AN UNEXPECTED WITNESS.
Those in the court-room jumped up and looked toward the door, and the
confusion was redoubled. Several policemen hurried to the assistance
of the doorkeepers. The judge rapped in vain.
Finally one of the doorkeepers made his voice heard above the scuffling:
"She says her name is Colina Gaviller."
A profound sensation was created within the court. The confusion was
stilled as by magic. All those inside turned back to look at the young
prisoner.
He had leaped to his feet, and stood gazing toward the door with a
wild, white, awakened face. Denholm had a restraining hand on his
shoulder. John Gaviller, Gordon Strange, Inspector Egerton; there was
no man connected with the case but betrayed something of the same
agitation.
"Admit Miss Gaviller," commanded the judge.
The two policemen, with herculean exertions, made an opening in the
crowd for Colina and two companions to enter and kept every one else
out. The doors were then closed.
At Colina's appearance an odd murmur rippled over the crowd. Her
beauty astonished them. She walked down the aisle of the court-room,
pale, erect, and self-controlled. Captain Stinson and Cora followed
her.
The crowd observed her movements with breathless attention.
All three were admitted within the rail. John Gaviller sat near the
gate. He looked somewhat dazed. They saw her offer him her hand with
a swift smile, charged with meaning.
The gentlemanly half-breed, Gordon Strange, leaned forward, seeking to
attract her attention with an eager smile. Him she ignored. She
turned to the prisoner. This was what the crowd was waiting for.
The pale youth and the pale girl had all the look of the principal
actors in a drama. What was between them? They saw her smile at him,
too--an extraordinary smile, sorrowful, solicitous, cheery. None could
interpret it.
Ambrose was engaged in a desperate struggle to command himself. At the
announcement of her coming hope had sprung up, only to receive a
deadlier wound at the first glimpse of her.
She had not found Nesis; very well, it was all up with him. What
matter how dearly Colina loved him if he had to go to jail? He saw the
cheer she offered him in her smile, but he rejected it.
"Nothing can help me now," he stubbornly insisted. "If I let myself
hope, the disappointment will drive me insane." He fought to recover
his apathy.
Pascoe and Denholm each sprang up to greet the new witness as if by the
warmth of his welcome she would be attracted to his side.
"One moment, gentlemen," said the judge. He addressed Colina, "You
have evidence to give in this case?"
Colina gravely inclined her head.
His lordship frowned. "This is very irregular. I must ask you why you
have delayed until this moment?"
"I have just arrived in town," said Colina.
"Couldn't you have communicated with counsel?"
"I have come from the north. There was no way of sending out a message
ahead. I am the first one out since the freeze-up."
The judge nodded to show himself satisfied. "Is the evidence you have
to give favorable to the prisoner or unfavorable?"
The court-room held its breath for her answer.
"Favorable," she murmured.
John Gaviller looked up astonished.
The judge gave her over to Denholm. "Will you examine?" he asked.
Denholm consulted with his client. Ambrose, up to this moment so
indifferent to the lawyers, could be seen giving him positive
instructions. Denholm expostulated with him. The bench showed
symptoms of impatience. Finally Denholm rose.
"My lord," he said. "I have never seen Miss Gaviller before this
moment. I have no inkling of the nature of her evidence. Left to
myself, I should ask for an adjournment; surely we are entitled to it.
But my client insists on going ahead. My lord"--his voice shook a
little--"none but an innocent man could be so rash!"
"Never mind that," rebuked the judge. He was distinctly nettled by the
upset of court decorum.
"I will therefore respectfully ask the indulgence of the court,"
Denholm went on, "and move to reopen the taking of testimony."
"Proceed," said the judge.
A court attendant led Colina to the witness stand. She was sworn.
Judge, lawyers, and spectators alike searched her grave, composed face
for some suggestion of what she had to say. Nothing was to be read
there.
"Miss Gaviller," said Denholm, "I can only ask you to tell in your own
words all that you know bearing on the offenses with which Ambrose
Doane is charged."
"My father, Mr. Macfarlane, Dr. Giddings have all testified, I
suppose," said Colina. "They can tell you as much or more than I can.
I have come to tell you of things that happened after his arrest, after
all the others went out of the country."
Every one connected with the case sat up. Denholm's eye brightened.
"Please go on," he said and sat down.
Colina, in a low, steady voice, commenced her story at the point where
Ambrose had asked her to find some one to go in search of Nesis.
While she spoke her grave eyes were brooding over the prisoner's bent,
dark head below. He dared not look at her. The court-room was so
still that when she paused for a word one could hear the clock on the
wall tick.
She told of her journey to the Kakisa River; her interview with
Sergeant Plaskett (which provoked a smile); her search among the
teepees; her encounter with Marya, and all that followed on that.
Without a trace of self-consciousness she told how she and Cora had set
off at night on the unknown trail, and how she had ridden into the
middle of the hostile village next day and demanded Nesis.
"Two girls to defy a whole tribe of redskins!"--the thought could be
read in the jurymen's startled eyes.
The twelve men hung out of the box, listening with parted lips. All
that had gone before in this startling trial was nothing to Colina's
story.
When Colina came to her meeting with Nesis her brave port was shaken.
Her voice began to tremble. She could not bring herself to name the
dreadful thing. The judge, perceiving a stoppage in her story,
interrupted her.
"Miss Gaviller, if the girl could understand you, why did she answer by
signs?"
Colina lowered her head. Those near saw her struggling to control a
shaken breast, saw two tears steal down her pale cheeks.
"Do you wish to be excused?" asked the judge solicitously.
She shook her head. "One moment," she was understood to whisper.
An attendant handed up a glass of water.
She finally managed to produce her voice again. "She could not speak,"
she said very low.
"Why?" asked the judge. One would have said the whole room breathed
the question.
"They--had mutilated her," whispered Colina. "Her--her tongue--was cut
off."
A single low sound of horror was forced from the crowd. The prisoner
half rose with a choking cry and collapsed with his head in his arms on
the table.
Denholm, as pale as a sheet, flung an arm around his shoulders. Every
man connected with the case stared before him as if he beheld the
horror with his physical eyes. Colina's self-control escaped her
entirely.
She covered her face with her hands and wept like any girl.