CHAPTER XXII
THE TRIAL
In a few moments more the storm had passed completely; only the wet citystreets, the mist over the lake, and the moist warmth of the airremained. For some time the three visitors to this extraordinary worldstood silent at the latticed windows, awed by what they had seen. Thenoise of the panels as the Chemist slid them back brought them tothemselves.
"A curious land, gentlemen," he remarked quietly.
"It's--it's weird," the Very Young Man ejaculated.
The Chemist led them out across the roof to its other side facing thecity. The street upon which the house stood sloped upwards over the hillbehind. It was wet with the rain and gleamed like a sheet of burnishedsilver. And down its sides now ran two little streams of liquid silverfire.
The street, deserted during the storm, was beginning to fill again withpeople returning to their tasks. At the intersection with the next roadabove, they could see a line of sleighs passing. Beneath them, beforethe wall of the garden a little group of men stood talking; on aroof-top nearby a woman appeared with a tiny naked infant which she satdown to nurse in a corner of her garden.
"A city at work," said the Chemist with a wave of his hand. "Shall we godown and see it?"
His three friends assented readily, the Very Young Man suggestingpromptly that they first visit Lylda's father and Aura.
"He is teaching Loto this morning," said the Chemist smiling.
"Why not go to the court?" suggested the Big Business Man.
"Is the public admitted?" asked the Doctor.
"Nothing is secret here," the Chemist answered. "By all means, we willgo to the court first, if you wish; Lylda should be through veryshortly."
The court of Arite stood about a mile away near the lake shore. As theyleft the house and passed through the city streets the respect accordedthe Chemist became increasingly apparent. The three strangers with himattracted considerable attention, for, although they wore theconventional robes in which the more prominent citizens were generallyattired, their short hair and the pallid whiteness of their skins madethem objects of curiosity. No crowd gathered; those they passed stared alittle, raised their hands to their foreheads and went their way, yetunderneath these signs of respect there was with some an air ofsullenness, of hostility, that the visitors could not fail to notice.
The Oroid men, in street garb, were dressed generally in a shortmetallic-looking tunic of drab, with a brighter-colored girdle. Thewomen, most of them, wore only a sort of skirt, reaching from waist toknees; a few had circular discs covering their breasts. There werehardly any children to be seen, except occasionally a little facestaring at them from a window, or peering down from a roof-top. Once ortwice they passed a woman with an infant slung across her back in a sortof hammock.
The most common vehicle was the curious form of sleigh in which they hadridden down through the tunnels. They saw also a few little two-wheeledcarts, with wheels that appeared to be a solid segment of tree-trunk.All the vehicles were drawn by meek-looking little gray animals like asmall deer without horns.
The court-house of Arite, though a larger building, from the outside washardly different than most others in the city. It was distinct, however,in having on either side of the broad doorway that served as its mainentrance, a large square stone column.
As they entered, passing a guard who saluted them respectfully, thevisitors turned from a hallway and ascended a flight of steps. At thetop they found themselves on a balcony overlooking the one large roomthat occupied almost the entire building. The balcony ran around allthree sides (the room was triangular in shape) and was railed with a lowstone parapet. On it were perhaps fifty people, sitting quietly on stonebenches that lay close up behind the parapet. An attendant stood at eachof the corners of the balcony; the one nearest bowed low as the Chemistand his companions entered silently and took their seats.
From the balcony the entire room below was in plain view. At the apex ofits triangle sat the judge, on a raised dais of white stone with agolden canopy over it. He was a man about fifty--this leader of thecourt--garbed in a long loose robe of white. His hair, that fell on hisshoulders, was snowy white, and around his forehead was a narrow whiteband. He held in his hand a sort of scepter of gold with a heavy goldentriangle at its end.
In six raised tiers of unequal length, like a triangular flight ofstairs across the angle of the room, and directly in front of the judge,was the jury--twenty men and twenty women, seated in alternate rows. Themen wore loose robes of gray; the women robes of blue. On a seat raisedslightly above the others sat a man who evidently was speaker for themen of the jury. On a similar elevated seat was the woman speaker; thislatter was Lylda.
Near the center of the room, facing the judge and jury were twotriangular spaces about twenty feet across, enclosed with a breast-highwall of stone. Within each of these enclosures were perhaps ten ortwelve people seated on small stone benches. Directly facing the membersof the jury and between them and the two enclosures, was a smallplatform raised about four feet above the floor, with several stepsleading up to it from behind.
