On the day when Custer was to be sentenced, Colonel Pennington and
Shannon Burke were present in the court room. Mrs. Pennington had
remained at home with Eva, who was slowly convalescing. Shannon reached
the court room before the colonel. When he arrived, he sat down beside
her, and placed his hand on hers.
“Whatever happens,” he said, “we shall still believe in him. No matter
what the evidence--and I do not deny that the jury brought in a just
verdict in accordance with it--I know that he is innocent. He told me
yesterday that he was innocent, and my boy would not lie to me. He
thought that you killed Crumb, Shannon. He overheard the conversation
between you and Crumb in the patio that day, and he knew that you had
good reason to kill the man. He knows now, as we all know, that you did
not. Probably it must always remain a mystery. He would not tell me
that he was innocent until after you had been proven so. He loves you
very much, my girl!”
“After all that he heard here in court? After what I have been? I
thought none of you would ever want to see me again.”
The colonel pressed her hand.
“Whatever happens,” he said, “you are going back home with me. You
tried to give your life for my son. If this were not enough, the fact
that he loves you, and that we love you, is enough.”
Two tears crept down Shannon’s cheeks--the first visible signs of
emotion that she had manifested during all the long weeks of the ordeal
that she had been through. Nothing had so deeply affected her as the
magnanimity of the proud old Pennington, whose pride and honor, while
she had always admired them, she had regarded as an indication of a
certain puritanical narrowness that could not forgive the transgression
of a woman.
When the judge announced the sentence, and they realized that Custer
Pennington was to pay the death penalty, although it had been almost a
foregone conclusion, the shock left them numb and cold.
Neither the condemned man nor his father gave any outward indication of
the effect of the blow. They were Penningtons, and the Pennington pride
permitted them no show of weakness before the eyes of strangers. Nor
yet was there any bravado in their demeanor. The younger Pennington did
not look at his father or Shannon as he was led away toward his cell,
between two bailiffs.
As Shannon Burke walked from the court room with the colonel, she could
think of nothing but the fact that in two months the man she loved
was to be hanged. She tried to formulate plans for his release--wild,
quixotic plans; but she could not concentrate her mind upon anything
but the bewildering thought that in two months they would hang him by
the neck until he was dead.
She knew that he was innocent. Who, then, had committed the crime? Who
had murdered Wilson Crumb?
Outside the Hall of Justice she was accosted by Allen, whom she
attempted to pass without noticing. The colonel turned angrily on the
man. He was in the mood to commit murder himself; but Allen forestalled
any outbreak on the old man’s part by a pacific gesture of his hands
and a quick appeal to Shannon.
“Just a moment, please,” he said. “I know you think I had a lot to do
with Pennington’s conviction. I want to help you now. I can’t tell you
why. I don’t believe he was guilty. I changed my mind recently. If I
can see you alone, Miss Burke, I can tell you something that might give
you a line on the guilty party.”
“Under no conceivable circumstances can you see Miss Burke alone,”
snapped the colonel.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” said Allen. “Just let her talk to me here
alone on the sidewalk, where no one can overhear.”
“Yes,” said the girl, who could see no opportunity pass which held the
slightest ray of hope for Custer.
The colonel walked away, but turned and kept his eyes on the man when
he was out of earshot. Allen spoke hurriedly to the girl for ten or
fifteen minutes, and then turned and left her. When she returned to
the colonel, the latter did not question her. When she did not offer
to confide in him, he knew that she must have good reasons for her
reticence, since he realized that her sole interest lay in aiding
Custer.
* * * * *
For the next two months the colonel divided his time between Ganado and
San Francisco, that he might be near San Quentin, where Custer was held
pending the day of execution. Mrs. Pennington, broken in health by the
succession of blows that she had sustained, was sorely in need of his
companionship and help. Eva was rapidly regaining her strength and some
measure of her spirit. She had begun to realize how useless and foolish
her attempt at self-destruction had been, and to see that the braver
and nobler course would have been to give Guy the benefit of her moral
support in his time of need.
The colonel, who had wormed from Custer the full story of his
conviction upon the liquor charge, was able to convince her that
Guy had not played a dishonorable part, and that of the two he had
suffered more than Custer. Her father did not condone or excuse Guy’s
wrong-doing, but he tried to make her understand that it was no
indication of a criminal inclination, but rather the thoughtless act of
an undeveloped boy.
During the two months they saw little or nothing of Shannon. She
remained in Los Angeles, and when she made the long trip to San
Quentin to see Custer, or when they chanced to see her, they could not
but note how thin and drawn she was becoming. The roses had left her
cheeks, and there were deep lines beneath her eyes, in which there was
constantly an expression of haunting fear.
As the day of the execution drew nearer, the gloom that had hovered
over Ganado for months settled like a dense pall upon them all. On the
day before the execution the colonel left for San Francisco, to say
good-by to his son for the last time. Custer had insisted that his
mother and Eva must not come, and they had acceded to his wish.
On the afternoon when the colonel arrived at San Quentin, he was
permitted to see his son for the last time. The two conversed in low
tones, Custer asking questions about his mother and sister, and about
the little everyday activities of the ranch. Neither of them referred
to the event of the following morning.
“Has Shannon been here to-day?” the colonel asked.
Custer shook his head.
“I haven’t seen her this week,” he said. “I suppose she dreaded coming.
I don’t blame her. I should like to have seen her once more, though!”
Presently they stood in silence for several moments.
“You’d better go, dad,” said the boy. “Go back to mother and Eva. Don’t
take it too hard. It isn’t so bad, after all. I have led a bully life,
and I have never forgotten once that I am a Pennington. I shall not
forget it to-morrow.”
The father could not speak. They clasped hands once, the older man
turned away, and the guards led Custer back to the death cell for the
last time.