‘Mr. Mercer’s here,’ said Walrath. ‘Mr. Kardos is on his way over. Do
you want Mr. Mercer to come in?’
‘No, I’ll talk to him in the courtroom.’ The judge rose from his chair
and plunged through the doorway, the curtains dropping with a swift
flap behind him. His voice reached the chamber the next moment, subdued
to a low murmur from beyond the bench.
Judge Avery put down the Report, smiled quietly, and smoothed his upper
lip. On the whole, he had done a good job. Rodenbaugh had wriggled,
to be sure, but he had held the knife firm, cut to the proper depth.
Surprising how his imagination had gone on; he never remembered letting
it wander so far before unaccompanied by facts. Reading the _Electra_
last night must have been responsible for Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
He laughed, tapped the end of his tortoise-shell spectacles on the
table, then drew a deep breath, his fingers slowly turning his
thin gold watchchain. After all, had his story done Rodenbaugh any
good? Human nature was a strangely resilient substance, inevitably
coming back to the same shape, no matter how hard you squeezed it.
And what business had he--or any one else--to squeeze it? That was
what these damned reformers were always doing; blowing their moral
ideas under every one’s skin like so many flies! He walked to the
window, gazed down at the automobiles moving through the dust-gold
street like platoons of black glittering beetles. Maybe he had been
a little magisterial in his attitude toward Rodenbaugh, exercised
the prerogative of age in a high-handed manner. Still--he shook his
head--the boy deserved it!
The murmuring in the courtroom ceased and Rodenbaugh’s step sounded on
the marble. As the curtains swung to behind him, Walrath appeared. ‘Mr.
Kardos is here, Judge,’ he said.
‘Send him in.’ Rodenbaugh turned away, thrust his hands in his pockets,
and sat down facing the table. He did not look up; in the silence that
followed, the situation seemed to Judge Avery just a little absurd.
Then some one paused at the doorway, moved the curtains timidly to one
side. ‘Come in!’ said Judge Rodenbaugh, a note of exasperation in his
voice.
Kardos seemed to stumble into the room. As he bowed, it occurred to
the judge in a sudden whimsical flash that his round staring eyes were
exactly like the black buttons on his yellow shoes. He suppressed
a smile, and inclined his head. ‘Sit down,’ said Judge Rodenbaugh,
nodding at the chair in front of the table.
Kardos seated himself, then reached over, placed his green hat on the
table. It looked curiously jaunty on the dark polished surface, arching
above the reflection at its side with an air of draggled impudence:
the judge wondered whether Rodenbaugh appreciated it, and what in the
devil he was going to do with Kardos anyway, now he had him. He leaned
back, gazed at the pair with vague amusement. Where in God’s name did
the young men get those coats! There was something skirted and dashing
about Mr. Kardos’s apparel--for such a little man!
‘Kardos!’ Judge Rodenbaugh looked in his direction with a slow downward
glance. ‘I want to apologize to you.’ He lifted his eyes, stared at
him with smoldering hostility. ‘I had no business to say what I did in
court this afternoon.’
‘Yes, sir!’ Kardos nodded his head with a violent eagerness. ‘I’m sure
I accept your Honor’s apology. I’m sure your Honor’s very generous to
make me any apology at all!’ He spread out his hands and smiled at the
judge, a watchful look on his dark flat face.
‘No?’ Rodenbaugh frowned. ‘I owe it to you. I’ll admit’--his lip
quivered with contempt--‘you gave me provocation. But’--he thrust his
chin down on his collar--‘I owe it to you?’
‘That’s very kind,’ said Kardos glibly. He leaned forward with an air
of confidence. ‘You see, Judge, I was asking the questions all right.
Yes I was.’ His low forehead wrinkled in a thick triangular crease just
above his nose. ‘I think maybe your Honor don’t understand the way I
work.’ He placed a stubby forefinger on his palm. ‘You see, Judge,
I sort of feel around and ease off the witness’s mind until he can
tell me what I want, you know, just letting him loose and giving him
a chance to think, and then new things come up and you get something
maybe you overlooked when you came to court. So I just suggest’--he
lifted a hand--‘an idea, maybe, here and there--something that comes to
me, maybe, on the spot. Of course I know your Honor thinks it takes up
time, but’--he cocked his head to one side--‘I get splendid results!’
‘You do, eh! I wish I saw some of them in my court!’ Judge Rodenbaugh’s
little eyes gleamed balefully.
‘Your Honor hasn’t heard me try many cases,’ Kardos said. His smile was
almost benevolent in its assurance. ‘Where I live I get most of the
business now of that kind.’
‘You do, eh?’ The judge grunted. ‘That doesn’t speak well for your
neighborhood! From the way you talk you sound to me very much like a
fool! Why don’t you prepare your cases instead of trying them by mental
telepathy?’
Kardos laughed. To Judge Avery, watching his face, he didn’t seem at
all disconcerted. ‘Your Honor has a forceful way of putting things,’ he
said. ‘If your Honor will permit me to say so, I don’t think your Honor
quite understands what I mean.’
