III
In the Name of the Law
Of course, I didn't have to wait until Whitredge came over to thecounty seat to learn that I had hopelessly cooked my goose by theclumsy attempt at an escape. What I did not suspect then, nor, indeed,for a long time afterward, was the possibility that Withers or Geddis,or both of them, had forestalled me in the matter of bribing the twodeputies; that my foolish attempt had been anticipated, and thatWhitredge, himself, was not wholly above suspicion as an accessorybefore the fact. For it was his thinly veiled suggestion that put thething into my head.
However, that is neither here nor there. With the charge before it,the grand jury quickly brought in a true bill against me; and on theplea of the county prosecuting attorney my case was advanced on thedocket and set for trial within the week, the argument for haste beingthe critical state of affairs in the business of the Farmers' Bank ofGlendale; a state of affairs which demanded that the responsibility forcertain shortages in the bank's assets be fixed immediately as betweenthe accused bookkeeper and cashier and his superiors. Whitredgebrought me word of this hurry-up proposal, and either was, or pretendedto be, properly indignant over the unseemly haste.
"You just say the word, Bert, and I'll have the case postponed untilthe next term of court, or else I'll know the reason why!" he blusteredstoutly.
"Why should I wish to have it postponed, when the delay would merelymean six months more of jail for me?" I objected.
"It might give us some chance to frame up some sort of a defense; and,besides, it would give public opinion a little time to die down," hesuggested. "I say it isn't fair to try you while everybody's hot andexcited and wrathy about the money loss. Still, if you think you'reall ready, and want to take the chance----"
He knew I did, and was only egging me on. What he and all the rest ofthem were working for was to get me out of the way as swiftly aspossible. I knew this afterward, after I had time to think it out andpiece it together; and God knows, they gave me all the time I needed todo the thinking.
So, with the prisoner's counsel making no motion to the contrary, thetrial date stood, and shortly I found myself in the dock, with good oldJudge Haskins peering down at me over the top of his spectacles. Likemany of the older people in the county, the judge had known my fatherwell, and I am willing to believe that it was not easy for him to sitin judgment upon that father's son.
The trial was fair enough, as such things go. In the selection of thejury, Whitredge made free use of his challenging privilege; but itseemed to me that he always objected to the intelligent man and chosethe other kind. When our Anglo-Saxon ancestors fought for the right oftrial by jury, and got it, they passed down to us a sword with twoedges. Their idea, which was embodied in the common law, was that aman should be tried by a jury of his peers. But the way things haveworked out, the man of average intelligence is apt to have to face adozen jurors who are chosen partly for their lack of intelligence, andpartly because their earning ability is so low that they are willing toserve for the paltry wage of a juror, whatever it may be.
So far as the presentation of the case went, the county attorney had itall his own way. Certain of the bank's moneys were missing, and theyhad been replaced by worthless mining stock. Specifically, the chargewas that I had been borrowing the bank's money and investing it in themining stock--all without authority from anybody higher up--and that atthe last I had grown panic-stricken, or something, and had turned thestock in as part of the bank's assets.
Chandler, the prosecuting attorney, called only two witnesses, Withersand Fitch. They both testified that they had heard me admit that I wasguilty. There were no details given which could involve Agatha Geddis.It was merely stated that my admission of guilt was made at AbelGeddis's house, and both witnesses asserted that Geddis himself was notpresent.
Whitredge leaned over and whispered to me while this evidence was beingtaken.
"Chandler knows, and we all know, that this acknowledgment of yours wasmade in a talk with Miss Geddis. We are all willing to spare her thehumiliation of being brought into court. But it is your perfect rightto have her called if you wish it."
Knowing well enough by this time what I was in for, I was still foolishenough, or besotted enough, to shake my head. "I don't wish it," Isaid; and since this was practically telling Whitredge not to do so, hedid not cross-examine the two witnesses.
When the prosecution rested, Whitredge took up his line of defense. Hetried to show, rather lamely, I thought, that I had always lived withinmy means, hadn't been dissipated, and had never been known to bet,either on horse races or on the stock market; that whatever I had donehad been done without criminal intent. In this part of the trial I hada heart-warming surprise. The afternoon train from Glendale brought abig bunch of young people, and a good sprinkling of older ones, alleager to testify to my former good character. I saw then how unfair Ihad been in the bitterness of that first day. The shock of my arresthad simply dammed up the sympathy stream like a sudden frost; but nowthe reaction had come and I was not without friends. That littledemonstration went with me though many a long and weary day afterward.
Naturally, the greater part of this "character evidence" was thrown outas irrelevant. The trial wasn't held for the purpose of ascertainingwhat sort of a young man I had been in the past. It was supposed to bean attempt to get at the facts in a particular case; and according tothe testimony of two uncontradicted witnesses, I had admitted thesefacts.
Chandler said nothing about my attempt to escape until he came toaddress the jury. But then he drove the nail in good and hard. Thedeputy sheriff, Simmons, bruised and beaten, was shown to the jurors,and the prosecuting attorney made much of the fact that I had notstopped at a possible murder in shutting Simmons up in the bank vault.There was nothing said about the bribe to the other deputy who hadfigured as the hack driver; from which I inferred that the Irishman hadpocketed my money and held his peace.
Whitredge's summing-up was as lame in effect as it was rantinglyemotional. He liked to hear himself talk, and his stock in trade as acriminal lawyer consisted mainly of perfervid appeals to the sympathiesof his juries. Here, he pleaded, with the tremolo stop pulled all theway out, was a young man whose entire future would be blasted--and allthat sort of thing. It hadn't the slightest effect upon the group ofstolid hill farmers and laborers in the box who sat and yawned throughit, and I fancy it wasn't intended to have any.
Good old Judge Haskins's charge to the jury was all that a fair andupright judge could make it. He was no party to the agreement betweenthe attorneys to keep Agatha Geddis out of it, or even to any knowledgeof it, as he proved by pointing out to the jury the lack of detail inFitch's and Withers's testimony. Also, he cautioned the twelve not tomake too much of the attempted escape. He said--what most judgeswouldn't have said--that the attempt was entirely extraneous to thecharge upon which I had been arraigned; that it was not to be taken asa presumption of guilt; that it proved nothing either way. He addedthat an innocent man badly involved might be as easily terrified intotaking flight as a guilty one. If the jury, upon due deliberation,should be convinced that I had misappropriated the bank's funds, theverdict should be "Guilty"; but not otherwise.
It was merely in conformity with time-honored custom that the jurymenrose and left the box and filed out of the court-room, I am sure, forthey were back again in almost no time. Though I had every reason toexpect it, the low-voiced verdict of "Guilty as charged" struck me likethe blow of a fist.
"Brace up and be a man!" Whitredge leaned over to whisper in my ear;and then the good old judge, with his voice shaking a little,pronounced my sentence. Five years was the minimum for the offensewith which I stood charged. But a law recently passed gave the judgesa new power. Within the nominal period of five years my sentence wasmade indeterminate. The law was vindicated and I became a convict.