however, until they reached Times Square Station with him but
- magnanimously included No. 7, which was more than No. 7 had done for him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson declined. They clung to him, however, until they reached Times
- Square station. There he said good-bye to them as they left the kiosk.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0113.jpg" alt="0113 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0113.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- “Perhaps we may meet again,” he said pleasantly. No. 7 fumbled in his vest
- pocket and brought forth a soiled business card.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you ever need anything in the way of electric fixtures or repairing,
- remember me, Mr. Sampson,” he said. “Telephone and address as per card.
- Keep it, please. I am in business for myself. The Trans-Continental
- Electric Supply Emporium.'
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here's my card, Mr. Sampson,” said No. 12. “I'd like to come around and
- give you a little spiel on our new model some day soon. We're practically
- sold up as far as December, but I think I can sneak you in ahead—what
- say?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have an automobile, thank you. Two of them, in fact.” He mentioned the
- make of car that he owned. No. 12 was not disheartened.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You could have fifteen of our cars for the price you paid for yours—one
- for every other day in the month. Just bear that in mind. A brand new car
- every second day. Let me see: your address is—” He paused
- expectantly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Harvard Club will reach me any time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 12 started to write it down but paused in the middle of “Harvard” to
- grasp the extended hand of his new friend. “I fancy you can remember it
- without writing it down,” went on Sampson, smilingly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never trust to memory,” said No. 12 briskly. “This burg is full of clubs
- and—well, so long!”
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 7 was still troubled about luncheon. “I'm sorry you can't go to the
- Vanderbilt and have a bite—a sandwich and a stein of beer, say.” No.
- 12 turned to speak to a passing acquaintance, and No. 7 seized the
- opportunity to whisper tensely: “She's staying there. I followed her three
- times and she always went to the Vanderbilt. Got off the Subway at
- Thirty-third Street and—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She? What she?” demanded Sampson, affecting perplexity.
- </p>
- <p>
- No. 7 was staggered. It was a long time before he could say: “Well, holy
- Smoke!” And then, as Sampson still waited: “Why, <i>her</i>, of course—who
- else?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson appeared to understand at last. He said: “A ripping good hotel,
- isn't it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A peach,” said No. 7, and then they parted.
- </p>
- <p>
- That evening Sampson dined at the Vanderbilt. At first, like No. 7, he
- wasn't quite sure whether he would dine upstairs or in the Della Robbia
- room. He went over the ground very thoroughly before deciding. At eight
- o'clock he disconsolately selected the main dining-room and ate, without
- appetite, a lonely but excellent dinner.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wondered if No. 7 could have lied to him.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER V
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>e also dropped in
- at the Vanderbilt for lunch on Thursday.
- </p>
- <p>
- Friday morning he was in the court-room, ostensibly to hear sentence
- pronounced. He sat outside the railing. Seven of his fellow-jurors
- straggled in as the hour for convening court approached. Sampson found
- himself flanked by No. 7 and No. 12, the former a trifle winded after a
- long run from Worth Street. In a hoarse wheeze he informed Sampson that
- “she'll be here in a minute,” and, sure enough, the words were barely out
- of his mouth when Alexandra Hildebrand entered the court-room with Mr. O
- 'Brien.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was shocked by her appearance. She was pale and tired-looking and
- there were dark circles beneath her wonderful eyes. She looked ill and
- worn. His heart went out to her. He longed to hold her close and whisper—
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God!” oozed from No. 7's agonised lips. “She's—she's sick!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson kicked him violently on the shin. “She'll hear you, you blithering
- idiot,” he grated out.
- </p>
- <p>
- The courtesy of the Court was extended once more to Miss Hildebrand. She
- was invited to have a seat inside the railing. If she recognised a single
- one of the eight jurors who sat outside, she failed to betray the fact by
- sign or deed. The prisoner, a troubled, anxious look in his eyes, entered
- and took his accustomed seat instead of standing at the foot of the jury
- box to await sentence. Miss Hildebrand put her arm over his shoulders and
- brushed his lean old cheek with her lips. He was singularly unmoved by
- this act of devotion. Sampson glowered. The old man might at least have
- given her a look of gratitude, a pat of the hand—oh, anything gentle
- and grandfatherly. But there he sat, as rigid as an oak, his gaze fixed on
- the Court, his body hunched forward in an attitude of suspense. He was not
- thinking of Alexandra.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hildebrand arose when his name was called, and it was plain that he
- maintained his composure only by the greatest exertion of the will.