A number of attendants dressed in the characteristic short tunics, withbreastplates and a short sword hanging from the waist, stood near theenclosures, and along the sides of the room.
The Chemist leaned over and whispered to his friends: "Those twoenclosed places in the center are for the witnesses. Over there arethose testifying for the accused; the others are witnesses for thegovernment. The platform is where the accused stands when----"
He broke off suddenly. An expectant hush seemed to run over the room. Adoor at the side opened, and preceded and followed by two attendants aman entered, who walked slowly across the floor and stood alone upon theraised platform facing the jury.
He was a man of extraordinarily striking look and demeanor. He stoodconsiderably over six feet in height, with a remarkably powerful yetlean body. He was naked except for a cloth breech clout girdled abouthis loins. His appearance was not that of an Oroid, for beside hisgreater height, and more muscular physique, his skin was distinctly of amore brownish hue. His hair was cut at the base of the neck in Oroidfashion; it was black, with streaks of silver running through it. Hisfeatures were large and cast in a rugged mold. His mouth was cruel, andwore now a sardonic smile. He stood erect with head thrown back and armsfolded across his breast, calmly facing the men and women who were tojudge him.
The Very Young Man gripped the Chemist by the arm. "Who is that?" hewhispered.
The Chemist's lips were pressed together; he seemed deeply affected. "Idid not know they caught him," he answered softly. "It must have beenjust this morning."
The Very Young Man looked at Lylda. Her face was placid, but her breastwas rising and falling more rapidly than normal, and her hands in herlap were tightly clenched.
The judge began speaking quietly, amid a deathlike silence. For overfive minutes he spoke; once he was interrupted by a cheer, instantlystifled, and once by a murmur of dissent from several spectators on thebalcony that called forth instant rebuke from the attendant stationedthere.
The judge finished his speech, and raised his golden scepter slowlybefore him. As his voice died away, Lylda rose to her feet and facingthe judge bowed low, with hands to her forehead. Then she spoke a fewwords, evidently addressing the women before her. Each of them raisedher hands and answered in a monosyllable, as though affirming an oath.This performance was repeated by the men.
The accused still stood silent, smiling sardonically. Suddenly his voicerasped out with a short, ugly intonation and he threw his arms straightout before him. A murmur rose from the spectators, and severalattendants leaned forward towards the platform. But the man only lookedaround at them contemptuously and again folded his arms.
From one of the enclosures a woman came, and mounted the platform besidethe man. The Chemist whispered, "His wife; she is going to speak forhim." But with a muttered exclamation and wave of his arm, the man swepther back, and without a word she descended th
e steps and reentered therailed enclosure.
Then the man turned and raising his arms spoke angrily to those seatedin the enclosure. Then he appealed to the judge.
The Chemist whispered in explanation: "He refuses any witnesses."
At a sign from the judge the enclosure was opened and its occupants leftthe floor, most of them taking seats upon the balcony.
"Who is he?" the Very Young Man wanted to know, but the Chemist ignoredhis question.
For perhaps ten minutes the man spoke, obviously in his own defence. Hisvoice was deep and powerful, yet he spoke now seemingly without anger;and without an air of pleading. In fact his whole attitude seemed one ofirony and defiance. Abruptly he stopped speaking and silence again fellover the room. A man and a woman left the other enclosure and mountedthe platform beside the accused. They seemed very small and fragile, ashe towered over them, looking down at them sneeringly.
The man and woman conferred a moment in whispers. Then the woman spoke.She talked only a few minutes, interrupted twice by the judge, once by aquestion from Lylda, and once by the accused himself.
Then for perhaps ten minutes more her companion addressed the court. Hewas a man considerably over middle age, and evidently, from his dressand bearing, a man of prominence in the nation. At one point in hisspeech it became obvious that his meaning was not clearly understood bythe jury. Several of the women whispered together, and one rose andspoke to Lylda. She interrupted the witness with a quiet question. Laterthe accused himself questioned the speaker until silenced by the judge.
Following this witness came two others. Then the judge rose, and lookingup to the balcony where the Chemist and his companions were sitting,motioned to the Chemist to descend to the floor below.
