GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY.
Sharpman had not seen Ralph's expression and did not know what the
noise was all about. He looked around at the audience uneasily,
whispered to Craft for a moment, and then announced that he was done
with the witness. He was really afraid to carry the examination
further; there were too many pit-falls along the way.
Goodlaw, too, was wise enough to ask no additional questions. He
did not care to lay grounds for the possible reversal of a judgment
in favor of the defendant, by introducing questionable evidence.
But he felt that the case, in its present aspect, needed farther
investigation, and he moved for a continuance of the cause for two
days. He desired, he said, to find the person known as Rhyming Joe,
and to produce such other evidence as this new and startling turn of
affairs might make necessary.
Craft whispered to Sharpman that the request should be agreed to,
saying that he could bring plenty of witnesses to prove that Rhyming
Joe was a worthless adventurer, notorious for his habits of lying;
and stoutly asserting that the boy was positively Ralph Burnham. But
Sharpman's great fear was that if Rhyming Joe should be brought back,
the story of the bribery could no longer be hushed; and he therefore
opposed the application for a continuance with all his energy.
The court ruled that the reasons presented were not sufficient to
warrant the holding of a jury at this stage of the case for so long a
time, but intimated that in the event of a verdict for the plaintiff a
motion for a new trial might be favorably considered by the court.
"Then we have nothing further to offer," said Goodlaw.
Sharpman resumed his seat with an air of satisfaction, and sat for
full five minutes, with his face in his hand, in deep thought.
"I think," he said, finally, looking up, "that we shall present
nothing in rebuttal. The case, as it now stands, doesn't seem to call
for it." He had been considering whether it would be safe and wise for
him to go on the witness-stand and deny any portion of Ralph's story.
He had reached the conclusion that it would not. The risk was too
great.
"Very well," said the judge, taking up his pen, "then the evidence is
closed. Mr. Goodlaw, are you ready to go to the jury?"
Goodlaw, who had been, during this time, holding a whispered
conversation with Ralph, arose, bowed to the court, and turned to
face the jurors. He began his speech by saying that, until the recent
testimony given by the boy Ralph had been produced in court, he had
not expected to address the jury at all; but that that testimony had
so changed the whole tenor of the case as to make a brief argument for
the defence an apparent necessity.
Fortified by the knowledge of the story that Rhyming Joe had told, as
Ralph had just whispered it to him, Goodlaw was able to dissipate,
greatly, the force of the plaintiff's evidence, and to show how
Craft's whole story might easily be a cleverly concocted falsehood
built upon a foundation of truth. He opened up to the wondering minds
of the jurors the probable scheme which had been originated by these
two plotters, Craft and Sharpman, to raise up an heir to the estates
of Robert Burnham, an heir of whom Craft could be guardian, and a
guardian of whom Sharpman could be attorney. He explained how the
property and the funds that would thus come into their hands could be
so managed as to leave a fortune in the pocket of each of them before
they should have done with the estate.
"The scheme was a clever one," he said, "and worked well, and no
obstacle stood in the way of these conspirators until a person known
as Rhyming Joe came on the scene. This person knew the history of
Ralph's parentage and saw through Craft's duplicity; and, in an
unguarded moment, the attorney for the plaintiff closed this man's
mouth by means which we can only guess at, and sent him forth to hide
among the moral and the social wrecks that constitute the flotsam and
the jetsam of society. But his words, declaring Simon Craft's bold
scheme a fabric built upon a lie, had already struck upon the ears and
pierced into the heart of one whose tender conscience would not let
him rest with the burden of this knowledge weighing down upon it. What
was it that he heard, gentlemen? We can only conjecture. The laws of
evidence drop down upon us here and forbid that we should fully know.
But that it was a tale that brought conviction to the mind of this
brave boy you cannot doubt. It is for no light cause that he comes
here to publicly renounce his right and title to the name, the wealth,
the high maternal love that yesterday was lying at his feet and
smiling in his face. The counsel for the plaintiff tries to throw
upon him the mantle of the eavesdropper, but the breath of this boy's
lightest word lifts such a covering from him, and reveals his purity
of purpose and his agony of mind in listening to the revelation that
was made. I do not wonder that he should lose the power to move on
hearing it. I do not wonder that he should be compelled, as if by
some strange force, to sit and listen quietly to every piercing word.