- Sampson watched him curiously. He had the feeling that the old man would
- collapse if the Court's decision proved severe.
- </p>
- <p>
- The customary questions and answers followed, the old man responding in a
- voice barely audible to those close by.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Court, respecting the wishes of the jurors who tried and found you
- guilty, James Hildebrand, is inclined to be merciful. It is the judgment
- of this Court that the penalty in your case shall be fixed at two years'
- imprisonment, but in view of the recommendation presented here and because
- of your previous reputation for integrity and the fact that you
- voluntarily surrendered yourself to justice, sentence is suspended.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Other remarks by the Court followed, but Sampson did not hear them. His
- whole attention was centred on Alexandra Hildebrand. Her slim body
- straightened up, her eyes brightened, and a heavenly smile transfigured
- her face.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson felt like cheering!
- </p>
- <p>
- A few minutes later she passed him in the rotunda. For an instant their
- eyes met. There was a deep, searching expression in hers. Suddenly a deep
- flush covered her smooth cheek and her eyes fell. She hurried past, and
- he, stock-still with wonder and joy over this astounding exposition of
- confusion on her part, failed utterly to pursue an advantage that would
- have been seized upon with alacrity by the atavistic No. 12. He allowed
- her to escape!
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0123.jpg" alt="0123 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0123.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- Aroused to action too late, he bolted after her, only to see her enter a
- waiting taxi-cab and—yes, she <i>did</i> look back over her
- shoulder. She knew he would follow! He raised his hat, and he was sure
- that she smiled—faintly, it is true, but still she smiled. If he
- hoped that she would condescend to alter her course, he was doomed to
- disappointment. The driver obeyed his original instructions and shot off
- in the direction of Lafayette Street.
- </p>
- <p>
- The memory of her tribute—a blush and a fleeting smile—was to
- linger with Sampson for many a weary, watchful day.
- </p>
- <p>
- The taxi-cab—a noisy, ungentle abomination—was whirling her
- corporeal loveliness out of his reach and vision with exasperating
- swiftness, leaving him high and dry in an endless, barren desert. His
- heart gave a tremendous jump when a traffic policeman stopped the car at
- the corner above. He set forth as fast as his long legs could carry him
- with dignity, hoping and praying that the officer would be as slow and as
- stubborn about—But she must have looked into the fellow's eyes and
- smiled, for, with surprising amiability, he signified that she was to
- proceed. Apparently he was too dazzled to reprimand or caution the driver,
- for the taxi went forward at an increased speed.
- </p>
- <p>
- Some one touched Sampson's elbow. He withdrew his gaze from the vanishing
- taxi-cab and allowed it to rest in sheer amazement upon the bleak
- countenance of No. 7.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She's going away,” said No. 7 in sepulchral tones.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Evidently,” said Sampson. “Exceeding the speed limit while she is about
- it, too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I mean,” said the other, “she's going to take a long journey. She's
- leaving New York! That taxi is full of satchels and valises and stuff, and
- the driver has orders to get her to the Hudson tube by eleven o'clock. I
- heard that much anyhow, hangin' around here. Say, do you know there is
- another woman in that cab with her? There sure is. I saw her plain as day.
- Kind of an old woman with two or three little satchels and one of them
- dinky white dogs in her lap.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A lady's maid,” said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where do you suppose she's going?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How should I know?” demanded Sampson severely.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And why is she running away without grandpa? What's going to become of
- the old man? Seems as though she'd ought to hang around until he's—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I daresay she knows what she is doing,” said Sampson, disturbed by the
- same thoughts.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Maybe he's going to join her later on?” hopefully. “Over in Jersey
- somewhere.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Very likely. Good-bye.” Sampson wrung the limp hand of No. 7 and made off
- toward Broadway.
- </p>
- <p>
- He lunched with a friend at the Lawyers' Club. In the smoking room
- afterwards, he came face to face with the assistant district attorney who
- had prosecuted the case of James Hildebrand. His friend exclaimed:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hello, Wilks! You ought to know Mr. Sampson. He's been under your nose
- for a week or ten days.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Wilks grinned as he shook hands with the exjuror. “Glad to know you as Mr.