The Very Young Man tried once again with his whispered question "What isit?" but the Chemist only smiled, and rising quietly left them.
There was a stir in the court-room as the Chemist crossed the mainfloor. He did not ascend the platform with the prisoner, but stoodbeside it. He spoke to the jury quietly, yet with a suppressed power inhis voice that must have been convincing. He spoke only a moment, morewith the impartial attitude of one who gives advice than as a witness.When he finished, he bowed to the court and left the floor, returning atonce to his friends upon the balcony.
Following the Chemist, after a moment of silence, the judge brieflyaddressed the prisoner, who stolidly maintained his attitude of ironicdefiance.
"He is going to ask the jury to give its verdict now," said the Chemistin a low voice.
Lylda and her companion leader rose and faced their subordinates, andwith a verbal monosyllable from each member of the jury the verdict wasunhesitatingly given. As the last juryman's voice died away, there camea cry from the back of the room, a woman tore herself loose from theattendants holding her, and running swiftly across the room leaped uponthe platform. She was a slight little woman, almost a child inappearance beside the man's gigantic stature. She stood looking at him amoment with heaving breast and great sorrowful eyes from which the tearswere welling out and flowing down her cheeks unheeded.
The man's face softened. He put his hands gently upon the sides of herneck. Then, as she began sobbing, he folded her in his great arms. Foran instant she clung to him. Then he pushed her away. Still cryingsoftly, she descended from the platform, and walked slowly back acrossthe room.
Hardly had she disappeared when there arose from the street outside afaint, confused murmur, as of an angry crowd gathering. The judge hadleft his seat now and the jury was filing out of the room.
The Chemist turned to his friends. "Shall we go?" he asked.
"This trial--" began the Big Business Man. "You haven't told us itssignificance. This man--good God what a figure of power and hate andevil. Who is he?"
"It must have been evident to you, gentlemen," the Chemist said quietly,"that you have been witnessing an event of the utmost importance to usall. I have to tell you of the crisis facing us; this trial is itslatest development. That man--"
The insistent murmur from the street grew louder. Shouts arose and thena loud pounding from the side of the building.
The Chemist broke off abruptly and rose to his feet. "Come outside," hesaid.
They followed him through a doorway on to a balcony, overlooking thestreet. Gathered before the court-house was a crowd of several hundredmen and women. They surged up against its entrance angrily, and wereheld in check there by the armed attendants on guard. A smaller crowdwas pounding violently upon a side door of the building. Several peopleran shouting down the street, spreading the excitement through the city.
The Chemist and his companions stood in the doorway of the balcony aninstant, silently regarding this ominous scene. The Chemist was justabout to step forward, when, upon another balcony, nearer the corner ofthe building a woman appeared. She stepped close to the edge of theparapet and raised her arms commandingly.
It was Lylda. She had laid aside her court robe and stood now in herglistening silver tunic. Her hair was uncoiled, and fell in dark massesover her white shoulders, blowing out behind her in the wind.
The crowd hesitated at the sight of her, and quieted a little. She stoodrigid as a statue for a moment, holding her arms outstretched. Then,dropping them with a gesture of appeal she began to speak.
At the sound of her voice, clear and vibrant, yet soft, gentle andwomanly, there came silence from below, and after a moment every facewas upturned to hers. Gradually her voice rose in pitch. Its gentle tonewas gone now--it became forceful, commanding. Then again she flung outher arms with a dramatic gesture and stood rigid, every line of her bodydenoting power--almost imperious command. Abruptly she ceased speaking,and, as she stood motionless, slowly at first, the crowd silentlydispersed.
The street below was soon clear. Even those onlookers at a distanceturned the corner and disappeared. Another moment passed, and then Lyldaswayed and sank upon the floor of the balcony, with her head on her armsagainst its low stone railing--just a tired, gentle, frightened littlewoman.
"She did it--how wonderfully she did it," the Very Young Man murmured inadmiration.
"We can handle them now," answered the Chemist. "But each time--it isharder. Let us get Lylda and go home, gentlemen. I want to tell you allabout it." He turned to leave the balcony.
"Who was the man? What was he tried for?" the Very Young Man demanded.
"That trial was the first of its kind ever held," the Chemist answered."The man was condemned to death. It was a new crime--the gravest we haveever had to face--the crime of treason."