I can well conceive how terrible the shock would be to one who came,
as he did, fresh from a home where love had made the hours so sweet
to him that he thought them fairer than any he had ever known before.
I can well conceive what bitter disappointment and what deep emotion
filled his breast. But the struggle that began there then between
his boyish sense of honor and his desire for home, for wealth, for
fond affection, I cannot fathom that;--it is too deep, too high,
too terrible for me to fully understand. I only know that honor was
triumphant; that he bade farewell to love, to hope, to home, to the
brightest, sweetest things in all this world of beauty, and turned his
face manfully, steadfastly, unflinchingly to the right. With the help
and counsel of one honest man, he set about to check the progress of a
mighty wrong. No disappointment discouraged him, no fear found place
in his heart, no distance was too great for him to traverse. He knew
that here, to-day, without his presence, injustice would be done,
dishonesty would be rewarded, and shameless fraud prevail. It was
for him, and him alone, to stop it, and he set out upon his journey
hither. The powers of darkness were arrayed against him, fate scowled
savagely upon him, disaster blocked his path, the iron horse refused
to draw him, but he remained undaunted and determined. He had no time
to lose; he left the conquered power of steam behind him, and started
out alone through heat and dust to reach the place of justice. With
bared, bruised feet and aching limbs and parched tongue he hurried,
on, walking, running, as he could, dragging himself at last into the
presence of the court at the very moment when the scales of justice
were trembling for the downward plunge, and spoke the words that
checked the course of legal crime, that placed the chains of hopeless
toil upon his own weak limbs, but that gave the world--another hero!
"Gentlemen of the jury, I have labored at the bar of this court for
more than thirty years, but I never saw before a specimen of moral
courage fit to bear comparison with this; I never in my life before
saw such a lofty deed of heroism so magnificently done. And do you
think that such a boy as this would lie? Do you think that such a boy
as this would say to you one word that did not rise from the deep
conviction of an honest heart?
"I leave the case in your hands, gentlemen; you are to choose between
selfish greed and honest sacrifice, between the force of cunning craft
and the mighty power of truth. See to it that you choose rightly and
well."
The rumble of applause from the court-room as Goodlaw resumed his seat
was quickly suppressed by the officers, and Sharpman arose to speak.
He was calm and courteous, and seemed sanguine of success. But his
mind was filled with the darkness of disappointment and the dread of
disaster; and his heart was heavy with its bitterness toward those who
had blocked his path. He knew that Ralph's testimony ought to bear but
lightly on the case, but he feared that it would weigh heavily with
the jury, and that his own character would not come out stainless. He
hardly hoped to save both case and character, but he determined to
make the strongest effort of which he was capable. He reviewed the
testimony given by Mrs. Burnham concerning her child and his supposed
tragic death; he recalled all the circumstances connected with the
railroad accident, and repeated the statements of the witnesses
concerning the old man and the child; he gave again the history of
Ralph's life, and of Simon Craft's searching and failures and success;
he contended, with all the powers of logic and oratory at his command,
that Ralph Burnham was saved from the wreck at Cherry Brook, and Was
that moment sitting by his mother before the faces and eyes of the
court and jury.
"Until to-day," he said, "every one who has heard this evidence, and
taken interest in this case, has believed, as I do, that this boy is
Robert Burnham's son. The boy's mother believed it, the counsel for
the defence believed it, the lad himself believed it, his Honor on the
bench, and you, gentlemen in the jury-box, I doubt not, all believed
it; indeed it was agreed by all parties that nothing remained to be
done but to take your verdict for the plaintiff. But, lo! this child
makes his dramatic entrance into the presence of the court, and, under
the inspired guidance of defendant's counsel, tells his story of
eavesdropping, and when it is done my learned friend has the temerity
to ask you to throw away your reason, to dismiss logic from your
minds, to trample law under your feet, to scatter the evidence to the
four winds of heaven, and to believe what? Why, a boy's silly story of
an absurd and palpable lie?
"I did not go upon the witness-stand to contradict this fairy tale; it
did not seem to be worth the while.