- Sampson, sir, and not as No. 3. We had a rather interesting week, of it,
- didn't we?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was surprised to find that he rather liked the good-humoured
- twinkle in Wilks's eyes. He had thoroughly disapproved of him up to this
- instant. Now he appeared as a mild, pleasant-voiced young man with a far
- from vindictive eye and a singularly engaging smile. Departing from his
- rôle as prosecutor, Wilks succeeded in becoming an uncommonly decent
- fellow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Interesting, to say the least,” replied Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- Wilks had coffee with them, and a cigar.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must say, Mr. Sampson, that you jurors had something out of the
- ordinary to contend with. There isn't the remotest doubt that old
- Hildebrand is guilty, and yet there was a wave of sympathy for him that
- extended to all of us, enveloped us, so to speak. At the outset, we were
- disposed to go easy with him, realising that we had a dead open and shut
- case against him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We awoke to our danger when the trial was half over. That is to say, we
- awoke to the fact that Miss Alexandra Hildebrand was likely to upset the
- whole pot of beans for us. You have no idea what we sometimes have to
- contend with. There is nothing so difficult to fight against as the force
- of feminine appeal. Men are simple things, you see. We boast about our
- righteous strength of purpose, but along comes a gentle, frail bit of
- womanhood and we find ourselves—well, up in the air! Miss Hildebrand
- had a decidedly agreeable effect on all of us. It is only natural that she
- should. We realised what it all meant to her, and I daresay there wasn't
- one of us who relished the thought of hurting her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Her devotion was really quite beautiful,” observed Sampson, feeling that
- he had to put himself on record.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I understand how you jurors felt about her and, through her, about the
- old man. The State is satisfied to let him off as you recommended. It is
- more than likely that he was badly treated in those deals with Stevens and
- Drew, and if he can rehabilitate himself I think we will have done well
- not to oppose leniency. At any rate, his granddaughter has something to
- rejoice over, even though she may have been shocked by your decision that
- he is guilty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you know about her, Mr. Wilks?” inquired Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing in particular. She is an orphan, as you know, and I understand
- she has been residing with her grandfather in Switzerland. She returned to
- this country with him at the time of his voluntary surrender three months
- ago. His bail was fixed at twenty thousand dollars, and she tried to raise
- it, but failed. She has been trying to sell his Bronx property, but, of
- course, that sort of thing takes time. I understand that a deal is about
- to be closed, however, thanks to her untiring efforts, and the old man may
- realise handsomely after all. I suppose the Cornwallis Realty and
- Investment Company will bring civil action to regain the fifty thousand
- lost through his defection. If he is sensible he will restore the amount
- and—well, that will be the end of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why didn't he sell it long ago?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He couldn't very well manage it without coming to New York, and he was so
- closely watched that he couldn't do that without running a very great
- risk. Evidently she, believing absolutely in his innocence, induced him to
- give himself up and have his name cleared of the stigma that was upon it.
- This is mere conjecture, of course.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, she's a brick, at any rate,” said Sampson, with some enthusiasm.
- </p>
- <p>
- Wilks smiled. “That verdict, at least, is universal. Justice, however, has
- miscarried in more cases than I care to mention, simply because some
- little woman proves herself to be a brick. No doubt you will recall any
- number of such cases right here in New York. If we had had the remotest
- idea what Miss Hildebrand was like, we would have put up a strenuous kick
- against her sitting beside the prisoner where you all could see and be
- seen. She made it hard for you to convict the old man, and she certainly
- wormed the recommendation to the Court out of you. To tell you the truth,
- we feared an acquittal. When the jury stayed out all night I said to
- myself: 'We're licked, sure as shooting. 'The best we looked for was a
- disagreement. I've been told that the first half dozen ballots stood
- eleven to one for acquittal. So you see, I wasn't far off in my surmise.