‘No, and you don’t yourself. How could you when you think round and
round like a mule tied up in a field!’ The judge grinned, shot a glance
at Judge Avery. ‘What you need, Kardos, is direction, straightness of
mental line. I’m afraid your mind’s built on a circular pattern.’
‘Wheels?’ said Kardos.
‘Within wheels,’ Rodenbaugh answered. ‘In my opinion you’re not fit to
appear before any sensible jury. You ought to practise trying cases on
a phonograph in the privacy of your home. You could encumber the record
then all you liked.’ He looked at Judge Avery again.
Kardos caught the glance and a little grin touched the corners of his
lips. He gazed at Judge Rodenbaugh with sharp, motionless eyes. ‘Your
Honor says very smart things,’ he observed, in a tone of impersonal
appreciation. ‘I suppose that’s the reason we all like to try in your
Honor’s court.’
‘What?’
‘I suppose that’s the reason we all like to bring our cases before your
Honor.’
‘You do, eh! Well, I don’t know about that!’ The viciousness faded from
the judge’s voice, and he stretched out his legs and looked tolerantly
at Kardos. ‘My tongue may be just a little bit quick, but you fellows
need it sometimes.’
‘That’s true, Judge!’ Kardos nodded his head. ‘Your Honor always gives
us what we deserve. And besides, Judge,’--the motionless lustre of his
eyes seemed to break into tiny points,--‘we like a little amusement in
the courtroom.’
‘Yes?’ The judge thrust out his lower lip. ‘Well, you furnish it all
right.’
‘And so does your Honor.’
‘I do, eh?’
‘Yes, sir.’ Kardos seemed cautiously to expand, to relax in a posture
of intimate friendliness. He glanced over his shoulder at Judge
Avery, then surveyed Rodenbaugh with an unruffled face. ‘I hear that
everywhere, Judge.’
‘Indeed!’ The judge’s mouth widened, and he smoothed his chin. ‘Well,
I do the best I can for you, Kardos. In your case it’s never hard.’ He
crossed his knees, sank farther back in his chair. ‘You fellows fumble
so with your facts,’ he observed contentedly. ‘And I think you must get
your law from the _Evening Telegram_.’
‘Your Honor feels that way because of your Honor’s superior mind.
That’s another reason we all like to try in your Honor’s court. Your
Honor gets things done.’ Kardos sighed wistfully. ‘Your Honor’s court
is not like the other courts.’
‘No?’
‘No, sir!’ Kardos repeated with emphasis. ‘I remember I said, when your
Honor was appointed, there’s a young man, if your Honor will forgive
the word, that’s going to stir things up on the bench. It’s the kind of
thing we need, and I said so, Judge, right down in my ward in public,
and in private conversations. He’s a young man that knows the law, and
knows how to handle a courtroom, I said. He’s got a heavy hand and a
sharp tongue, and that’s what a judge needs more than anything else.’
‘You think so, do you?’ Rodenbaugh lifted his chin, arched his eyebrows
amiably, and his lower lip relaxed.
For an instant Judge Avery surveyed him, then he turned away, gazed out
at the pigeons, softly rustling their wings in the square of orange
light. He was very tired; if they didn’t stop in a minute he was going
to get up and go home.
‘Yes, I do, Judge Rodenbaugh! That’s what I think.’ Kardos’s chair
creaked and Judge Avery could hear the scratch of his sleeve on the
table. ‘And I says to them, Judge,’--he heard Kardos’s voice rise with
a lingering sinuous accent,--‘I says to them, Judge, there’s a man that
ought to go higher!’
‘Indeed!’ The word echoed through the chamber, hopeful, faintly ironic,
foolish.
‘Yes, I did, Judge Rodenbaugh! That’s exactly what I said. There’s a
man that ought to go higher. He’s only just begun his career, Judge
Rodenbaugh has. And I’m telling you, Judge,’--Kardos hitched his chair
closer,--‘what I says goes, in my ward, with a lot of my own people!’
‘Hm!’ A look of doubt crossed Judge Rodenbaugh’s face, and his fingers
moved restlessly on the table.
‘And I’m telling you, Judge,’--Kardos paused, then rose with an air of
authority,--‘I don’t think you’ve realized what I could do for you.
No, you haven’t.’ He shook his head with an impudent cunning. ‘I speak
for my own people in my ward. I can do a lot, I can. And Judge,’--his
voice seemed to creep through the silence,--‘I could use an appointment
now and then, when they come your way.’
For an instant no one spoke. Judge Avery could feel the silence about
him expand, grow tense with unuttered meaning. He waited, a little
smile on his lips. Then Rodenbaugh sprang from his chair, his fist
beating against the table. ‘Get out!’ he fairly bellowed. He stretched
out his arm. ‘Get out, I say!’
Kardos turned, seemed to leap through the doorway.
‘My God!’ The judge stumbled against a chair, picked it up with both of
his hands. ‘Avery! Did you ever hear anything like that in your life?’
‘Never before today,’ said Judge Avery.