"Consider it for a moment. This youth says he came to my office last
night and found me in the inner room in conversation with another
person. I shall not deny that. Supposing it to be true, there was
nothing strange or wrong in it, was there? But what does this boy whom
my learned friend has lauded to the skies for his manliness and honor
do next? Why, according to his own story, he steals into the darkness
of the outer office and seats himself to listen to the conversation
in the inner room, and hears--what? No good of himself certainly.
Eavesdroppers never do hear good of themselves. But he thinks he hears
the voice of a person whom no one in this court-room ever heard of or
thought of before, nor has seen or heard of since--a person who, I
daresay, has existence only in this child's imagination; he thinks
he hears this person declare that he, Ralph, is not Robert Burnham's
son, and, by way of embellishing his tale, he adds statements which
are still more absurd, statements on the strength of which my learned
friend hopes to darken in your eyes the character of the counsel for
the plaintiff. I trust, gentlemen, that I am too well known at the bar
of this court and in this community to have my moral standing swept
away by such a flimsy falsehood as you see this to be. And so, to-day,
this child comes into court and declares, with solemn asseveration,
that the evidence fixing his identity beyond dispute or question is
all a lie; and what is this declaration worth? His Honor will tell
you, in his charge, I have no doubt, that this boy's statement,
founded, as he himself says, on hearsay, is valueless in law, and
should have no weight in your minds. But I do not ask you to base your
judgment on technicalities of law. I ask you to base it simply on the
reasonable evidence in this case.
"What explanation there can be of this lad's conduct, I have not, as
yet, been ably, fully, to determine.
"I have tried, in my own mind, to throw the mantle of charity across
him. I have tried to think that, coming from an unaccustomed meal, his
stomach loaded with rich food, he no sooner sank into the office chair
than he fell asleep and dreamed. It is not improbable. The power of
dreams is great on children's minds, as all of you may know. But in
the face of these developments I can hardly bring myself to accept
this theory. There is too much method in the child's madness. It
looks more like the outcome of some desperate move on the part of
this defence to win the game which they have seen slipping from their
control. It looks like a deep-laid plan to rob my aged and honored
client of the credit to which he is entitled for rescuing this boy at
the risk of his life, for caring for him through poverty and disease,
for finding him when his own mother had given him up for dead, and
restoring him to the bosom of his family. It looks as though they
feared that this old man, already trembling on the brink of the grave,
would snatch some comfort for his remaining days out of the pittance
that he might hope to collect from this vast estate for services that
ought to be beyond price. It looks as though hatred and jealousy were
combined in a desperate effort to crush the counsel for the plaintiff.
The counsel for the plaintiff can afford to laugh at their animosity
toward himself, but he cannot help his indignation at their plot. Now,
let us see.
"It is acknowledged that the boy Ralph spent the larger part of
yesterday afternoon at the house of this defendant, and was fed and
flattered till he nearly lost his head in telling of it. That is a
strange circumstance, to begin with. How many private consultations
he has had with counsel for defence, I know not. Neither do I know
what tempting inducements have been held out to him to turn traitor
to those who have been his truest friends. These things I can only
imagine. But that fine promises have been made to him, that pictures
of plenty have been unfolded to his gaze, that the glitter of gold and
the sheen of silver have dazzled his young eyes, there can be little
doubt. So he has seen visions and dreamed dreams, at will; he has
endured terrible temptations, and fought great moral battles, by
special request, and has come off more than victor, in the counsel's
mind. To-day everything is ready for the carrying-out of their skilful
scheme. At the right moment the counsel gives the signal, and the boy
darts in, hatless, shoeless, ragged, and dusty, for the occasion, and
tragic to the counsel's heart's content, and is put at once upon the
stand to tell his made-up tale, and--"
Sharpman heard a slight noise behind him, and some one exclaimed:--
"He has fainted!"
The lawyer stopped in his harangue and turned in time to see Ralph
lying in a heap on the floor, just as he had slipped that moment from
his chair. The boy had listened to Goodlaw's praises of his conduct
with a vague feeling that he was undeserving of so much credit for it.