- It has taught me a lesson. There will be no more attractive, thoroughly
- upsetting young ladies to cast spells over judge, jury, and lawyers if I
- can help it. I hope you will pardon me for saying it, Mr. Sampson, but I
- am firmly convinced if there had been no Miss Alexandra Hildebrand in the
- case you gentlemen would have brought in your verdict in twenty minutes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I suppose you know that I am the one who stood out against the eleven,”
- said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I suspected as much. I don't mind saying that the State counted on you,
- Mr. Sampson.” Sampson started. How was this? The State counted on him
- also? Suddenly he flushed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had a notion that Miss Hildebrand counted on me, Mr. Wilks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She did,” said the lawyer. “I think she lost a little of her confidence,
- however, as the trial progressed. She appeared to be devoting nearly all
- of her energies to you. You, apparently, were the one who had to be
- subdued, if you will forgive the term. She is the cleverest, shrewdest
- young woman I've ever seen. She is the best judge of men that I've ever
- encountered—far and away better than I or any one connected with our
- office. When that jury was completed I realised, with a sort of shock,
- that it was she who selected it. She made but one mistake—and that
- was in you. There is where we were smarter than she. I knew that you would
- do the right thing by us, in spite of your very palpable efforts to get
- off. If there had been some one else in your place, Mr. Sampson, James
- Hildebrand would have been acquitted.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Possibly,” said Sampson, with a sinking of the heart. He felt like a
- Judas! She had made but one mistake, and it was fatal!
- </p>
- <p>
- “As I was saying,” went on Wilks, blowing rings toward the ceiling, “women
- play thunder with us sometimes. A friend of mine from Chicago dined with
- me last night. He is in the State's Attorney's office out there and he's
- down here on business. You ought to hear him on the subject of women
- mixing up in criminal cases. He says it's fatal—if they're pretty
- and appealing. Nine times out of ten they have more nerve, more character
- and a good deal more intelligence than the average juryman, and Mr. Juror
- is like wax in their hands. Take a case they had out there last fall—the
- Brownley case—you read about it, perhaps. Young fellow from
- Louisiana got into bad company in Chicago, and went all wrong. Gambled and
- then had to rob his employers to get square with the world. His father and
- sister came up from New Orleans and made a fight for him. They got the
- best legal talent in town, and then little sister sat beside brother and
- petted him from time to time. A cinch! The jury was out an hour. Not
- guilty! See what I mean? And you remember the Paris case a year or two ago
- when the detectives nabbed a couple of international card sharks and bunco
- men after they had worked the Atlantic for two years straight without
- being landed? French juries tried 'em separately. One of them got five
- years and the other got off scot free. Why? Because his pretty young wife
- turned up and—well, you know the French! Woman is lovely in her
- place, but her place isn't in the court-room unless she favours the
- prosecution.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They're like good-looking nurses,” said Sampson's friend. “They make a
- chap forget everything else.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Same principle,” said Wilks. “Patients and juries are much the same. They
- require careful nursing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson was like a lost soul during the weeks that followed the trial. The
- hundred and one distractions he sought in the feverish effort to drive
- Alexandra Hildebrand out of his thoughts failed of their purpose. They
- only left him more eager than before. He longed for a glimpse of her
- adorable face, for a single look into her eyes, for the smile she had
- promised as she rode away from him, for the sheer fragrance of her
- unapproachable beauty. She filled his heart and brain, and she was lost to
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- The most depressing fits of jealousy overtook him. He tried to reason with
- himself. Why shouldn't she have a sweetheart? Why shouldn't she be in love
- with some one? What else could he expect—in heaven's name, what
- else? Of course there was one among all the hundreds who adored her that
- she could adore in return. Still he was sick with jealousy. He hated even
- the possibility that there was a man living who could claim her as his
- own.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the end of a month of resolute inactivity, he threw off all restraint
- and inaugurated a determined though innocuous search for her. He made it
- his business to stroll up and down Fifth Avenue during the fashionable
- hours of the day, and so frantic were his efforts to discover her in the
- shifting throngs that he always went home with a headache, bone-weary and
- appetiteless. His alert, all-enveloping gaze swept the avenue from
- Thirty-fourth Street to Fiftieth at least twice a day, and by night it
- raked the theatres and restaurants with an assiduity that rendered him an
- impossible companion for friends who were so unfortunate as to be involved
- in his prowlings. His lack of concentration, except in one pursuit, was
- woful. His friends were annoyed, and justly. No one likes inattention.
- Half the time he didn't hear a word they were saying to him, and the other
- half they were resentfully silent.
- </p>
- <p>
- He invaded Altman's, McCreery's, Lord & Taylor's and the other big
- shops, buying things that he did not want, and he entered no end of
- fashionable millinery establishments—and once a prominent corset
- concern—not for the sake of purchasing, of course, but always with
- the manner of an irritated gentleman looking for an inconsiderate wife.
- </p>
- <p>
- This determined effort to ferret out Miss Hildebrand was due to a report
- from No. 7, on whom he called one day in regard to an electrical
- disturbance in his apartment. No. 7 told him that No. 4, who was the
- proprietor of a plumbing establishment in Amsterdam Avenue, had seen Miss
- Hildebrand on top of a passing Fifth Avenue stage. By means of some
- remarkable sprinting No. 4, fortunately an unmarried man, overtook the
- stage at the corner above (Forty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue), and
- climbed aboard. Just as he sat down, all out of breath, two seats behind
- the young lady, she got off and entered Sloane's. No. 4 had a short
- argument with the conductor about paying fare for a ride of two blocks,
- but it was long enough to carry him to the corner above Sloane's, so that
- when he got back to the big shop she was lost.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was not discouraged. Saying that he was waiting for his wife he
- continued to invest the approach to the elevators with such success that
- after nearly an hour (and an hour as computed by plumbers is no small
- matter) he was rewarded by the appearance of Miss Hildebrand.
- </p>
- <p>
- Without notifying the floorwalkers that he couldn't wait any longer for
- his wife, he made off after the young lady, leaving them to think, if they
- thought at all, that his wife was a very beautiful person who had married
- considerably beneath her station. Miss Hildebrand waited at the corner for
- a stage. No. 4 already had squandered ten cents, but he didn't allow that
- to stand in the way of further adventure. He had his dime ready when the
- 'bus came along—in fact, he had two dimes ready, for it was his
- secret hope that she would recognise him. But alas! There was room for but
- one more passenger, and he was left standing on the curb, while she went
- rattling up the avenue in what he reckoned to be the swiftest 'bus in the
- service.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson's deductions were clear. She wouldn't be shopping at Sloane's
- unless she was buying furnishings of some sort for a house, and it was
- reasonable to suppose that the house was somewhere within reach of the
- stage line route. No. 4 had failed to note, however, whether she took a
- Riverside Drive or a Fifth Avenue stage. Although Sampson was not in need
- of a plumber's services, he looked up No. 4 and had him send men around to
- inspect the drain in the kitchen sink. It cost him nearly twelve dollars
- to have a five minutes' profitless interview with the master-plumber.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was at this time that he began his pilgrimages up and down Fifth
- Avenue, and it was also about this time that he acknowledged himself to be
- a drivelling, silly, sentimental idiot—worse even than the drooping
- No. 7.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the course of his investigations he dropped in to see No. 8 at the hat
- store; he talked insurance with No. 11 (and forever afterward had it
- talked with him, despite all the pains he took to stop it); he ordered a
- suit of clothes at the tailor shop of No. 6; and he even went so far as to
- consult No. 1 about having his piano tuned, a proceeding which called for
- the immediate acquisition of an instrument. (It occurred to him, however,
- that it might prove to be money well spent, for any man who is thinking of
- getting married ought to have a grand piano if he can afford it.)
- </p>
- <p>
- One day, overcoming an aversion, he sauntered up to a place in Broadway
- and inquired for No. 12. To his amazement, No. 12 seemed a bit hazy as to
- the existence of such a person as Miss Hildebrand. It was some time before
- the fellow could call her to mind, and then only when the trial was
- mentioned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, yes,” said he, rapping his brow soundly, “I get you now. The pretty
- little thing we saw at the trial. Lord, man, how long ago was that? Two
- months? Well, say, I've seen a couple or three since then that make her
- look like a last year's bird's-nest. I'm demonstrating for a little cutey
- in the Follies just at present and she has Miss Hildebrand lashed to the
- mast. Yellow hair and eyes as blue as—What's your hurry? I'm not
- busy—got all kinds of time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- But Sampson “walked out on him,” raging inwardly. It was all he could do
- to conquer an impulse to kick No. 12. Comparing Alexandra Hildebrand with
- a “little cutey in the Follies”! And forgetting her, too! Unspeakable!