But when Sharpman, advancing in his speech, charged him with having
dreamed his story, he was astounded. He thought it was the strangest
thing he had ever heard of. For was not Mr. Sharpman there, himself?
and did not he know that it was all real and true? He could not
understand the lawyer's allegation. Later on, when Sharpman declared
boldly that Ralph's statement on the witness-stand was a carefully
concocted falsehood, the bluntness of the charge was like a cruel
blow, and the boy's sensitive nerves shrank and quivered beneath it;
then his lips grew pale, his breath came in gasps, the room went
swimming round him, darkness came before his eyes, and his weak body,
enfeebled by prolonged fasting and excitement, slipped down to the
floor.
The people in the court-room scrambled to their feet again to look
over into the bar.
A man who had entered the room in time to hear Sharpman's brutal
speech pushed his way through the crowd, and hurried down to the place
where Ralph was lying. It was Bachelor Billy.
In a moment he was down on his knees by the boy's side, chafing the
small cold hands and wrists, while Mrs. Burnham, kneeling on the other
side, was dipping her handkerchief into a glass of water, and bathing
the lad's face.
Bachelor Billy turned on his knees and looked up angrily at Sharpman.
"Mayhap an' ye've killet 'im," he said, "wi' your traish an' your
lees!" Then he rose to his feet and continued: "Can ye no' tell when
a lad speaks the truth? Mon! he's as honest as the day is lang! But
what's the use o' tellin' ye? ye ken it yoursel'. Ye _wull_ be fause
to 'im!"
His lips were white with passion as he knelt again by the side of the
unconscious boy.
"Ye're verra gude to the lad, ma'am," he said to Mrs. Burnham, who had
raised Ralph's head in her arms and was pressing her wet handkerchief
against it; "ye're verra gude, but ma mind is to tak' 'im hame an'
ten' till 'im mysel'. He was ower-tired, d'ye see, wi' the trooble an'
the toil, an' noo I fear me an they've broke the hert o' 'im."
Then Bachelor Billy, lifting the boy up in his arms, set his face
toward the door. The people pressed back and made way for him as he
passed up the aisle holding the drooping body very tenderly, looking
down at times with great compassion into the white face that lay
against his breast; and the eyes that watched his sturdy back until
it disappeared from view were wet with sympathetic tears.
When the doors had closed behind him, Sharpman turned again to the
jury, with a bitterly sarcastic smile upon his face.
"Another chapter in the made-up tragedy," he said, "performed with
marvellous skill as you can see. My learned friend has drilled his
people well. He has made consummate actors of them all. And yet he
would have you think that one is but an honest fool, and that the
other is as innocent as a babe in arms."
Up among the people some one hissed, then some one else joined in,
and, before the judge and officers could restore order in the room,
the indignant crowd had greeted Sharpman's words with a perfect
torrent of groans and hisses. Then the wily lawyer realized that he
was making a mistake. He knew that he could not afford to gain the
ill-will of the populace, and accordingly he changed the tenor of his
speech. He spoke generally of law and justice, and particularly of the
weight of evidence in the case at bar. He dwelt with much emphasis on
Simon Craft's bravery, self-sacrifice, poverty, toil, and suffering;
and, with a burst of oratory that made the walls re-echo with the
sound of his resonant voice, he closed his address and resumed his
seat.
Then the judge delivered the charge in a calm, dispassionate way. He
reviewed the evidence very briefly, warning the jury to reject from
their minds all improper declarations of any witness or other person,
and directing them to rest their decision only on the legal evidence
in the case. He instructed them that although the boy Ralph's
declaration that he was not Robert Burnham's son might be regarded by
them, yet they must also take into consideration the fact that his
opinion was founded partly, if not wholly, on hearsay, and, for that
reason, would be of little value to them in making up their decision.
Any evidence of the alleged conversation at Mr. Sharpman's office, he
said, must be rejected wholly. He warned them to dismiss from their
minds all prejudice or sympathy that might have been aroused by the
speeches of counsel, or the appearance of witnesses in court, and to
take into consideration and decide upon but one question, namely:
whether the boy Ralph is or is not the son of the late Robert Burnham:
that, laying aside all other questions, matters, and things, they must
decide that and that alone, according to the law and the evidence.
When the judge had finished his charge a constable was sworn, and,
followed by the twelve jurors, he marched from the court-room.
It was already after six o'clock, so the crier was directed to adjourn
the court, and, a few minutes later, the judge, the lawyers, the
witnesses, and the spectators had all disappeared, and the room
was empty.