- </p>
- <p>
- He discovered James Hildebrand a day or two later. The old man was living
- in a small hotel just off Broadway, in the upper Forties. An actor friend
- of Sampson's was living in the same hotel, and it was through him that he
- learned that Hildebrand had been stopping there for nearly two months,
- quite alone. A surprisingly pretty young woman had called to see him on
- two or three occasions. According to Sampson's informant, the old
- gentleman had just concluded a real estate deal running into the hundreds
- of thousands and was soon to return to Europe. This was most regrettable,
- lamented the actor, for he couldn't remember ever having seen a prettier
- girl than Hildebrand's visitor—who, he had found out at the desk,
- was a relative of some description.
- </p>
- <p>
- A simple process would have been to interview old Mr. Hildebrand, but
- Sampson's pride and good-breeding proved sufficiently strong and steadfast
- in the crisis. He held himself aloof.
- </p>
- <p>
- A week later he saw Mr. Hildebrand off on one of the trans-Atlantic
- liners. Mr. Hildebrand was not aware of the fact that he was being seen
- off by any one, however, and Sampson was quite positively certain that no
- one else was there for the purpose. There was no sign of Alexandra.
- </p>
- <p>
- He went abroad that summer.... Early in the autumn he was back in New
- York, resolved to be a fool no longer. No doubt she had married the chap
- she loved—and was living happily, contentedly in luxurious splendour
- supplied by Sloane's—as long ago, no doubt, as the early spring it
- may have happened.
- </p>
- <p>
- His heart had once ached for her as an orphan, but all that would now be
- altered if she had taken unto herself a husband. Somehow one ceases to be
- an orphan the instant one marries. You never think of a fatherless and
- motherless wife as an orphan. An orphan is some one you are expected to
- feel sorry for.
- </p>
- <p>
- He never had thought of himself as an orphan, although his father and
- mother had been dead for years. No one ever had been sorry for him because
- he was an orphan. What is it that supplies pity for one sex and not for
- the other?
- </p>
- <p>
- January found him in California. A year ago he had planned—Alas, his
- thoughts were ever prone to leap backward to the events of a year ago—back
- to the twentieth day of January. He would never forget it. On that day he
- first looked upon the loveliest of all God's creatures. The year had not
- dimmed his vision. He could see her still as plainly as on that memorable
- January day when they “landed” him.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wanted to see her once more, married or single, just to tell her that
- it was conscience that caused him to fail her in her hour of need. He
- wanted her to understand. He wanted her to believe that he couldn't help
- being honest, and he wanted very much to hear her say that he did the only
- thing an honourable gentleman could possibly do.
- </p>
- <p>
- Wending his way northward, he came to San Francisco late in February, and
- there fell into the open arms of several classmates whom he had not seen
- since his college days. One of them was Jimmy Dorr, now a brilliant editor
- and journalist. To him he related the story of the Hildebrand trial, and
- the fruitless quest of the girl he still dreamed about. Jimmy was vastly
- interested. He was a romanticist. His eyes glittered with excitement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “By Jove, it's a corker!” he exclaimed, breathlessly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A corker?” repeated Sampson, staring.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Corking idea for a novel, that's what I mean. Why, you couldn't beat it
- if you sat down and thought day and night for ten years. Ideas, that's
- what the novelists want. The only thing that has kept me from breaking
- into the literary game is an absolute paucity of—ideas. And here you
- are handing me one. I shall write a novel. I'll have you find her
- imprisoned in a dungeon by the conniving grandparent—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Or by a rascally husband,” put in Sampson, gloomily.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dorr became thoughtful. “By the way, we've been having a more or less
- notable trial here for the past week and a half. Lot of interest in it all
- over the country. Have you heard of the Rodriguez ease?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not yet,” said Sampson, resignedly. “Fire away. I 'll listen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The arguments to the jury will be concluded to-morrow morning and there
- ought to be a verdict before night. How would you like to go around there
- with me at ten o 'clock and hear the State's closing argument? I can
- manage it easily, although it's hard to get tickets. In a word, it is the
- most popular show in town. Standing room only. Come along, and I'll bet my
- head you'll never forget the experience.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hate a court-room,” said Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you won't hate this one. I've been dropping in every day for an
- hour or so, and, by gad, it <i>is</i> interesting.” A faraway, dreamy look
- came into Dorr's spectacled eyes. “Rodriguez is a wonderful character. You
- see such chaps only in books and plays—seldom in plays, however, for
- you couldn't find actors to look the part. He is a Spaniard, a native of
- Mexico City, and as lofty as any grandee you'd find in old Granada itself.
- Private detectives caught him in Tokio last summer, after a world-wide
- search of three years. He is charged with forgery. Forged a deed to some
- property in Berkeley and got away with the proceeds of the sale. He
- stubbornly maintains that the deed was a bona-fide instrument, and is
- fighting tooth and nail against the people who accuse him. I 'd like to
- have you see him, Sampy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning, a bit bored but conscious of a thrill of interest in
- attending a trial in the capacity of spectator instead of talesman,
- Sampson accompanied the editor to the court-room where the case of the
- State vs. Victoriana Rodriguez was being heard. The corridors and
- approaches were packed with people. A subdued buzz of excitement pervaded
- the air. Every face in the throng revealed the ultimate of eagerness, each
- body was charged with a muscular ambition to crowd past the obstructing
- bodies before it. Sampson had never witnessed anything like this before.
- He demurred.
- </p>
- <p>
- “See here, Jimmy, I refuse to surge with a mob like this. Good-bye, old
- man. See you—”
- </p>
- <p>
- But Dorr conducted him to the private entrance to the judge's chambers,
- and a few minutes later into the crowded court-room. They found places
- behind the row of reporters and stood with their backs to the wall.
- </p>
- <p>
- The jury was in the box, awaiting the opening of court. Sampson surveyed
- them with some interest. They were a youngish lot of men and, to his way
- of thinking, about as far from intelligent as the average New York jury.
- They looked dazed, bewildered and distinctly uncomfortable. He knew how
- they were feeling—no one knew better than he!
- </p>
- <p>
- The prisoner entered, followed by his counsel, and took his seat. Sampson
- favoured Dorr with a smile of derision. Rodriguez was a most ordinary
- looking fellow—swarthy, unimposing and at least sixty years of age.
- He was not at all Sampson's conception of a Spanish grandee. Certainly he
- was not the sort of chap an author would put into a book with the
- expectation of having his readers accept him as a hero.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good Lord, Jimmy, is <i>that</i> the marvellous character you've been
- talking about!” whispered the New Yorker. “Why, he's just a plain,
- ordinary greaser. Nothing lofty about him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- But Jimmy didn't hear. He was gazing in rapt eagerness over the heads of
- the seated throng outside the railing. Sampson leaned forward and
- whispered something to the reporter from Dorr's paper. He repeated the
- remark, receiving no response the first time. The young fellow's reply,
- when it came, was what Sampson, from his vast experience in law courts,
- summed up as “totally irrelevant and not pertinent to the case.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Somewhat annoyed, he turned to Jimmy Dorr. That gentleman's gaze was
- fixed, so Sampson followed it. A young woman had taken the seat beside the
- prisoner. He could not see her face, but something told him that it was
- attractive—and then he was suddenly interested in the way her dark
- hair grew about her neck and ears. Dorr was whispering:
- </p>
- <p>
- “She's the most wonderful thing you ever laid eyes on, Sampy. Wait till
- you get a good peek at her face. You'll forget your old Miss Hill-obeans.
- She landed here about a month ago, straight from Spain, where she has been
- in a convent since she was fourteen. Doesn't speak a word of English—not
- a syllable, the reporters say. She—Hey! Sh! What the devil's the
- matter with you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sampson had uttered a very audible exclamation. He was staring at her with
- widespread, glazed, unbelieving eyes. She had turned to favour the
- reporters with a wistful, shy, entrancing “good morning” smile, and he
- looked once more upon the face he had never forgotten and would never
- forget.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God!” he whispered, grasping Dorr's arm in a grip that caused his
- friend to wince. “Why, it's—Not a word of English! A month ago! Out
- of a convent!” He was babbling weakly. His brain was not working.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it too hot in here for you, old man!” whispered Dorr, alarmed. “Shall
- we get out! You look as though—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who is she!” gasped Sampson.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dorr looked triumphant. “I thought she'd bowl you over. But, my Lord, I
- didn't dream she'd give you such a jolt as this. The whole damned bunch of
- us has gone mad over her. She's old Rodriguez's daughter—the
- Senorita Isabella Consuelo Maria Rodriguez.”
- </p>
- <h3>
- THE END
- </h3>
- <div style="height: 6em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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